Venting about used car prices

[TheVazha]

If you're shopping for a used car, you've seen it by now, prices are astronomical. I saw a 2021 GLE63S at $150K, used with 1000+ miles.

Almost everything I'm look at, weather it be a fun weekend car or a good daily, all insanely high priced. 2018-19 E63S's are in the $90's. For comparison, I paid n the $60's (about the same sticker price new) for then a 2.5-3 year old F85.

What gives? Inflation? Are people actually spending this kind of money on cars that are easy $15-$20 over where they should be?

Even fun project cars like Scouts (Broncos have been insane for a few years) are trading at imo a 25%-30% premium.

What is the reason for this?

[clutchdj]

Originally Posted by TheVazha

If you're shopping for a used car, you've seen it by now, prices are astronomical. I saw a 2021 GLE63S at $150K, used with 1000+ miles.

Almost everything I'm look at, weather it be a fun weekend car or a good daily, all insanely high priced. 2018-19 E63S's are in the $90's. For comparison, I paid n the $60's (about the same sticker price new) for then a 2.5-3 year old F85.

What gives? Inflation? Are people actually spending this kind of money on cars that are easy $15-$20 over where they should be?

Even fun project cars like Scouts (Broncos have been insane for a few years) are trading at imo a 25%-30% premium.

What is the reason for this?

One: Low supply and high demand.
Two: Economy pumped with money.
Tree: oh ya and greed.
Four: greed.

[Joekerr]

Yup, I'm thinking about buying out my lease and flipping it come November if these prices stay the way they are. Could probably make $7K with very little effort.

[Humdizzle]

combination of things. i think there is alot of greed too. lots of paper hands jumping ship to make a quick buck... the market is flooded with these now. how many are actually getting the big ask is a different story. The likely buying is probably happening somewhere in between 2020 prices and current ones. Even the guys who actually wanted to sell and didn't care about money can't help but ask more when they see other cars like theirs listed for way more.

its a great time to sell if you want to free up cash or buy new
bad time to be a used car buyer though

[Burrcold]

Prices are crazy. Some dude was dying to buy my 2019 RS5 for a good amount more than I paid last October, so I obliged. I'm in no hurry (although he was) so I just pocketed the money and placed an order for a 2022 model.

[GOLFFRR]

def a crazy time not only for cars but in our neck of the woods, houses as well.

its ironic bc yea you can sell your car and do very well but then if you need to turn around and buy another one you are either paying more then you should or you can't get the one you want due to the chip issue. got to love it.

[unluky]

I can't say I agree it is greed - because greed is ALWAYS there - even when cars are filling the lots.

Greed means you charge as much as you can for whatever you are selling. If you were selling your personal car - would you say "Well, these are selling for XXX, but I know it's really only worth XX, so I'm only going to charge XX?" Of course not - so you can't blame others for doing the exact same thing as you.

Are you walking? Do you not have a car right now? Probably not, but you WANT a car right now - so it is your choice to buy when prices are at the absolute highest - correct? This is where supply and DEMAND come from.

If you HAVE to be the first person to show off the new iPhone in your office when they come out - you pay the most for it - right? We all know that and accept that.

Same for right now. The car flow has dried up, dealers have LESS to sell and high demand so how do they continue to make $ when they have less cars to sell? They take advantage of the fact people want what they have and charge more.

So say for instance - someone posts about a rare car that 6 left the factory with the wrong engine in it. You read this and have that car and go check and sure enough - you have one of them. It becomes an internet sensation and everyone is trying to buy one and all of a sudden your $25,000 car is having offers for $150,000. Would you say "oh, it's really only a $25,000 car and just this weird situation caused it to be worth more, so I'll sell it for $25,000." Of course not. You'd put that mother on the internet and try and get $200,000 for it. Same as me.

It's how the system works and the very reason we have SO many options available to us as consumers. We have the power. There is just a small window where the market benefits the dealers right now. We as consumers can give into our cravings and buy now (want the new iPhone) OR we can choose to take the power back and wait till this silliness is past us and prices return to normal or maybe even lower.

The choice is ours. We still have the power, just not as many options as we are used to.

[ramman434]

A lot of it comes down to production issues for new cars (ie computer chip shortages, etc.).
Because new car buyers can't get their new cars, they're turning to the used car market. Because dealers can't sell as many new cars, they're buying & then charging a premium on used cars.

There's a ton of other factors, but this is definitely one big contributor.

[auburnf30x]

It's crazy for sure. I got extremely lucky with timing and bought my F30 right before everything went nuts.

As it stands now, the trade in value on my car now with 12,000 more miles is 10% higher than the sticker price was when I bought it.

Take away the 12,000 miles I added, and the fair value dealer price now is 42% more than what the sticker price was in January.

Really sucks for people needing to buy right now, but good for those of us looking to sell or hold onto our cars.

[243Racing]

Yep. From the beginning of this year to this month I gained $11k in equity between two <$30k "extra" vehicles we had. Sold them both. Now waiting for the market to come crashing down so I can make my next purchase. Buy low, sell high right?

[Efthreeoh]

This phenomenon is really only on used cars that are low mileage and three or less model years old (i.e. coming off lease) I've driving around a lot, as usual. The typical suburban and rural used car joints have plenty of decent used cars like they normally do.

[Alfisti]

As per the lease thread, even if prices drop a bit in 2 years I am staring down the barrel of a residual at $30K for a vehicle that will be worth over $40K.

[243Racing]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

This phenomenon is really only on used cars that are low mileage and three or less model years old (i.e. coming off lease) I've driving around a lot, as usual. The typical suburban and rural used car joints have plenty of decent used cars like they normally do.

Incorrect. The vehicles I offloaded were 2013 & 2014 MY, and their wholesale values increased about 38% in the last six months. Both were right around 70k miles.

