Frightening Depreciation.....

[Gulzar]

Whether its the credit crunch, high repossession rates and/or oil price spike (although today it is trading around $63 levels which is 55% reduction from the highs of $147!) cars are shooting down like anything...

I own a Bentley Continental GT 2005 which I bought in June this year, and after making few enquries through autotrader re: swapping my normal wheels plus cash for some chrome bentley wheels, I notice not only through the obvious significantly cheaper prices advertised in the first place, but dealers are very negative and opening chit chatting about how much they are loosing and how the entire market has been turned upside down.

One helpful chap in particular said that he even predicts Bentley Cont's to be between £20,000- £30,000 by this christmas or very early 2009, and quite frankly with the way things are going, I wouldnt hesistate to back his prediction! He openly said to be hes (knowing im not a potential customer as I already own one) that hes just bought a 2005 continental for £36,000 (20,000 on the clock) on auction from the finance company which he planning to put up for £45,000 in few days and it even shocks him that this can happen. He mentioned a 2008 which just got repossed with 3k on the clock was selling for 70k with a reserve of 75k but it didnt get snapped up by any dealers..

I am curious what the really high end cars will be doing such as the enzo's and bugatti's - will they follow similar path?

[Soovy]

Hello mate. Enjoyed the Phantom - good for you getting what you want!!

Interesting one this.

I think the GT was very "aspirational" for people, who could suddenly afford one because their houses had rocketed in value. People are now bailing out BIG time and getting repo'd also.

I am hoping a similar things happens with the Audi R8, which appears to me to be perching on the edge fo a massive drop, as people who bought them on the never never bail out, just as the V10 comes out.

I hope.

[Chaffs]

Same I reckon for v8 vantages. I popped into my local AM dealer a couple of weekends back - I'm not in the market, but haven't seen one up close and was passing. The guy was offering me a test drive within 2 minutes of me getting out of the car and was implying that they could lay their hands on pretty much whatever spec vehicle I wanted and would be able to do a "really good" deal. As one of the other posters said, I guess a very aspirational car, which has been bought by people coming very unstuck.

[dxb335d]

Plenty of Conti GT's for just over 40k.

What a car for the money.

May i ask what you paid for yours?

How long is the manufacturers warranty on them.

Maserati Quattroportes are low aswell.

[bobthemonkey]

Soovy said:

Hello mate. Enjoyed the Phantom - good for you getting what you want!!

Interesting one this.

I think the GT was very "aspirational" for people, who could suddenly afford one because their houses had rocketed in value. People are now bailing out BIG time and getting repo'd also.

I am hoping a similar things happens with the Audi R8, which appears to me to be perching on the edge fo a massive drop, as people who bought them on the never never bail out, just as the V10 comes out.

I hope.

I agree with Soovy on the point that the Conti was an aspirational car and bought by people somewhat beyond their means; of course that was easy to do back then with the state of the financial and housing markets. Its going to be this new breed of affordable supercar that get hammered, the price of Aston Martin's is plummeting, if the 360 is anything to go by the Ferrari 430 will drop like a stone before too long and Lamborghini aren't too far behind.

The values of the Enzo and such demands a far higher value of customer, such that prospective purchasers are going to be far better placed to weather the financial storm and therefore the price won't be as badly affected.

When looking at the Enzo in particular, history has shown that the Ferrari F-cars have always maintained their value and I would expect that to continue. Also with a run fixed at around 400 units (+/- prototypes, the FXX cars and the 20ish Maserati MC12's) it’s not going to be affected by the massive oversupply that’s plaguing the Continental. I suspect this will be the same with the Carrera GT (look at the prices of the 959, 930 flatnose et. al.) and the Veyron. With the Bugatti, I suspect that will be more due to the cachet of the brand and its vital statistics, as well as the requisite wealth of owners, rather than the intrinsic value of the vehicle itself that will maintain prices. (I hope that line about the Bugatti made sense to you; it didn't to me.)

What’s going to be interesting to watch is what happens to this new breed of supercar; Pagani, Koenigsegg, Gumpert and Spyker. Will their volumes be so low that a market doesn’t really exist in them, so coupled with a high entry point their owners won’t start a fire-sale driving prices down? Or is it going to be a case of the big names surviving and these minnows becoming undesirables relics of a bygone age in the back pages of Classic Car.

I suspect Pagani will be the best placed to survive; it’s rumoured to have a massive financial support from Italy, Germany and South America as well as being well established in the industry with support from the big names. Equally Gumpert is nothing more than a side project from a group of Audi engineers and specialists who will have their main job to fall back on. Spyker is already in difficulty, and I suspect Koeningsegg will not survive this turmoil.

Sorry if I spouted a load of tosh.

Edited by bobthemonkey on Monday 27th October 15:53

[Blib]

haworthlloyd1 said:

yes, its no surprise

in my experience anyone earning less than £200,000 doesn't tend to save money at ll - they'd rather spend spend spend.

