The Lemon Fool

I was aware that there was a shortage of new cars but not how acute.

I had my car into Mercedes Benz for some minor work and they had NO new cars, showroom completely empty. They also had 5 year old cars on the forecourt (admitedly the older ones were S class and AMG)

A year ago as well as a full showroom they had new cars on the forecourt and the only one older than 2 years was an S class.

Rob

I'd heard that used cars were soaring because of this, so as an exercise I just put our Avensis into WBAC.

A '56' plate 1.6 Diesel estate bought July last year with 69k on the clock. We have added just over 20k in 15 months, and they have offered £6840 as it is now. We paid £8200 from a dealer. I ignored condition.

That suggests that once it had gone through the auction the dealer would be retailing it at about what we paid then.

Autotrader supports this, an early 2016 with lower miles is still £8300, and if I look for a late 2017/early 2018 one with the 68k on the clock (so the same age and mileage now as our was when we bought it) then is this one listed at £10.5K

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... 0018017125

Of course buying a used car isn't without its costs, and apart from £400 on a couple of services and a set of tyres, there have been other costs. However as these were limited to a set of wipers and new rear pads (total under £150) and £30 to replace the missing wheel nut key, I'm quite happy to offset it against the £12k or so we saved not buying new

Paul

Interesting exercise. I bought a sporty Polo about a year ago for just under £14K. Looking for same now, a year down the line, the price would be nearer £16K.

Scott.

DrFfybes wrote:I'd heard that used cars were soaring because of this, so as an exercise I just put our Avensis into WBAC.

I am a member of this forum
https://www.babybmw.net

It will look familiar to "fools"
and this is one of several threads about high second hand values in the last few months
https://www.babybmw.net/forum/viewtopic ... 4&t=136258

I think I wrote elsewhere about the 63 plate Fiesta 1.25 Style I just sold. Bought six year ago for 5k just sold for nearly 4k...that's cheap motoring.

Thing is I sold it cheap to a dealer who will need to retail it at close to 5k to make much money.

Paul
Your 56 plate Toyota makes my 57 plate 74,000 miler, Honda Accord CDTI EX I just bought for £3.2k from a dealer seem a bargain, I've put 10,000 miles on it in the two months I've owned it. Spent less than £100 on changing the oil, filter, air filter and cabin filter and it hasn't missed a beat.

John

I have also noticed the reduction in private used cars for sale on my local Gumtree. I have a search set at 30 mile radius of my home for all used private car sales. It used to show over 1600 for sale two months ago, it has steadily reduced in that time, now showing fewer than 1200.

John

For fun I invested in Vertu a week or two ago because it seemed that all car distributors are in a sweet spot at the moment. Their margins for selling second hand cars shot up after Covid. Other distributors are available.

So far it's been a good short term investment. Up over 10% in three weeks.

When to sell?

regards

Howard

PS ITV's "Undercover Big Boss" was quite fun to watch. It featured the CEO of Vertu who own Bristol Street Motors. He reckoned afterwards in his quarterly report that it was worth £20 million in free publicity. Still available on catch up.

DrFfybes

It sounds very expensive for a '56' plate! There's hope for my old banger yet.

2 years ago I bought a 3 year old car ( 2016).
Looking at Autotrader the same model 2016 cars are asking about what I paid 2 years ago!
3 year old cars are asking about 50% more.

Rob

redsturgeon wrote:Paul
Your 56 plate Toyota makes my 57 plate 74,000 miler, Honda Accord CDTI EX I just bought for £3.2k from a dealer seem a bargain, I've put 10,000 miles on it in the two months I've owned it. Spent less than £100 on changing the oil, filter, air filter and cabin filter and it hasn't missed a beat.

John

That's 'cos it is a "66" plate, and I have fat fingers

Paul

I tried WBAC.com about 18 months ago as a comparison when thinking about part-exchanging, and was offered £8000, Just out of curiosity, I asked for another quote a few weeks ago - and they offered £9200. Not only that, they have revised their offer several times since - the last being £10k. I'm wondering how much further this will go!

DrFfybes wrote:

redsturgeon wrote:Paul
Your 56 plate Toyota makes my 57 plate 74,000 miler, Honda Accord CDTI EX I just bought for £3.2k from a dealer seem a bargain, I've put 10,000 miles on it in the two months I've owned it. Spent less than £100 on changing the oil, filter, air filter and cabin filter and it hasn't missed a beat.

John

That's 'cos it is a "66" plate, and I have fat fingers

Paul

Ha ha that would explain it!

John

Howard wrote:
PS ITV's "Undercover Big Boss" was quite fun to watch. It featured the CEO of Vertu who own Bristol Street Motors. He reckoned afterwards in his quarterly report that it was worth £20 million in free publicity. Still available on catch up.

As an investor in ITV it's of comfort the brand is well recognised. However I think that's a C4 show.

(Disc. long VTU and ITV)

dealtn wrote:

Howard wrote:
PS ITV's "Undercover Big Boss" was quite fun to watch. It featured the CEO of Vertu who own Bristol Street Motors. He reckoned afterwards in his quarterly report that it was worth £20 million in free publicity. Still available on catch up.

As an investor in ITV it's of comfort the brand is well recognised. However I think that's a C4 show.

(Disc. long VTU and ITV)

I'm not sure who made the programme but I watched it on ITV and it's available on ITV hub. So hopefully adds to the attraction of your ITV shares.

https://www.itv.com/hub/undercover-big- ... a0682a0002

regards

Howard

Well, it is now official

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58993851

As for Vertu, isn't the phrase "buy on rumour, sell on fact"? - sounds like they'll have a good 12 months anyway.

dealtn wrote:

Howard wrote:
PS ITV's "Undercover Big Boss" was quite fun to watch. It featured the CEO of Vertu who own Bristol Street Motors. He reckoned afterwards in his quarterly report that it was worth £20 million in free publicity. Still available on catch up.

As an investor in ITV it's of comfort the brand is well recognised. However I think that's a C4 show.

(Disc. long VTU and ITV)

Probably slightly OT for here, but Undercover Boss was originally made for C4, ending in 2014. A new series (called Undercover Big Boss) has now been made (by the original production company) for ITV.

CryptoPlankton wrote:I tried WBAC.com about 18 months ago as a comparison when thinking about part-exchanging, and was offered £8000, Just out of curiosity, I asked for another quote a few weeks ago - and they offered £9200. Not only that, they have revised their offer several times since - the last being £10k. I'm wondering how much further this will go!

Update: revised offer of £10135 today (500 more miles on the clock so seems to be going up at 27p/mile!).

CryptoPlankton wrote:Update: revised offer of £10135 today (500 more miles on the clock so seems to be going up at 27p/mile!).

Yes, they upped the offer for my 5 year old Polo to £13,000.

Scott.

Howard wrote:For fun I invested in Vertu a week or two ago because it seemed that all car distributors are in a sweet spot at the moment. Their margins for selling second hand cars shot up after Covid. Other distributors are available.

So far it's been a good short term investment. Up over 10% in three weeks.

When to sell?

regards

Howard

PS ITV's "Undercover Big Boss" was quite fun to watch. It featured the CEO of Vertu who own Bristol Street Motors. He reckoned afterwards in his quarterly report that it was worth £20 million in free publicity. Still available on catch up.

I would think that Vertu would be doing much better since I stopped being a regular customer for more than 20 years of the Audi dealership but whose customer service since V bought it has gone down the drain. Not only me on the receiving end of sloppy attitude, others are also complaining. V buying an Audi franchise isn't straightforward: Audi have to assess V's suitability. I can only imagine that the sellers gave them a glowing reference.