e90 prices plummeting?
Discussion
Has anyone else noticed this? When I bought my 330d back in november 09 they were rare as hens teeth in m-sport spec, and priced from 14k upwards for an 05 plate.
Just over a year later I'm looking at a valuation of under 10k, and there are loads of them on the market. Given that I paid nearly 15k for it I'm a bit peeved :O I would have expected about 11.5 to 12k.
Have missed something or is this just how 3 series prices work?
Just over a year later I'm looking at a valuation of under 10k, and there are loads of them on the market. Given that I paid nearly 15k for it I'm a bit peeved :O I would have expected about 11.5 to 12k.
Have missed something or is this just how 3 series prices work?
just look at all the 3 series that came before, there's no reason for the e90 to be any different.
It'll quickly plummet to c.£4k, then steadily carry down to £1-1.5k at c.12 years old.
By the time they are 15 years old 90% of them will be ruined by d
heads and 5 years after that anything still original and solid might possibly rise a little.
You bought a car right in the meaty section of it's depreciation, not young enough to be fashionable, but not old enough for its age to be unimportant, and too popular for rarity to skew the trend.
It'll quickly plummet to c.£4k, then steadily carry down to £1-1.5k at c.12 years old.
By the time they are 15 years old 90% of them will be ruined by d
heads and 5 years after that anything still original and solid might possibly rise a little.You bought a car right in the meaty section of it's depreciation, not young enough to be fashionable, but not old enough for its age to be unimportant, and too popular for rarity to skew the trend.
BarnatosGhost said:
just look at all the 3 series that came before, there's no reason for the e90 to be any different.
It'll quickly plummet to c.£4k, then steadily carry down to £1-1.5k at c.12 years old.
By the time they are 15 years old 90% of them will be ruined by d
heads and 5 years after that anything still original and solid might possibly rise a little.
You bought a car right in the meaty section of it's depreciation, not young enough to be fashionable, but not old enough for its age to be unimportant, and too popular for rarity to skew the trend.
Hmmm I see your point. Stupidly I assumed it would work like a 5 series and gently trundle down over about 15 years. Not so.It'll quickly plummet to c.£4k, then steadily carry down to £1-1.5k at c.12 years old.
By the time they are 15 years old 90% of them will be ruined by d
heads and 5 years after that anything still original and solid might possibly rise a little.You bought a car right in the meaty section of it's depreciation, not young enough to be fashionable, but not old enough for its age to be unimportant, and too popular for rarity to skew the trend.
Question is do I cut my losses and jump ship? (ouch 5 grand in a year :O) or just run it till it explodes into a million bits of turbo... hmmm.
BMWBen said:
BarnatosGhost said:
just look at all the 3 series that came before, there's no reason for the e90 to be any different.
It'll quickly plummet to c.£4k, then steadily carry down to £1-1.5k at c.12 years old.
By the time they are 15 years old 90% of them will be ruined by d
heads and 5 years after that anything still original and solid might possibly rise a little.
You bought a car right in the meaty section of it's depreciation, not young enough to be fashionable, but not old enough for its age to be unimportant, and too popular for rarity to skew the trend.
Hmmm I see your point. Stupidly I assumed it would work like a 5 series and gently trundle down over about 15 years. Not so.It'll quickly plummet to c.£4k, then steadily carry down to £1-1.5k at c.12 years old.
By the time they are 15 years old 90% of them will be ruined by d
heads and 5 years after that anything still original and solid might possibly rise a little.You bought a car right in the meaty section of it's depreciation, not young enough to be fashionable, but not old enough for its age to be unimportant, and too popular for rarity to skew the trend.
Question is do I cut my losses and jump ship? (ouch 5 grand in a year :O) or just run it till it explodes into a million bits of turbo... hmmm.
I think I'd agree with the above. I helped a relative buy a E90.1 330dA M Sport in the Spring (got a reasonable deal at the time), but according to Glass's its shed £3k in 6 months. If it had been a BMW AUC purchase that'd have been £5k. Reflecting on it, it would have been 'better value' to buy new given the discounts available.
baz1985 said:
I think I'd agree with the above. I helped a relative buy a E90.1 330dA M Sport in the Spring (got a reasonable deal at the time), but according to Glass's its shed £3k in 6 months. If it had been a BMW AUC purchase that'd have been £5k. Reflecting on it, it would have been 'better value' to buy new given the discounts available.
Bit depressing isn't it :O I've done pretty well with depreciation on my cars up until now (actually made money on the last one!)I wonder if the used car market has actually depressed a fair bit overall as well. A year ago prices were increasing (bought my 545i for 13.5k, got an insurance settlement for it a year later for £15.5k), so perhaps it's corrected itself, and then depreciation has continued as normal.
BMWBen said:
I wonder if the used car market has actually depressed a fair bit overall as well. A year ago prices were increasing (bought my 545i for 13.5k, got an insurance settlement for it a year later for £15.5k), so perhaps it's corrected itself, and then depreciation has continued as normal.
It always seems to be low around Christmas - who's buying cars when they have the credit card bill for the seasonal splurge to pay?Interesting what you said about your 545; I bought my 545i Touring in Feb 2009 for £10,500 and sold it in Sept 2009 with 9000 more miles on it for £10,625. Maybe I should have held out for more

This actually highlights an interesting point that came up a little while ago on here.
You say that nice e90 will hit not alot of money in not long time, and like the e46 there will be a number that fall into the hands of people that are aspiring to the brand, but can't afford the servicing.
The e90 is even more complex than an e46, with the 330 e46 being relatively bombproof. The e90 is not so, with the high power engine and more gadgets, along with the 330d having a work of art under the bonnet.
