Car trade in values

[Laird]

This could be titled - How to lose 9000 quid in 18 months.
Mid 2010 I bought an 8 month old Honda Civic EX GT, the top spec. It's got all the bells and whistles and the price was 19000.
In Jan, after 18 months ownership,no damage, accidents, and under 20,000 on the clock, I went to look at a trade in option at the same Honda dealership where I bought it. The trade in offer price was 10,000, against a newer model of the same.
Where did the 9000 disappear to?
What's going on?

Very unhappy.

[dewaltdisney]

All cars will drop 50% in three years and if you sell before then you will suffer much the same depreciation at two years as three years old. On a £20K car you lose nearly £4k in the VAT paid as you leave the showroom so you can see how the losses stack up. When you buy you must always look towards the residual value and avoid naff colours and a car spec that will be hard to shift. A Honda Civic with upmarket spec will be hard to shift as it is niche market, have a look at a similar model on Autotrader and see what the average is. You would have done better buying a BMW, Audi or Merc as there are loads of people in the market for them at any price. Having said that you would still be looking at a loss, but not as much, on depreciation.

With a brand new car you have the warranty, and generally speaking, few maintenance outgoings in three years over normal servicing. The cost of desire and peace of mind is the depreciation. If you buy a three year old then you might be running into exhausts, brakes and other costly maintenance requirements but the car is losing less money over the next couple of years.

You takes your choice I am afraid.

DWD

[Colour Republic]

Your figures don't add up as what really happened is the car dropped 4k the second you drove it off the forecourt, then it dropped 3k over the next 18 months, then it dropped a further 2k the second you drove back on to the forecourt.

Glad to have cleared that up ;)

[Laird]

I didn't buy it new. It was 8 months old, so there was no 4k loss for VAT.
If it has dropped 9000 in 18 months, I'm thinking that I shouldn't trade it in, but keep it for a few more years. Need to look at prices in Autotrader.

[northwales4u]

Try getting divorced - car prices slip a lot more - trust me, you had a nice car and van!

A friend of mine has an Audi A6 top spec (tiponic gearbox etc) on an 04 plate - its only 32000 miles and he is struggling to get 6k for it

[prem]

take it to WE BUY ANY CAR that 9k will look good compared with there price.

[Jasper]

I bought a 30 month old Peugeot 407 2.0SE diesel for £7k.
That was a saving of 16K on the new price!
So depreciation cuts both ways.
But my car, 2 years later, is worth only £5k and I have done only 7,000 more miles.

[Mooncat]

The moral of the story seems to be; buy the right model at the right price and keep it for a long time, but you still pay a hefty sum for the convenience of private transport.

[ultimatehandyman]

I always buy second hand and will only buy a decent make that is not going to cost me a fortune in spare parts. I always pay cash for it and will only spend about £6k max on the vehicle. Hopefully it will last me 6 years, then after 6 years I'll consider it worthless and part ex it against another vehicle of a similar original price. I rarely wash my vehicle or get it serviced at a main dealers as this often has zero effect on the value of the vehicle. As I only do about 5,000 miles a year I only get it serviced once a year.

My mate says "Vehicles are the biggest asset reducing machine known to man after women"