
Tesla Is Changing the Used Car Game - prostoalex
https://www.capitalone.com/cars/learn/finding-the-right-car/the-tesla-effect-how-tesla-is-changing-the-used-car-game/1096
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ohazi
Don't be fooled. If you buy one of these now-cheaper used luxury cars instead
of an actually cheaper car, you're going to get raked over the coals in luxury
car maintenance.

They tend to use oddball parts that are more expensive to get, more onerous to
install, and often less reliable overall. Value cars get their reputation from
more than just the initial sale price.

~~~
vecinu
Not in my personal (anecdotal) experience. I bought a $65k MSRP Audi S4 for
$31.5+tax, 4 years after it hit the market.

Haven't had anything go wrong in the 2 years I've owned it, just regular
maintenance that I go to an independent mechanic for.

I find if you follow a few basic principles of used luxury car buying you can
avoid a ton of headaches...

\- Stalk forums for the model that you want and understand all the serious
problems certain model years can have. Avoid those model years, always buy the
latest model year of that series (Most issues get solved by the manufacturer).

\- Do a PPI (Pre-purchase inspection), it's only ~$100.

\- Ask for previous maintenance records / repairs (Avoid cars with accidents
or questionable titles).

\- Do preventative maintenance and never miss a scheduled service.

\- Fix problems immediately as they arise, don't let them get worse.

So far I've owned a fantastic sports sedan that I've wanted to own for a long
time, for 50% off.

~~~
prepend
Wait until you have to replace the transmission or something else that’s
common in the first 10 years. $10 for an s4 transmission is way more than for
a Toyota.

~~~
Yetanfou
I've worked on cars and tractors for ages (even though I never got one myself,
cars are boring, bikes are better) and have __never __had to replace a
transmission. Clutch plates, yes. Crankshaft, yes. Pistons, cylinder heads,
valves, cylinder linings, bearings, the works. Transmissions? Nope. Might this
be one of the bigger advantages of manual transmissions which still are the
norm (and probably will remain so for the remaining lifetime of internal
combustion engines) in north-western Europe? Apart from synchromesh rings
there are no real wearable parts in a manual transmission.

~~~
kungito
Why are you specifically mentioning north west of Europe? No one I ever met in
south east of Europe ever had automatic (where I live).

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BoorishBears
What a croc of an article.

> a 2018 BMW 320i lost nearly 20% of its value, dropping from $37,700 to
> $30,700.* While it’s true that newer vehicles typically depreciate at a
> steeper rate, it’s not usually that steep.

Note how they don't give a source for the claim it's not usually that steep?

Here's people talking about E-Classes losing 55% of their value in 3 years...
7 years ago:
[https://forums.mbclub.co.uk/threads/depreciation.124585/](https://forums.mbclub.co.uk/threads/depreciation.124585/)

If anything their example is actually _less_ depreciation than I'd expect for
a 3 series based on trends from years ago . Probably because the 320i is the
base engine (non-M cars don't end up retaining that much more value as engine
sizes go up). I've seen _brand new_ 1 year old non-M BMWs for more than 25%
below MSRP sitting on the lot.

>At three years old, a 2016 Mercedes B-Class would ordinarily depreciate at a
slower rate. For the same time period as the BMW above, though, the B-Class
dropped from $18,500 to $13,250, nearly 30%.*

Do yourself a favor and google a 2016 B-class (if you don't want to bother,
it's a hideous minivan that any US readers have a fair chance of probably
never having seen in real life). Even amongst Mercedes's lineup it's a car
that rapidly depreciates "above it's weight class".

And the 2016 B Class is now a generation behind, and from the tail end of 7
years without an update. They actually stopped selling here in the US, and in
the last year they existed on our shores they sold... less than 200 units.

The lesson here is people who can afford a German luxury car aren't trying to
get a hand-me-down luxury car. People who can afford one, and are frugal, are
probably buying a Japanese one over a hand-me-down German one.

-

Well that and CapitalOne really wants eyeballs with that clickbait title.

Anyone else notice the text trying to get you to use their loan program to buy
a car loads, _then_ a loading bar shows up before the actual article does?

~~~
smilebot
I notice that. I think that it is a poorly written application. It looks like
they are using AngularJS for a blog? and load the header footer instantly
while the content gets pulled from a CMS.

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woodandsteel
The article says used luxury car prices are plummeting because so many ice
luxury owners have been switching to a Tesla.

Something similar is going to be happening to the rest of the used car market
pretty soon. There are a ton of low and mid-range price ev's coming out from
many manufacturers in the next few years. That plus expanding charging
networks plus increased government incentives mean that many of millions of
ice owners will switch to bev's, and that in turn will cause the ice used car
market to crash.

Does any one want to disagree? Does anyone want to argue that 10 or 20 years
from now ice sales will be doing pretty much the same as they are today?

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leetrout
> on the pre-owned _luxury_ car market

I was expecting to see something about Tesla’s lease or buyback program with
their “resale value guarantee” which I always found interesting and AFAIK not
offered by any other manufacturers.

~~~
new_realist
No longer offered. It screwed up Tesla’s accounting, but was necessary because
at one point Tesla couldn’t offer leasing. So they passed the risk of Tesla
bankruptcy onto the customer.

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gumby
"pre owned" = pretentious euphemism for "used"

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woodandsteel
Here's a CleanTechnica article on the topic
[https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/06/just-as-expected-
luxury...](https://cleantechnica.com/2019/10/06/just-as-expected-luxury-gas-
car-depreciation-getting-slammed-by-tesla-model-3/)

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cryptofits
Used luxury car is a quick way to lose money.

The spare parts are rare and expensive in most times

and lack of supply make you get stuck many times until the car get fixed

~~~
jjeaff
You must be talking about ultra luxury or something? Because the online
aftermarket for BMW and Mercedes autoparts quite large.

Sure, more expensive than standard cars, but I have never heard of anyone not
able to find a part immediately available.

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IanDrake
Get a Lexus and have it service at Toyota. Done.

~~~
Scoundreller
But no free breakfast and no free rental car!!!

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rjplatte
Here's the story:

Tesla circumvents some dinosaur regulations

It suddenly makes sense

Chrysler pays $TSLAQ to whine about it

Everyone realizes it works really well

Repeat ad vomitum.

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ngcc_hk
As the info of any issue of the car could be known does it help to evaluate
the car value?

