Inflated car prices and general car chat

[Blackened]

I was just reading over Ziege's post about his ZD retiring, and he made the comment about current 2nd hand car prices being abnormally inflated - has anyone got any idea why this is? Generally when a significant portion of the working citizens of this country loose their jobs, you'd think they'd be a decline in prices? As people are worse off, have less money, running it tighter.

This doesn't seem to be the case, I recently sold my LS1 Caprice with 263xxx ks for $9500.00, when I paid $7500.00 for it, barely a year ago. Mind you I did some very minor work on it, but goddamn!

Maybe people are bored as s**t at home, and just scrolling through Facebook, Gumtree etc?

When you can accustomed with the torque and sound of a V8, a V6 really does feel like a kick down the rung! I occasionally rev to 3,000 rpm from 1st to 2nd and I think I'm destroying the engine! (I tend to baby any car I own)

[Ziege]

well put it this way, My old man has had a triton for two years now 100% problem free and its a great car for that amount of fuel consumption and power and torque especially at where they WERE price wise, So I had played with the idea of getting a Paj Sport, simple as its a triton wagon. Well these used to be around the $30k and rapidly declining mark for a 7 seat 2017 model with under 50k on the clock, now theyre either non existent or well over $40k mark and simply no longer the bargain they were leaving basically no bang for buck in them at all, the same applies across that entire range of vehicles from all manufacturers. I have a nice BMW e39
525i that I have intentions of turning into a lag monster with a T35 turbo later on. that is a car I bought for $4k and its now worth over $11k, so what the hell, I would never give someone $11k for my little old 5 series even though I love that model of beemer (e39).

I suspect that imports have slowed and so people wanting car X now and not in 6 to 10 months time are buying up the second hand market. The most insulting prices are on the toyota models especially Rollux, Grand loooooser, and Grand Loser Prado. who the hell asks for $40k for a car that has over 250k on the odo, especially modern diesels that are at the end of their life at that mileage. its actually a pretty sad observation of motorists and co in australia that they would be so brand loyal to a scrappy name plate as to pay such exorbitant prices for what isnt that great of a product, the v8 diesel 200 series and troopies and such all suffer the same grenade s**t as all other modern diesels, and their petrols suck more fuel than an ls7 with not even half the get up and go. too much electrics, and people think european cars are bad??? Honestly dont get it.

[wanneroo]

Well when the economy goes to great depression levels and people need a car to get somewhere, it's more likely they will purchase used over new.

Personally myself I have never bought new cars, I buy european sports sedans after they have taken their 3 year depreciation hit and that has worked well for me.

[Ziege]

yeah I hear ya man, I'm sold solid on at least 60% of Audi's 75% of beemers and 50% of mercs, Volvos always run forever and saab used to be nice for what they were, until of course they went all subaru and screwed the pooch. but yeah I love my beemer and cant understand anyone buying an equivalent ages holden or ford, it just makes no sense.

[Oldbloke]

Well when the economy goes to great depression levels and people need a car to get somewhere, it's more likely they will purchase used over new.

Personally myself I have never bought new cars, I buy european sports sedans after they have taken their 3 year depreciation hit and that has worked well for me.

Correct.

[eddievic]

And using basic laws of supply vs demand. If there is more demand for used cars the prices will rise.

[JimmyS]

yeah I hear ya man, I'm sold solid on at least 60% of Audi's 75% of beemers and 50% of mercs, Volvos always run forever and saab used to be nice for what they were, until of course they went all subaru and screwed the pooch. but yeah I love my beemer and cant understand anyone buying an equivalent ages holden or ford, it just makes no sense.

Can confirm that my family member has a BMW, nice car, but parts are very expensive, hence people buy Holdens, Fords, Toyotas etc.
People also complain about BMW's poor reliability. I think this argument is bulls**t, as if you maintain a car, it will rarely let you down. Though some cars handle being abused better than others, i.e. Toyota's s**t all over their Euro counterparts, in this case.

[Ziege]

yeah I hear ya man, I'm sold solid on at least 60% of Audi's 75% of beemers and 50% of mercs, Volvos always run forever and saab used to be nice for what they were, until of course they went all subaru and screwed the pooch. but yeah I love my beemer and cant understand anyone buying an equivalent ages holden or ford, it just makes no sense.

Can confirm that my family member has a BMW, nice car, but parts are very expensive, hence people buy Holdens, Fords, Toyotas etc.
People also complain about BMW's poor reliability. I think this argument is bulls**t, as if you maintain a car, it will rarely let you down. Though some cars handle being abused better than others, i.e. Toyota's s**t all over their Euro counterparts, in this case.

If the beemer is expensive on parts its cos he/she is shopping in the wrong places. beemer inline 6 cyl engines are bulletproof compared to ford and holden petrols. most still have hone marks in the bore at 300,000km due to being so well balanced.

the parts being expensive thing is a myth, also you have to look at what youre getting for the dollar, cant speak for audi or merc but beemer parts for mine at least are either same price or cheaper than a crappy old ecotec VX commodore. example, whole front end of suspension on my ex cop car commodore cost me $1200 twice in 120,000km of ownership, my bmw has the oem suspension and bushes from 2002 and still is in perfect condition after 179,000km, and if i did need to replace it, the kit from clickable auto with upgraded bushes is only 700 bucks.

so there is one example of how there are cheaper/better parts on a beemer.

[eddievic]

Maybe people buy from dealers for euros.

[Ziege]

dealers are a ripoff on all fronts, honestly the internet exists, why buy anything from a dealer lol

[Bill]

I had no trouble getting my asking price for a 7 yr old Jeep wrangler recently, a good service history always helps sell and right now demand for used cars is at a record high as finance companies knock back people for finance.