Observations on the E90 six cylinder market
Discussion
Just thought I'd share my recent experiences of looking for either 330i or 325i manual in four door form in recent months.
For some reason I thought 10 year old RWD large engine BMWs would be easy to buy in the winter months. Wrong. Its a supply issue but my musings may be of interest to some.
It seems to be very much a sellers market (for the right car). 'Right' cars are sub 60k manuals in M Sport spec.
For 330 these range in price from £7,500 to £9,500. These cars seem to sell within a week of being advertised, sometimes the same day they go up. Being only able to see the car in daylight on a weekend I've missed out on quite a few. I know of at least one that sold to a buyer that didn't see it in the day as the seller told me it wasn't possible before the weekend - advertised Monday sold Wednesday. There are a maximum of 10 for sale on Autotrader (nationally) at any one time. Maybe five on Ebay and about the same on Gumtree. Fewer on PH. I'm only interested in the models from 2005 - 2007.
For 325 the price range is £5,500 to £7,000. M Sports are a lot more expensive than SE. I've seen nice SE at dealers for £5,500 while private M Sports are £6,500 and up.
You might say the answer is to go high mileage and for cars approaching, and over 100k, the price is typically sub £6k. However, these seem to hang around for weeks and if I did need to sell I don't want to be waiting a long time at a low price to get rid. Ropey cars are also cheap but who wants one of those?
Interestingly this pattern seems to apply to a number of other 'desirable' used cars where advertised prices haven't changed at all in the past 6 - 12 months.
For some reason I thought 10 year old RWD large engine BMWs would be easy to buy in the winter months. Wrong. Its a supply issue but my musings may be of interest to some.
It seems to be very much a sellers market (for the right car). 'Right' cars are sub 60k manuals in M Sport spec.
For 330 these range in price from £7,500 to £9,500. These cars seem to sell within a week of being advertised, sometimes the same day they go up. Being only able to see the car in daylight on a weekend I've missed out on quite a few. I know of at least one that sold to a buyer that didn't see it in the day as the seller told me it wasn't possible before the weekend - advertised Monday sold Wednesday. There are a maximum of 10 for sale on Autotrader (nationally) at any one time. Maybe five on Ebay and about the same on Gumtree. Fewer on PH. I'm only interested in the models from 2005 - 2007.
For 325 the price range is £5,500 to £7,000. M Sports are a lot more expensive than SE. I've seen nice SE at dealers for £5,500 while private M Sports are £6,500 and up.
You might say the answer is to go high mileage and for cars approaching, and over 100k, the price is typically sub £6k. However, these seem to hang around for weeks and if I did need to sell I don't want to be waiting a long time at a low price to get rid. Ropey cars are also cheap but who wants one of those?
Interestingly this pattern seems to apply to a number of other 'desirable' used cars where advertised prices haven't changed at all in the past 6 - 12 months.
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