BMW Resale Concerns

[Golgothar]

Let me start off by saying that i purchased my 2008 E92 M3 and plan on keeping it for quite some time (Probably at least until the factory warranty is up).

Now that being said does anyone else find the resale value of the current e9x(or lack there of) concerning?

I'm ALWAYS looking at other cars surfing autotrader, KBB, NADA etc because like most on these forums i love cars and find it pretty distressing that a car i purchased 2 years ago with a sticker price of 73k ( i know you take a big hit as soon as you drive it off the lot but 30k in 2 years?) is truly valued at around 40k today.

I have had 2 BMWs previously and thought they held thier resale rather well, granted both my prior BMWs were around 50k-55k so is this a case where i need to get used to high sticker cars will drop ALLOT in value(though this dosent seem to be the case currently with porsches which seem to be holding thier value ok).

I was just wondering if anyone had been paying attention to this trend and what thier thoughts were on the reasons behind it such as is the economy purely to blame etc.

Thanks!

[brava09]

Don't worry now about resale value, unless you want to sale it now.


You'll have plenty of time to worry when you''ll want to sell it.


Until then, enjoy your ride

[cap_freez]

The truth is all luxury cars take a huge hit the first two years. The only cars that avoid it are the ones that are made in very limited numbers. Any car you buy today has to be bought for the right reasons: driving it to the bone.

Personally, If I were involved in politics I would vote a law against long term car leases, or at least make it clearly more expensive. Why? Because it feeds our endless consumerism ways, of always being able to get the ''new thing'' and puts way too many cars on the roads. If people always bought their cars, believe me, they would keep them longer and the value wouldn't drop as much.

[MysticBlue]

A car is not an investment. Worrying about the resale value is just pointless. Especially if you're keeping it for 4 years. Why waste your brain cells worrying about it. It will be worth what's it worth, and there isn't anything your obsessing about it is going to do to change it, so what's the point? I've learned the same thing about cars as I have about homes... buy what you want without worrying about what would be best for resale, just get what makes you happy, enjoy it, and when the time comes to trade it in, get what you can for it and be happy with the next one. If you can't help obsessing about a theoretical couple thousand dollar swing 4 years from now, then maybe you shouldn't be spending 70k on a car in the first place.
Not meant to be harsh, I know people can't help obsessing about money. I'm just sayin', relax and enjoy. Especially since it's out of your control anyway.

[achenator]

Things will level out a little better as you get into the 3rd and 4th year. ALL luxury goods
are taking a hit right now. Jewelry, watches are all soft. Porsches may look high on the prices but that doesn't mean they are getting it. New Orleans has fared better than most in this economy and our only P-car dealer closed down. I looked at a 08 911C4s with under 4k miles for 68k recently.

[darkmercury]

Just drive it and enjoy it!
Considering today's economy, houses are in the tank... so you know cars will take a tumble too!

[MJC///M3]

why are you worrying about re-sale value....cars are NOT an investment......you will always lose money (unless its a collector's)

just drive it and enjoy it. depreciation will level out as achenator said.

[alpineweissM3]

You aint seen nothin yet! Wait until the f30 ///M comes out.

[URBAN LEGEND]

Originally Posted by MysticBlue

A car is not an investment.

Plus 1.

[RichB]

According to Edmunds, the M3 has the third best resale value of any car (2008). Based on 5 years and 15K miles/year. Here is the list. http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/...1/article.html

2008 Mini Cooper Clubman — 56.4%
2008 Mini Cooper — 53.1%
2008 BMW M3 — 52.8%
2008 Lexus IS F — 49.6%
2008 Scion xB — 49.2%
2008 Volkswagen R32 — 49.0%
2008 Infiniti G37 — 47.2%
2008 Chevrolet Corvette — 47.1%
2008 BMW 1 Series — 47.0%
2008 Volkswagen Eos — 47.0%

[RevFreak14]

Originally Posted by MysticBlue

A car is not an investment. Worrying about the resale value is just pointless. Especially if you're keeping it for 4 years. Why waste your brain cells worrying about it. It will be worth what's it worth, and there isn't anything your obsessing about it is going to do to change it, so what's the point? I've learned the same thing about cars as I have about homes... buy what you want without worrying about what would be best for resale, just get what makes you happy, enjoy it, and when the time comes to trade it in, get what you can for it and be happy with the next one. If you can't help obsessing about a theoretical couple thousand dollar swing 4 years from now, then maybe you shouldn't be spending 70k on a car in the first place.
Not meant to be harsh, I know people can't help obsessing about money. I'm just sayin', relax and enjoy. Especially since it's out of your control anyway.

