Selling private against dealer trade in

[Yusee]

Exactly. Best way to minimise depreciation is to go easy on the optional extras. Can't think of any examples that'll retain 100% of their cost.

"performance pack" on the mk7

[Exonian]

Exactly. Best way to minimise depreciation is to go easy on the optional extras. Can't think of any examples that'll retain 100% of their cost.

"performance pack" on the mk7

And Pretorias on an R.





As a reference, I always bought second hand until the mk7 was released in 2013 and by some miracle I’d saved enough to buy it cash.
Some were older second hand (especially family runabout cars that I’d buy and keep until they died) and some newer such as dealer registered cars. As I always did light modifications to my cars it was never worth buying new even if I could afford it (which for most of my life I couldn’t).

I’d track certain cars, especially dealer registered ones, over weeks and sometimes months waiting for the point where the sales manager needed it gone and was ready to deal.
This did me ok for years as back then GTIs were reasonably sought after and not in huge supply and tended to be bought more by private buyers so depreciation was low making the real cost of ownership quite reasonable.
Things changed over the last eight to ten years where sporty Golfs became fleet fodder and depreciation on newer ones became just as bad as most other marques and models. Things have been a bit of a rollercoaster for me since but I see trends change and suddenly depreciation bullet proof cars such as GTDs went out of favour and high depreciating cars such as the early mk7 R’s firmed right up.

My Ed 40 Clubsport looked after my ££££ pretty well, my TCR less so and I fully expect my mk8 Clubsport to nosedive in value.

The M135i X-Drive i had during late summer was picked up for £29.5k at seven or eight months old and just a handful of miles on it. As an example to those who like adding a heap of options, that car new would have had a list price of just under £41k so I’m very glad I didn’t buy that car new!!
Cheap PCP deals have killed retained values on many (most?) cars now unless you keep them for three or four years which feels like an eternity for someone like myself.
The irony of it all is the more warranty and hence lowest chances of having to shell out for repairs the more the car loses you, then after the three year warranty is up and stuff is wearing out the actual depreciation slows significantly.

[Yusee]

Exactly. Best way to minimise depreciation is to go easy on the optional extras. Can't think of any examples that'll retain 100% of their cost.

"performance pack" on the mk7

And Pretorias on an R.

 The irony of it all is the more warranty and hence lowest chances of having to shell out for repairs the more the car loses you, then after the three year warranty is up and stuff is wearing out the actual depreciation slows significantly.

Very hard to justify the cost of buying new on this basis. Some eyewatering depreciation numbers in this thread alone- it is comfortably the biggest cost to consider in running a new car.
In 27 years of car ownership, I have not once had a really big unexpected bill- auto box, infotainment unit etc- and most of these cars were taken to high mileage.
That said, I have very much enjoyed my first experience of owning a brand new car.

[kmpowell]

Likely as not any options have zero residual value. It might ease the resale but you aren't going to get back your thousands you spent on them from new vs buying a poverty spec car.

Particulary not with something like a GTI because UK base spec is very high

Go on then, I'll bite. You've trotted this out several times recently, and it makes no sense whatsoever. No option will retain 100% of it's value, we can all agree on that, but when I've been looking for used examples, or if you ask the people who've been in contact with me about my car that's going to be for sale, there is a consistent answer... they've wanted certain options on the car and they are happy to pay more for it. More often than not it's been one or more from 19's, Pan Roof, Paint Colour, Dynaudio or DCC. With that in mind I can charge more for the car than a base spec car. If there's less cars out there with the options, supply & demand will dictate I can charge more.

CAP trade gives a base value for dealers to work from, and it's in their interest to try and get CAP, that doesn't mean they don't value cars with options higher, of course they do because it's more desirable and more margin by pricing higher, they just want to retain/gain margin where they can so will bid lower.

When my order with VW was cancelled in the summer of 2018 due to WLTP, I spent months trawling used websites looking for a car that suited. Cars with no options sat around for weeks on end, not moving, but if something came up with some of the grail options such as DCC or Pan Roof, OR Dynaudio, they would be snapped up within hours. That's fact, not me making things up. I would miss cars by a matter of minutes. As it turned out I was lucky enough to get my original order, but there were plenty of people at the time looking for cars with specific spec, and they were significantly more expensive cars than cooking spec base cars.

Am I stupid enough to think the £595 I spent on the electric memory seats will be retained, of course I'm not, but decent options retain on average 20-30% of their value, so in my Golf's case I can easily charge c£2k more than a cooking spec equivalent.

I read this quite a lot on here that UK base spec is "high", it's not, else options wouldn't exist. The simple fact of the matter is you got adaptive cruise control as standard, but apart from that there's very little over other brands or similar price points that is above and beyond, maybe heated seats.

The bottom line is a Golf is a swiss army knife, used by many people for many different reasons. I specced mine high because I wanted comfort and luxury, so I accept some options won't retain as much as others, but there is a no denying 19's, pan roof, dynaudio are three options that buyers look for when buying, how many threads appear on here talking about it! On the flip side there are people who are happy with base spec and there's nothing wrong with that, but your remarks about options adding nothing to future values is quite frankly rubbish.

And before you ask why a GFV doesn't move if options are added. VAG tried that once in 2015-2017 with the Q7 and MK3 TT, options were considered in GFV's (you could spec 21's on a Q7 and it wouldn't change the cpm because the GFV was higher) and they got burnt. They lost more than they could/did with a flat GFV, so it was scrapped.

[Spittfire]

Exactly. Best way to minimise depreciation is to go easy on the optional extras. Can't think of any examples that'll retain 100% of their cost.

"performance pack" on the mk7

I’d track certain cars, especially dealer registered ones, over weeks and sometimes months waiting for the point where the sales manager needed it gone and was ready to deal.

Im currently doing the same. It surprises me the dealers who hold out for their unrealistic high asking prices on the strength that its a GTI. One guy in the Midlands has been sitting on a 5 door Grey GTI PP, Brescias, DSG since August and is asking £24,990. I asked him in Dec if he wanted to have a deal and he refused to budge an inch. He’s had it on his front for 5 months, it must have lost well over a grand if not more.

[fredgroves]

If an option is one hundred percent covered by the increase to gfv the fs company don't lose out... They still own the residual value. Providing the gfv does actually reflect the trade value of the car they've lost nothing.

[Hertsman]

Wife bought an Audi A1 Black Edition on 14 plate with 15,000 miles 2 years ago and its barely crept over 20,000 due to restrictions, and we have toyed whether to move on as consider depreciation, and was pleasantly surprised that what we paid is what we could reasonably expect now, its kind of in its sweet spot of holding back depreciation at present, and of course that will change but imagine relatively slowly - Given that finding we have decided to keep given its low mileage, FSH and its time with ourselves as it will likely be a long term keeper serving its 2nd car duties well and we would likely have to spend the same money again at some point

I can see why some have moved their nearly new purchases on due to restrictions as likely feel you can see the ££ going down drain as look at it through window but a decent second hand purchase 3-4 years old, with a lot of that heavy depreciation behind it are not overly affected.