SLS depreciation

[boxbox]

I currently run a Porsche 996 turbo and love it. However, having considered a short list of SLS, R8 V10, Ferrari 599 and Ferrari California - derived from every other car from every other manufacturer that I fancied in my budget - I'm left thinking the SLS is the one for me. Sat in one last weekend and it felt very special and has fantastic build quality.

My budget is £95K max and I definately want a coupe rather than roadster.

There are a lot of cars at the moment from £100K upwards. As I'm not desperate to get out of my Porsche, I wonder whether waiting 2-3 months might mean there is a lot more choice around my price bracket. There are only about 3 colour combos that interest me; grey with red, blue with beige or red with black

What are peoples thoughts on the monthly depreciation of these cars currently, as they come more in line with my budget? Also, what margin do you think these dealers have in these cars curently and therefore the haggling room - I saw a dealer car reduce by £5K overnight the other day, so they must put a big cushion in there to cover such cuts from asking price. I know some specialists want £10K across a £70K retail Porsche, which is a lot more predictable in terms of depreciation at the moment than these SLS cars, so the SLS must have more than that in it. My gut feeling is that a dealer would want £15-20K across an SLS at the moment

Thoughts?

Edited by boxbox on Tuesday 16th July 14:04

[matc]

I would imagine most dealers would have about a £10k margin to start with, but you have to remember a Merc dealer is going to operate very differently to your average supercar dealer, they will have a stock policy in place which means they'll want to dispose of any stock over a certain age, regardless of what it is (60-90 days in most cases). Supercar specialists are happy to sit on a car to get the right money for months on end.

So a £5k reduction could just mean they're looking to get their money back because of the impending auction policy/vehicle writedown.

Trade bids are currently around the price you're looking to buy, for an early car. So I would imagine that give it 4/5 months you might be lucky to get one. But if the market decides they're great value at £100k+ then they could even have a little spike in value. They have been the same sort of money for about 12 months now.

Edited by matc on Tuesday 16th July 17:08

[Ballistic]

boxbox said:

I currently run a Porsche 996 turbo and love it. However, having considered a short list of SLS, R8 V10, Ferrari 599 and Ferrari California - derived from every other car from every other manufacturer that I fancied in my budget - I'm left thinking the SLS is the one for me. Sat in one last weekend and it felt very special and has fantastic build quality.

I think you've made the right choice; they do feel special and are very well made - just wait until you get to drive one!
I've just changed from a R8 V10 to a SLS coupe and whilst the R8 was a great car and I had a lot of fun in it, the SLS is just something else and I can't stop driving it. I absolutely love it.

My budget is £95K max and I definately want a coupe rather than roadster.

There are a lot of cars at the moment from £100K upwards. As I'm not desperate to get out of my Porsche, I wonder whether waiting 2-3 months might mean there is a lot more choice around my price bracket. There are only about 3 colour combos that interest me; grey with red, blue with beige or red with black.

During my search I never came across any blue/beige and only one red/black car.

What are peoples thoughts on the monthly depreciation of these cars currently, as they come more in line with my budget? Also, what margin do you think these dealers have in these cars curently and therefore the haggling room - I saw a dealer car reduce by £5K overnight the other day, so they must put a big cushion in there to cover such cuts from asking price. I know some specialists want £10K across a £70K retail Porsche, which is a lot more predictable in terms of depreciation at the moment than these SLS cars, so the SLS must have more than that in it. My gut feeling is that a dealer would want £15-20K across an SLS at the moment

My feeling is that the MB dealers have bigger margins in their cars than the indies - I reckon the indies have £10-15 across an SLS (could be totally wrong)
Try Tom Hartley - they seem to be doing good business on SLS's a the moment and have some realistically priced cars.

Thoughts?

Edited by boxbox on Tuesday 16th July 14:04

I hope the residuals hold up as I've just bought one!

