Car's Relative Prices... Why lose so much value?

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Hi,

How many of you sometimes browse through the Cars for sale section just for fun, raise your hand? :D

Anyway, I'm just wondering, how come some cars are so cheap in comparison?

For example, a 2001 Audi 1.8T for RM50K? You get the German engineering and turbo. If you're buying a car, why bother buying a new Waja for a bit below RM60K? - just save the RM10K for maintenance, right?

Or a 2000 BMW 3-series for RM70K! If you're looking for sporty driving, why would you buy a Civic for RM120K? You get to save RM50K for repairs etc, and the Beemer would seemingly give more pleasure and probably get you more salutes from the housing security guards :D Maybe gets more girls too :D

I'm just curious. Are these old Continental cars P.O.S. when they get old? Do the repair bills pile up astronomically? Do they breakdown all the time? Or as someone pointed out, the plastics in European cars are made to degrade quickly due to environmental concerns?

Or the Skyline GTRs still command pretty good value. Sylvias still list for RM130-RM150K. For that you might get two newer BMWs AFAIK. Why ah? Are the Nissans too much in demand, or are the BMWs and Audis just crap?

 

[cmng]

not everyone like to drive used car

not everyone can afford to pay high down payment and pay high maintenance car
those buy new car might can afford to pay installment only, not modify or maintain it
nowday mostly new car come with 3 year warranty


not everyone want 4 door car

not everyone like Conti car since as long you drive conti car.. people chop your head like chopping chicken head
my friend just bought a used BMW and for less than 6 month he already spend 15k repair bill for a year 2003 car even tought the car is fully maintenance by authorised dealer all the time

 

[gobiz]

hi cmng, wah so long i never come here.... u remember me or not? :)

Basically simple rule like cmng said, if high maintenance (parts + labour + petrol), car values will drop like a stone.

You should see depreciation in UK....woah... add in worst recession some more.

Cars that are £80,000-100,000 brand new is only £10,000-30,000 just 2-3 years later.

I heard one person sold his Range Rover, he has to pay £46,000 to the finance company to settle his loan.

 

[ken yeang]

it's all about dollar and SENSE.

 

[Zidane]

by right, where in the world do you make money from buying new cars and then selling them ?

UK, US and Japan, after purchase, the price drops like crazy.

In Malaysia? Only due to price price control.

 

[g.yao.za]

bank and finance play a hand on the figure too, but mostly was driven by the market

 

[karl5511]

Yes...mostly it was driven by market demand...

 

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I think gobiz and somewhat cmng has hit the nail on the spot the best. The market demand is low because the maintenance costs get very high and unpredictable.

I just found out that for a 2000 or 2001 BMW 3-series, if your transmission gets screwed and your mechanic don't know how to fix it (too complex), it costs RM30,000 to replace, unless you can find a good condition chop shop one...... If the ECU screws up, it's RM10,000+........ Even each oil change (for the newer cars) costs double or more.