Buying last production year of a model - bad idea?
Discussion
About to pull the trigger on a 2018 S1.
The model was produced 2014-2018 and wasn’t replaced when new A1 came along in 2019.
The £23,500 I’m about to drop on the 2018 car is about the right price for it, mileage is low (14k).
I could spend less, say £17,000 on 2015/16 car but there aren’t any near where we live and we need the car soon.
I don’t mind paying more at the moment, we have the extra cash. But will it become a problem when reselling? I.e. either dealers applying a larger discount in p/x, or private buyers not being interested in the more expensive car when they can have the same model for a few grand less.
The model was produced 2014-2018 and wasn’t replaced when new A1 came along in 2019.
The £23,500 I’m about to drop on the 2018 car is about the right price for it, mileage is low (14k).
I could spend less, say £17,000 on 2015/16 car but there aren’t any near where we live and we need the car soon.
I don’t mind paying more at the moment, we have the extra cash. But will it become a problem when reselling? I.e. either dealers applying a larger discount in p/x, or private buyers not being interested in the more expensive car when they can have the same model for a few grand less.
I think there can be lots of variables and totally depends on the car. I've just bough a last of the line can as they no longer make the same model. One of my previous car was 10 years old and I bought a very good example of the first year of production. It was a car still in production when I bought it and other than the number plate many would have had no idea whether it was a few months old or 10 years old
The problem here is that people are answering the thread title, not the actual first post. The title is about pros/cons of the last production year of a model, however the first post is specifically about depreciation of a 2018 car vs a 2015/6 example of the same model.
I'd be fairly sure that yes, most likely the 2018 car will lose more in depreciation and the value gap will compress in future. That's just normal as cars lose more value between year 3 and year 5 than between year 5 and year 7. The 2018 will still be worth more, but the premium over a 2016 car will have shrunk somewhat.
The question is whether you're prepared to spend more money in order to have a newer & lower mileage car, knowing it's still got more to lose. OTOH you may incur lower repair costs on the newer car.
If you really want to avoid depreciation you could get an older 2012 A1 Quattro, as they seem to be holding strong, eg https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/2012-audi-a1-q...
On the general question I'd agree with the consensus that reliability improves over a model run. There are a few exceptions but these are usually known - the last year Honda S2000s suffered some uncharacteristic engine problems, for example. But very much the exceptions.
We had a Z4 M coupe ( Who'd have thought I'd be the first to mentoin a Z4 in a thread that MR Tidy had already contributed to
)
The model run was from 2006-2008/9 so a similar car in terms of the length of availability and it was also aperformance model that wasn't really replaced.
They don't seem to go for anything different whichever plate they are on.
Price is more based on spec and history - and whether the owner actually wants to sell it or if they are just advertising it to show their other half that they are trying to sell it.
)The model run was from 2006-2008/9 so a similar car in terms of the length of availability and it was also aperformance model that wasn't really replaced.
They don't seem to go for anything different whichever plate they are on.
Price is more based on spec and history - and whether the owner actually wants to sell it or if they are just advertising it to show their other half that they are trying to sell it.
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