[chassis]

Agree that used prices are high due to constrained new vehicle supply and strong overall vehicle demand.

The AMG GLE63s and E63s, especially the E, are cult following vehicles and pricing is usually at a premium. The E63s is the penultimate AMG.

I don’t consider those vehicles benchmarks of any kind, for the market as a whole.

[JamesGames]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

This phenomenon is really only on used cars that are low mileage and three or less model years old (i.e. coming off lease) I've driving around a lot, as usual. The typical suburban and rural used car joints have plenty of decent used cars like they normally do.

Not really - I bought my 16' STI Limited for 26k early 2020, and got a carvana offer for nearly 31k two months ago. Currently at 29.5k is the carvana offer.

Mind blown.

[243Racing]

Originally Posted by JamesGames

Not really - I bought my 16' STI Limited for 26k early 2020, and got a carvana offer for nearly 31k two months ago. Currently at 29.5k is the carvana offer.

Mind blown.

For what it's worth, Carvana has not been honoring these offers lately. But it's a good indication of where the market is.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by unluky

I can't say I agree it is greed - because greed is ALWAYS there - even when cars are filling the lots.

Greed means you charge as much as you can for whatever you are selling. If you were selling your personal car - would you say "Well, these are selling for XXX, but I know it's really only worth XX, so I'm only going to charge XX?" Of course not - so you can't blame others for doing the exact same thing as you.

Are you walking? Do you not have a car right now? Probably not, but you WANT a car right now - so it is your choice to buy when prices are at the absolute highest - correct? This is where supply and DEMAND come from.

If you HAVE to be the first person to show off the new iPhone in your office when they come out - you pay the most for it - right? We all know that and accept that.

Same for right now. The car flow has dried up, dealers have LESS to sell and high demand so how do they continue to make $ when they have less cars to sell? They take advantage of the fact people want what they have and charge more.

So say for instance - someone posts about a rare car that 6 left the factory with the wrong engine in it. You read this and have that car and go check and sure enough - you have one of them. It becomes an internet sensation and everyone is trying to buy one and all of a sudden your $25,000 car is having offers for $150,000. Would you say "oh, it's really only a $25,000 car and just this weird situation caused it to be worth more, so I'll sell it for $25,000." Of course not. You'd put that mother on the internet and try and get $200,000 for it. Same as me.

It's how the system works and the very reason we have SO many options available to us as consumers. We have the power. There is just a small window where the market benefits the dealers right now. We as consumers can give into our cravings and buy now (want the new iPhone) OR we can choose to take the power back and wait till this silliness is past us and prices return to normal or maybe even lower.

The choice is ours. We still have the power, just not as many options as we are used to.

^This.

It's incredibly silly why people are paying these inflated prices. I don't see how all of a sudden there are all these cars that have broken down to the point where repairing them isn't a financially sound decision.

I have the same opinion on this housing market silliness.

[zx10guy]

Something else to add with this vehicle shortage. Many rental car companies offloaded their inventory of cars during the start of this pandemic to "circle the wagons" due to non existent demand for rentals. Now they're back in looking to buy new cars to replenish their fleets competing with the regular consumer on already constrained new car supply.

I saw this first hand a couple of weeks ago. I had to get a rental at Enterprise due to a rat with antlers hitting my car. The good thing for me is I had a reservation set up days in advance through State Farm. When I was waiting for my car at Enterprise, their phones were ringing off the hook with people asking for same day rentals. They were told they may have a car to rent to them tomorrow afternoon if they're lucky. The reps said realistically, it'll be 2 or 3 days from now before they could get them into a car if they place a reservation now. The lot there was almost empty of cars. I had requested a standard car and because there was no inventory, they threw me in an Audi A5.

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Something else to add with this vehicle shortage. Many rental car companies offloaded their inventory of cars during the start of this pandemic to "circle the wagons" due to non existent demand for rentals. Now they're back in looking to buy new cars to replenish their fleets competing with the regular consumer on already constrained new car supply.

I saw this first hand a couple of weeks ago. I had to get a rental at Enterprise due to a rat with antlers hitting my car. The good thing for me is I had a reservation set up days in advance through State Farm. When I was waiting for my car at Enterprise, their phones were ringing off the hook with people asking for same day rentals. They were told they may have a car to rent to them tomorrow afternoon if they're lucky. The reps said realistically, it'll be 2 or 3 days from now before they could get them into a car if they place a reservation now. The lot there was almost empty of cars. I had requested a standard car and because there was no inventory, they threw me in an Audi A5.

The answer to everything this year... is simply poor planning across the board. Whether its the supply chain or demand planning in any industry it still holds true.

[Humdizzle]

not everyone is smart with their money. its america. "the culture of i want this and i want it now"... and then just finance it to the point where it meets whatever monthly you want.

two sides to the coin though: its summer time, weather is hot, perfect time to be out and about in a performance car. Lots of people don't want to miss out on summer fun after the last year of covid. i see it on the porsche forums alot "just buy now bro!, you can't get the time back!"

[frchdragon]

Originally Posted by BeastieBombRacing

Incorrect. The vehicles I offloaded were 2013 & 2014 MY, and their wholesale values increased about 38% in the last six months. Both were right around 70k miles.

I agree, I was looking at F10 for a couple of years and the price for the same MY didn't change, it went up. And I was looking in the whole province.
So even if prices didn't go up on older cars... they are older and maintained their value.

[dgoldenz]

I bought my 2018 wrangler brand new for $34k. I’m selling it next week to driveway.com with 26k miles on it for $37.2k. The original sticker price on the car was $38k. Don’t know what moron is paying $40k for a basic 3 year old wrangler but hey that’s not my problem