RE: Caterham launches new Super Seven 600 and 2000
Discussion
kambites said:
Besides, high mileage Caterhams still hold their value pretty well as long as they're kept in good condition don't they?
That's an interesting question.First, show me a high mileage Caterham?
Genuinely high mileage Caterhams are vanishingly rare and where they do exist are:
a) Trigger's brooms and;
b) Virtually unsellable.
The highest mileage Caterham in the PistonHeads classifieds at the moment is 54.5K miles and 26 years old... so a mere 2,000 miles per year on average (but looking at the other cars on sale, that really is a high average annual mileage for one!).
For any car of that age, you need to take into account inflation. A little Googling suggests that its original purchase price would have been £12,057.32 as a kit. Being generous and ignoring any cost/value from building it, index linking that figure would give you £24,633.... so the asking price (£12,995) represents about 53% of its new value.
Running the same numbers against a similar mileage Toyota Aygo - picked at random on Autotrader as being about the most mundane car I could think of - and again index linked versus the car's original cost, gave a retained value of about 57%, so near enough the same percentage depreciation per mile travelled; but if you want to split hairs the Toyota actually performed slightly better. As it happens, the prices of the cars when they were new weren't massively different, either (obviously, the Toyota being much newer by build date).
That's just two cars picked at random, of course - I'm sure people can find examples that are both better and worse - but it seems to suggest that if you take depreciation per mile of actual use, the Caterham is nothing exceptional, either way.
Edited by Equus on Saturday 24th September 19:12
Equus said:
That's an interesting question.
First, show me a high mileage Caterham?
Genuinely high mileage Caterhams are vanishingly rare and where they do exist are:
a) Trigger's brooms and;
b) Virtually unsellable.
The highest mileage Caterham in the PistonHeads classifieds at the moment is 54.5K miles and 26 years old... so a mere 2,000 miles per year on average (but looking at the other cars on sale, that really is a high average annual mileage for one!).
Ain't that the truth ? Perhaps unusually, I did a lot of miles in my two Sevens , about 100k .The truth universally acknowledged is that Sevens are depreciation proof , and that is true as long as you don't do many miles before selling your car . It doesn't seem to matter how old it is , but mileage matters .A LOT First, show me a high mileage Caterham?
Genuinely high mileage Caterhams are vanishingly rare and where they do exist are:
a) Trigger's brooms and;
b) Virtually unsellable.
The highest mileage Caterham in the PistonHeads classifieds at the moment is 54.5K miles and 26 years old... so a mere 2,000 miles per year on average (but looking at the other cars on sale, that really is a high average annual mileage for one!).
Edited by Equus on Saturday 24th September 19:12
Car one - sold at 52 k miles; ex motorshow car, originally a 1.4K S/S but upgraded to VVC power and with lots of minor upgrades, special number plate etc . Received wisdom was that it was worth at last 12 k. Advertised widely - and nobody was interested. Some phone calls but the mileage was the problem . Didn't even sell for 10 k, - eventually sold to the only person who actually bothered to look at the car - for £7.8k.
Car two - R400D with RBTB and sundry extras. Bought new for 32K in 2007 . Did 48 k miles and sold in 2017 , not for 'oh, you'll definitely get 25 k ' , nor for 20 but for 18K . Two expressions of interest . One had cold feet - he loved the car but too many miles and I sold for £18k .
In neither case would a Caterham dealer even make an offer...
I am not complaining , depreciation was still low in absolute terms , I had an absolute blast on every trip and am left with wonderful memories . But the inconvenient truth is that if you do decent miles in your Seven , very few will want to buy it, and they don't want to pay what 'experts ' think it is worth .
Edited by coppice on Sunday 25th September 07:59
Opening Article said:
Shame they don’t have retro pricing as well. The three-cylinder car costs £29,990 as a kit; the four-cylinder from £39,990. Bear in mind that a factory build adds £2,595 to the price of a Caterham, and that the larger chassis is £2,500 and the brake upgrade is £800 for a regular 360, and it’s easy to see how the new models could get really pricey.
It there really only £2595 between buying the kit and buying a complete car? In which case that appears (the only) absolutely bargain. I'm sure they go together fast if you have done a lot, and it's a straight up complete kit rather than self build, but still. CABC said:
cheap black plastic switchgear with the 'wood' is what jars the most for me.
For more 70s vibe like Jag/Rover/Triumph/Lotus etc. 
These models are just for those who want the retro vibe. If the premium is too rich for those few people, maybe Caterham will moderate the prices a bit. In the meantime there are still the other models that are more reasonably priced if people don’t go crazy with trim options (lots of unnecessary carbon bits etc).
Like with most of the turbo triple models, they have a higher appeal in Japan. Perhaps that market will have demand where the population of old Caterhams will be miniscule. The UK is the only market in the world with a reasonable supply of older Caterhams.
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