[andy355]

100k seems to be the price that gets a 10 plate so probably possible at 95k for a higher mileage car. By that I mean circa 10k miles - these cars don't get used much as usually weekend toys

For what it's worth I paid 105k for a 2011 3k mile car with the big carbon pack which may have been 5k overpriced but its 1 owner, top condition and from a good dealer

Roadsters are more expensive' don't remember seeing a sub 120k car. In 2 minds about that - missing the iconic doors seems to miss the point for collectability given the sls has stopped production now - the gt version remains but guess that willl stop when they launch the new smaller car

Prices do seem to have stabilised but I'm sure will drop in winter - these are summer fun cars

[isda]

Hi there - I'm in a very similar position in that I've got an itch for something fun and have pretty much narrowed it down to a 599 or SLS. The interesting thing for me about SLS depreciation is that as Merc offered some crazy discount/finance deals on them, there is (hopefully) likely to be downward pressure on second hand prices from the end of this year onward. This is because those who paid less for their car, have kept it for a few years and want to chop it in will, put simply, be prepared to accept less compared to those who paid full whack (and as the finance cars come back to the market, dealers will want to move them on). With that in mind I was going to put off buying until Q1 next year, but am interested to hear anyone's thoughts as I'll be kicking myself if they're still floating around 100k next year.

[boxbox]

isda said:

Hi there - I'm in a very similar position in that I've got an itch for something fun and have pretty much narrowed it down to a 599 or SLS. The interesting thing for me about SLS depreciation is that as Merc offered some crazy discount/finance deals on them, there is (hopefully) likely to be downward pressure on second hand prices from the end of this year onward. This is because those who paid less for their car, have kept it for a few years and want to chop it in will, put simply, be prepared to accept less compared to those who paid full whack (and as the finance cars come back to the market, dealers will want to move them on). With that in mind I was going to put off buying until Q1 next year, but am interested to hear anyone's thoughts as I'll be kicking myself if they're still floating around 100k next year.

Interesting point about the finance deal cars coming back to the market. I rememeber someone telling me they were doing 0% APR on them a while back. I cant see these SLS's sticking at £100K into next year. The dealers who still have them from late summer stock, as autumn and winter approach, will keep holding out for their money, but dealers buying them from internal auctions in Nov/Dec/Jan time will be picking them up much cheaper. I suspect these cars will eventually bottom out at around the £60-70K mark and will stick there for a long time. Bit like the £100K porsche turbo bottoming out at £25-30K. In the long term, I think the coupe will do better than the soft top, simply because of the iconic doors. The problem with the soft top is that you'd have to be a fairly subborn arguer to suggest the SL 63 wasn't 90% the car for about 50% of the price

Edited by boxbox on Friday 19th July 10:01

[Ballistic]

Is this for real?
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

This car was up at £115k 2-3 months a go.

If this ad is genuine and not a scam or misprint, then it sets a whole new precedent for the value of 2011 cars.

[boxbox]

Ballistic said:

Is this for real?
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

This car was up at £115k 2-3 months a go.

If this ad is genuine and not a scam or misprint, then it sets a whole new precedent for the value of 2011 cars.

I saw that and thought exactly the same thing

[SFO]

boxbox said:

Ballistic said:

Is this for real?
http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

This car was up at £115k 2-3 months a go.

If this ad is genuine and not a scam or misprint, then it sets a whole new precedent for the value of 2011 cars.

I saw that and thought exactly the same thing

saw that on MB locator last Friday, but no longer on it.

[HarryW]

It's on their own site at 106'995, I assume the PH price must be sans VAT.

[Ballistic]

HarryW said:

It's on their own site at 106'995, I assume the PH price must be sans VAT.

This would make sense, although it's described on their website as a vat qualifying vehicle it doesn't make it clear that the price is £90k + vat

Over the last few months the dealer has been gradually chipping away at the price, which has fallen from £115k to £107k

[DJRC]

Do we think £80k by xmas 2014?

[andy355]

These seem to be selling pretty well at the moment

Tom hartley looks to have sold 2 convertibles and 1 coupes in the last few weeks
Top 555 2 coupes