Disappearing second hand cars
 

Is it just me but whenever I make my mind up what car I want to buy and start to look seriously. The cars I saw a couple of weeks ago have disappeared and the ones available are wrong spec and or 2 grand more expensive......Boll*x
Rant over, black B6 audi S4 in case you were wondering!

Having similar with 335d BMWs - there were loads for sale at a decent price, now there are sod all and they seem to have shot up £5k. Damn.

Is this of interest to you? Taken from another forum I frequent.

07 BMW 335 D M Sport, Le Mans Blue, Beige Dakota Leather, Xenons, Sat Nav, Heated Seats, Logic 7, Parking Aid (Visual on I Drive Screen), Electric Folding Mirrors, Exterior Light Pack (Lights Under Door handles), Telematics, Electric Sunroof, 18 M Sport Alloys, Walnut Trim, Full BMW Service History, Michelin Pilot Rubber All Round, Cost £44k New (May 07). Its also got silly things like air conditioned cup holders, BMW dealer was shocked with the amount of spec. Only option it hasnt got is leccy seats! Remainder Of warranty.

22,500 ONO

The drop in new car sales has meant that there are fewer traded in and hence less available for the used market.

I think that's it. Weren't new car sales 50% down last month (or was it production)? That pretty much equates to 50% less used cars traded in, same as it's been for months now.

Audi S4 has always been thin on the ground. When I bought mine a few months ago, Audi UK website was typically showing about 10 used cars with some of them hanging around for a long time. I checked just now and there are only two V8s currently in the entire network. Prices look like they have stopped plunging too, even if they haven't started going up yet.

there has been a rush on used and new cars, its super dooper busy at the moment, prices have risen, when cars are cheap they get snapped up straight away, we had an s4 that sold within minutes of going on the internet.

I fancy a change, but I'm waiting for the market to collapse again, as it inevitably will IMHO.

What makes you think the second hand car market will collapse again John? When(ish)?

What do you fancy changing too - I refuse to believe you've actually made your mind up on this issue :D

The market is unlikely to collapse in the way it did from last May through to last November, but prices are seasonally buoyant at the moment and secondhand prices generally go down between now and winter. The cheapest week of the year (at auction) is the 3rd week of November. The reason it won't collapse is supply/demand - with new car registrations at a low, there will be a shortage of 2 year old cars in 2 years' time etc. Unless of course fuel prices creep up again, when demand for sports cars will decline, along with prices.

If you have a choice to put your money into a car, and Icelandic bank or under the bed, the mattress is still safest.

I always find it the same when Im selling a car. Everyone always wants what Ive got but after Ive sold the bleeding thing!!
Just sold a mint 53 Freelander for a mate....not a base one, it was quite a nice one with leather etc. Ended up getting 2500 for it and this week I have seen a good few older and poorer models going for anything upto 3k!!

selling for 3k? or being advertised for 3k.

Had the Evo for 3 years, finished more ECU development work on it than I would have ever imagined was possible, and now putting quieter exhausts on it to make it liveable with at the expense of some power. Also finding the only time I really give it a kicking is when the brakes squeal as I'm driving so sensibly these days I don't get enough heat into them. I think I'm finally growing up and it is time to move on from rice rockets and get something German, even if it is more expensive to run and doesn't have the traction and wheel control of the rice rockets and would need winter tyres/second set of wheels. The refinement, service intervals, range, economy, ride comfort, image, toys should make up for it.

I do wonder if late 2008 prices will be repeated again for the similar cars, I bid on an E60 M5 last Autumn, but went in low as I expected far worse by Xmas as prices were crashing fast and supply was plentiful. It would have actually been a decent buy, as would the 997 Turbo I was wondering about which now seems as though it was a good price. Without the heavy depreciation these cars could have been good buys, but I missed out. However, I was cautious as I'd bought shares too early into this downturn. It seems that there is almost a bubble in used car prices at present, and we know what happens to bubbles, although the supply side as Dave points out may be restricted, and devaluation of GBP may keep the value of cars up.

In terms of choice, I really fancy a 335i M Sport Coupe auto with a remap as my next car as it ticks many boxes but is cheap to run and goes similar to an Evo 9 with similar mods in terms of acceleration in the dry, more than enough for easy overtaking. I think the E92 M sport suspension on 18s is much more suitable than my old E46 M3. Were it not for the M3's awful suspension/19" wheels, I would have uprated the brakes and probably still have it.

I'd be interested to know details of that car was Ryan, just out of curiosity. And presumably it must have gone for screen price, which is a novelty ;)

On the S4 specifically, and other big petrol cars, I think a factor driving poor availability is rock bottom trade-in prices. My local Audi sales guy looked shocked when I pointed out he hadn't had an S4 for months - as if he would want (another) a gas guzzling V8 hanging around. I guess owners are just holding on to them, and hoping.

I also think that we havn't seen the worst yet. You can't get over a crisis like this in six months and a bit of a seasonal uplift coupled to some pent up demand does not signal recovery. The unique circumstances we've seen, and are still seeing, means that predicting what will happen over autumn and winter is going to be very difficult, but I can't see it being good news for anyone wanting to sell.

There could be some more 'distress sales' coming up, and more bargains to be had in the luxury/fast/big petrol sectors. That 997 Turbo could be heading John's way :D

Are you unwell John?

I'd be tempted by a nice priced 997 Turbo! Evo is about an hour's work from being standard now, and all detailed, in ready to trade/sell condition. Running costs of the Pork aren't THAT bad when you see the GTR ;) Or at least that is today's answer :D

That's more like it John. Quit that BMW nonsense :)

Tempting as the GTR is, it's a brave choice. I would want some major comfort with that level of commitment and you just know the Porsche will deliver on pretty much every aspect of ownership. It's as safe as they come in that respect.

And I doubt that they will get that much cheaper. They are a real bargain right now, relatively speaking, and I would rather get the right car than the wrong colour/interior/wheels/whatever just because it's a couple of grand cheaper.