+1

If your buying a car and worrying about it's resale value, get a Toyota Camry. No more worries. Other than that, it's not something you should be concerned with. All cars unless they are classic antiques or limited editions are going to depreciate. You should never look at a car as a long term investment because it's going to lose value as soon as you sign the contract and take possesion of it.

Also, I'm not sure if your aware but I'm brining this up because you mentioned keeping until the warranty runs out. BMW is now offering extended warranties. I think it's another $2500 for the M3 but you can extend the warranty to 6 years and 100,000 miles. You can do this at anytime as long as the car is still under the original warranty. Cheers.

[Golgothar]

LOL you guys crack me up!

I feel blessed that i am not hurting and along with those on this board i can afford to purchase an e9x M3.

Maybe i needed to be more clear, I'm NOT looking to sell/trade in my car right now and most likely will not for a few more years i was simply commenting on the apparent sharp decline in value and was solicitingcomments/opinions/observations as too why is all.

It wasnt meant to be a "chicken little" thread, i don't stress or lose sleep over it sorry if it came off that way!

[Golgothar]

Originally Posted by RevFreak14

+1

Also, I'm not sure if your aware but I'm brining this up because you mentioned keeping until the warranty runs out. BMW is now offering extended warranties. I think it's another $2500 for the M3 but you can extend the warranty to 6 years and 100,000 miles. You can do this at anytime as long as the car is still under the original warranty. Cheers.

I thought about this but to be honest im sure that someone maybe BMW maybe not will have something i want in 2 years, if not as you said i can always purchase the extended warranty.

[BigHat]

All comments made thus far address the issue of expensive car depreciation, but not the question specifically asked regarding the M models. In other words, why was the residual / resale % on a 650 higher than an M6? My 2007 650 lease has a residual of 61%, much higher than an M6 vert that year. In any case, I'm soooo glad I leased rather than purchased that car. Even with under 11K miles, I couldn't sell it for close to that in the DC area after 3 years.

In my view M cars depreciate (as do MB AMG cars) differently for a couple of reasons. People tend to be wary of the way M cars were treated. If it's a "race car" in street clothing it was probably driven very hard. M cars also tend to get the CPO treatment less if my experience and discussions with dealers are correct. For example, the car leaves the lot new with less than a .5mms of tire wear to lose before new rubber is required to CPO. Also, I think they know the odds of these cars being driven harder than normal is high. So less cars sold at CPO premiums.

If I can't buy an M car new, I just don't buy one. I want to break it in myself and know it's history from day one. I'm prepared to take the depreciation hit. Many others feel the same way. That also doesn't help.

Don't want to turn this into a lease vs buy discussion, but a few points are germane and impact the initial question.
1. Probably the biggest hit to the car industry in this economy is the high-end used car. Lots of people still able to buy or lease new high-end cars,but the crowd looking to drop 62% of that price on a used car 3 years later dries up a bit. As a result, the banks are less confident and drop residuals and thus raise lease rates.
2. There's nothing inherently good or bad about long-term leases and I disagree with the conclusions above that it has some marked impact on behavior. By the way, a car is worth what's it's worth at the end of a specified period regardless of how it was procured. Has anyone ever offered you MORE money for your car because you paid cash for it? It doesn't matter. The cost of money is the cost of money for both lease and finance transactions. I go back and forth between the two methods after working the figures. I tend to get a new car every three for four years in any case. Actually, contrary the theory above, leasing tends to freeze my activity UNTIL my lease ends, where as I have flipped cars in 11 months that I've owned. Buying the M3 vert I currently have on order, lease deals were very unappealing. Unlike my current '07 650 vert, I think the residuals linked to the current string of new cars is too cautious and I'm willing to take the risk to buy it.

[M3Rad]

All the luxury cars are taking a hit on resale that will require new estimates not based on historical data.

$40k is the market price for a 2008 M3, and I expect the 3 years resale to be under 50% for loaded cars and around 50% for low option cars.

This is not unique to BMW, all the brands are going through this, even Ferrari/Lamborghini. The exception are highly priced collectible cars: Enzo, Veyron, etc.

[double_j]

Originally Posted by Golgothar

I'm ALWAYS looking at other cars surfing autotrader, KBB, NADA etc because like most on these forums i love cars and find it pretty distressing that a car i purchased 2 years ago with a sticker price of 73k ( i know you take a big hit as soon as you drive it off the lot but 30k in 2 years?) is truly valued at around 40k today.