Please, carry on

[briSk]

the conti GT is, after the RRS, THE remortgage/lease/'property developer' car du this century (almost there!).

quite nice cars but like the v8v too many have been bought by people who couldn't be 'in them' if it weren't for the never never. a shame.

[MrVelox]

Good god that's cheap.. only way you're getting a Conti for much under $70,000 US trade right now is if it's a bad color or high miles.

Here's auction results for October... from Manheim USA..


10/23/08 RIVRSIDE Lease $67,000 15,571 Below BLUE 12G A No
10/16/08 MANHEIM Regular $79,250 39,695 Avg SAPH BLK 12G Yes
10/16/08 MANHEIM Regular $73,500 35,842 Avg CYPRESS 12G A Yes
10/09/08 RIVRSIDE Regular $67,000 41,163 Below GREY 12G A Yes

Riverside is in California, Manheim is in Central Pennsylvania.. middle of nowhere but it is the world's single largest auction.

[briSk]

MrVelox said:

Good god that's cheap.. only way you're getting a Conti for much under $70,000 US trade right now is if it's a bad color or high miles.

Here's auction results for October... from Manheim USA..


10/23/08 RIVRSIDE Lease $67,000 15,571 Below BLUE 12G A No
10/16/08 MANHEIM Regular $79,250 39,695 Avg SAPH BLK 12G Yes
10/16/08 MANHEIM Regular $73,500 35,842 Avg CYPRESS 12G A Yes
10/09/08 RIVRSIDE Regular $67,000 41,163 Below GREY 12G A Yes

Riverside is in California, Manheim is in Central Pennsylvania.. middle of nowhere but it is the world's single largest auction.

yeah but that's currency fluctuation for you..!

[dxb335d]

How did you manage to pay 100k for a 3 year old bentley this year?
you got ripped or are you confused mate?

[Zod]

There are so many Continentals on the road that they are going to be the car of choice in East and Southeast London and similar areas for years to come. The brand will be even further devalued. Well done, VW!

[Zod]

haworthlloyd1 said:

[if you are on say £80,000 per year you are likely to start committing to properties, cars, private schools for your children etc.

On £80k?!

[Mr Whippy]

Cars in almost all sectors have lost a shed load. OK, the total isn't the same, but % wise...

A good thing for some, bad for others. There are some lovely sports cars going through from repo and also leasings coming to the end/being ended from places like JCT600 near me at the auctions. I really am so sorely tempted but then the obvious issue of an economy slowing down does make splashing out on a car now a little silly.

Hmmm, catch 22 situation

Dave

[dxb335d]

If the OP bought a Conti GT this summer which is 3 years old, he would have paid i guess 45-50k.

SO its taken a massive hit already.

He keeps it 3 years so its 6 years old it prob be worth 20-25k.

They guy owns a phantom, unless cash is really tight im not so sure why he is worrying.

[dcb]

haworthlloyd1 said:

if you spend 2 tanks a week on petrol it could easily be £180 per week, plus finance of say £750 per month plus insurance and running costs and the deposit means a car can easily cost £1500 per month - if you earn £100,000 per year or £5400 per month take home that 'only' leaves you with £3,000 for the mortgage, credit cards, holidays, energy bills, insurances, shopping, clothes etc and its easy to see how people can't afford it especially if you have children and a partner that doesn't work

not many people are on >£100,000 outside of london contrary to popular belief.

Some interesting numbers = always worth remembering that the UK Gov will
have its 40% once you get past 40K or so ;-<

£100K a year sounds a lot, but £5,400 a month would burn a hole
in some folks' pockets.

[BlueEyedBoy]

Look at the new M5 (25K) and M6 (35k) too, massive reductions, big audi's too, you can pick up and 2003 RS6 for under 15K now, and not talking starship mileage.

[Dr Jekyll]

haworthlloyd1 said:

if you spend 2 tanks a week on petrol it could easily be £180 per week, plus finance of say £750 per month plus insurance and running costs and the deposit means a car can easily cost £1500 per month - if you earn £100,000 per year or £5400 per month take home that 'only' leaves you with £3,000 for the mortgage, credit cards, holidays, energy bills, insurances, shopping, clothes etc and its easy to see how people can't afford it especially if you have children and a partner that doesn't work

not many people are on >£100,000 outside of london contrary to popular belief.

You won't many people on £100K buying newish Astons or Bentleys though. Jaguar XJ or Mercedes CLS would be more likely.

Unless my social circle is unrepresentative, I don't think there are many people over 30 who finance their cars. Not that I want to start that debate again.

[Luvmyzed]

I think your social circle is unrepresentative ............

[Motorrad]

Scraping the bottom of the barrel compared to your examples but I was surprised to find you could buy a Ferrari 360 for under 40K these days.