Ever notice how the car you look for seems more expensive?

[fjord]

Looked everywhere for an E91 330d of a certain spec. It's what I want and am set on it. The only ones I can find are way over-priced or way over budget.

Taking a bored look around auto trader at cars which are nice but im not really interested in, and im stunned at how cheap some are. Like finding 730d's with less than 50,000 on the clock for less than £10k. Found one with 30k on the clock for just 13k!

Not jsut BMW's either, big 5-6 year old wafty mercs and jags seem a lot cheaper than i expected.

I half want to buy one of these cars because they're much closer to my budget, and probably better cars, but its not what i actually want.

Bizarre.

[HustleRussell]

Not a new phenomenon. Bigger cars which were originally much more expensive depreciate much faster and have an increasingly limited market as the used purchse cost vs running repairs cost starts to even out. More mass market models on the other hand, enjoy a flatter depreciation curve, cheaper running costs and a larger buyers market.

[Urban Sports]

An E91 is much more sought after than a 7 series.

[R6VED]

I bought a 2005 Mercedes CLS 500 V8 a year ago for £9750 (advertised for £11k) with 80,000 and obviously the cheaper tax bracket due to being pre 2006.

It has a full Mercedes Service History and £12k worth of extras meaning the car was £72k new, so 7 years = depreciation of £740 PER MONTH.

Ok so when I come to sell it I will have a small target audience but I love it.

Charlie

[LuS1fer]

Hundreds of years ago, in my youth, I was always amazed that a Mini 1000 could command the same used price as a Cortina 2000E. All down to running costs.