Where are you guys finding $40,000 loaded M3s? All of the ones in my area are still listing in the high 40's/low 50's. If you assume that $45,000 is the market value for a truly loaded M3, then $25,000 or so of depreciation really doesn't seem that bad after 2.5-3 years.

[markymarc1979]

Originally Posted by MysticBlue

A car is not an investment. Worrying about the resale value is just pointless. Especially if you're keeping it for 4 years. Why waste your brain cells worrying about it. It will be worth what's it worth, and there isn't anything your obsessing about it is going to do to change it, so what's the point? I've learned the same thing about cars as I have about homes... buy what you want without worrying about what would be best for resale, just get what makes you happy, enjoy it, and when the time comes to trade it in, get what you can for it and be happy with the next one. If you can't help obsessing about a theoretical couple thousand dollar swing 4 years from now, then maybe you shouldn't be spending 70k on a car in the first place.
Not meant to be harsh, I know people can't help obsessing about money. I'm just sayin', relax and enjoy. Especially since it's out of your control anyway.

Agreed 100%. You only live once, enjoy it to the fullest!

[drvai]

That's why you have to keep the car at least 4 years... The devaluation curve improves by that time, even though after a few years it goes down again.

Originally Posted by Golgothar

Let me start off by saying that i purchased my 2008 E92 M3 and plan on keeping it for quite some time (Probably at least until the factory warranty is up).

Now that being said does anyone else find the resale value of the current e9x(or lack there of) concerning?

I'm ALWAYS looking at other cars surfing autotrader, KBB, NADA etc because like most on these forums i love cars and find it pretty distressing that a car i purchased 2 years ago with a sticker price of 73k ( i know you take a big hit as soon as you drive it off the lot but 30k in 2 years?) is truly valued at around 40k today.

I have had 2 BMWs previously and thought they held thier resale rather well, granted both my prior BMWs were around 50k-55k so is this a case where i need to get used to high sticker cars will drop ALLOT in value(though this dosent seem to be the case currently with porsches which seem to be holding thier value ok).

I was just wondering if anyone had been paying attention to this trend and what thier thoughts were on the reasons behind it such as is the economy purely to blame etc.

Thanks!

[iveman89]

be glad you didnt buy an4 M5 saw one on autotrader the other day 10k and it was like 60K i think. thats 40+ in loss lol

[spyderco10]

actually, resale value is not too bad, if you bought a stripper. it's all those options you add on that you don't get your money back for when you sell. remember, msrp for a base '08 M3 was 56,500

[RichB]

Originally Posted by Golgothar

LOL you guys crack me up!

I feel blessed that i am not hurting and along with those on this board i can afford to purchase an e9x M3.

Maybe i needed to be more clear, I'm NOT looking to sell/trade in my car right now and most likely will not for a few more years i was simply commenting on the apparent sharp decline in value and was solicitingcomments/opinions/observations as too why is all.

It wasnt meant to be a "chicken little" thread, i don't stress or lose sleep over it sorry if it came off that way!

I understood the intent of your original post.

Personally, I do not look at the resale value after I bought the car. I just enjoy it as much as possible. I drive it like it was supposed to be driven. I do not worry about the value until I am thinking of selling my car. BUT I do look at the approx resale value before buying the car. I love cars and will spend money to buy what I want, but if the car will be worth pennies on the dollar by the time I sell it in a few years I will be hesitant about buying that make/model of car.

Most people do not have unlimited funds. I read many posts on these forums about trying to get the best deal....squeezing the last $500 from the deal. Of course money matters. A BMW will hold its value better than many cars, but there is a larger economic force behind the market today. If there are just a few people in the market for a used $50K, prices will decline. Once the economy picks up, more people will be in the market and the more than likely the prices will stabilize.

I took advantage of the market downturn and paid a very fair price on a new 2010. I am not in the market to sell for at least 4 years, so I am not concerned about the resale value today....hopefully I can stay away from the dealers for 5+ years.

[warzilla]

Originally Posted by Golgothar

find it pretty distressing that a car i purchased 2 years ago with a sticker price of 73k ( i know you take a big hit as soon as you drive it off the lot but 30k in 2 years?) is truly valued at around 40k today.

I agree with someone else, 40k for a 08 e92 sounds really really low? Where you gettting this number from? What we talking about, a stripper car with 50k and an accident?