Surely we will see this generation e90 hitting problems and simply being too complex to fix, you're mate down the garage is not going to be able to bodge like an e46. We've already seen turbo's and flaps being sucked in to 320d's and I am sure that a 3-4k e90 in a few years time will be a reality, but they really will be money pits.
I still see some nice e36 unmolested examples around, and they look fantastic when clean and without a dinner table on the back for that "downforce" that's so needed on the M27, and big bore exhaust that insures you against being rear ended by a small car as will drive up your exhaust not hit your back bumper. Remember too that an e46 was around the same time as the clk first edition, and pricey and then elegant car, yet now these are real sheds.
I think we are heading to a period premium older cars being a real liability, and reflected in price. Unless they are well looked after, they will drop off a cliff price wise and there will be examples that are great and something to cherish, and those that are driving round town centres without a hope of going on the open road without a fleet of AA trucks on route.
You say that nice e90 will hit not alot of money in not long time, and like the e46 there will be a number that fall into the hands of people that are aspiring to the brand, but can't afford the servicing.
The e90 is even more complex than an e46, with the 330 e46 being relatively bombproof. The e90 is not so, with the high power engine and more gadgets, along with the 330d having a work of art under the bonnet.
Surely we will see this generation e90 hitting problems and simply being too complex to fix, you're mate down the garage is not going to be able to bodge like an e46. We've already seen turbo's and flaps being sucked in to 320d's and I am sure that a 3-4k e90 in a few years time will be a reality, but they really will be money pits.
I still see some nice e36 unmolested examples around, and they look fantastic when clean and without a dinner table on the back for that "downforce" that's so needed on the M27, and big bore exhaust that insures you against being rear ended by a small car as will drive up your exhaust not hit your back bumper. Remember too that an e46 was around the same time as the clk first edition, and pricey and then elegant car, yet now these are real sheds.
I think we are heading to a period premium older cars being a real liability, and reflected in price. Unless they are well looked after, they will drop off a cliff price wise and there will be examples that are great and something to cherish, and those that are driving round town centres without a hope of going on the open road without a fleet of AA trucks on route.
eliot said:
the_g_ster said:
Stuff
I agree with that. But also as these things get older and drop down into the indie market, it forces them to update their skills and equipment to deal with them - plus with the internet, all the common problems and fixes are readily available online.the_g_ster said:
I think we are heading to a period premium older cars being a real liability, and reflected in price. Unless they are well looked after, they will drop off a cliff price wise and there will be examples that are great and something to cherish, and those that are driving round town centres without a hope of going on the open road without a fleet of AA trucks on route.
I think once they can no longer be covered by BMW warranty due to age/mileage, prices will struggle.Monty Python said:
I bought my 335d SE Coupe 18 months ago for a whisker under £25k - if I look on BMW at Used Approved, the same model with the same spec is now about £23k, that's not bad for a "complicated" car.
What point(s) are you making here?1. The used market has bounced back
2. The car for sale with BMW will have a warranty and is ~3 years old
The used market went mad at the end of 09 as for over a year hardly any new cars were sold so dealers were paying over book at auction to secure stock levels as no part ex's were taken for new.A prestige dealer paid me what i was asking private for my porsche.I bought my m3 not long after the crash and it was 18k less than the guy had paid and only 9 months old and now the prices are not too different.
Agreed, anyone who bought used at the end of 2009 was always going to get hit hard if they wanted out soon.
You have to remember that at the end of 2008 the country was in melt down, by spring 2009 no one was buying anything, dealers had stock building up and were selling at big losses to clear, manufacturers were also offering new cars that were sat in fields to contract hire companies for silly prices just to get some cash flowing, they didn't want more stock, so prices fell through the floor and no one ordered new. Problem with this is when the stocks were cleared they sudden;y realised nothing was coming through, so the prices started to rise, and pretty quickly. In fact it went the other way.
I bought a car in Jan 09 that was at a main dealer for £17,995 for £12450. I then got an email from them in Decemeber last year offering me £16k back for it as he knew I only kept them 12 months, this was around 4k over book.
I said yeah, but then realised everything out there I wanted was also well over the odds so I kept it, the cost to change was actually higher.
I sold it in May this year for £12000, so £4k less than I had been offered a few months before, however the car that I had been looking at, a facelift E320cdi had also come down, from around £22-24k to £17k, so there was a good £5k+ saving even though I got less for mine.
The other thing is the E90 is now a run out model, with run out deals to match. When you can buy new with massive savings that is always going to have a knock on effect.
You have to remember that at the end of 2008 the country was in melt down, by spring 2009 no one was buying anything, dealers had stock building up and were selling at big losses to clear, manufacturers were also offering new cars that were sat in fields to contract hire companies for silly prices just to get some cash flowing, they didn't want more stock, so prices fell through the floor and no one ordered new. Problem with this is when the stocks were cleared they sudden;y realised nothing was coming through, so the prices started to rise, and pretty quickly. In fact it went the other way.
I bought a car in Jan 09 that was at a main dealer for £17,995 for £12450. I then got an email from them in Decemeber last year offering me £16k back for it as he knew I only kept them 12 months, this was around 4k over book.
I said yeah, but then realised everything out there I wanted was also well over the odds so I kept it, the cost to change was actually higher.
I sold it in May this year for £12000, so £4k less than I had been offered a few months before, however the car that I had been looking at, a facelift E320cdi had also come down, from around £22-24k to £17k, so there was a good £5k+ saving even though I got less for mine.
The other thing is the E90 is now a run out model, with run out deals to match. When you can buy new with massive savings that is always going to have a knock on effect.
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Plenty available at 17-20k, and these are now worth 10k so glad it wasn't that bad a bath i took!