General Depreciation disaster

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General Depreciation disaster

T14086 said:
Nothing worse than a car that hasn't been used except one that has obviously been abused.

Yep, I once bought an 8-year-old Renault 5, with 27,000 miles on the clock. I suspect it had spent a few years sitting in a field. It was my first car, I didn't know much about them then. Otherwise I might have noticed that the silencer was sparkly galvanised clean on top, and flaking rust underneath. The rest of the mechanical parts were in similar condition - it blew 3 head gaskets in 1000 miles, and then when it blew the head gasket in the new engine, I gave up on it. And bought an old Citroen, with hydraulic suspension that had no damping whatsoever. :bang:


There isn't on the panda either. Interesting having a diesel with a tacho that goes to 7K! Funny that the manual says the fuel will be gradually cut if you over rev it, but it doesn't specify at what rpm!


That's these fancy engine electronics, the rev limit varies according to engine temperature. When it's cold it stops at 2500rpm!
 
Depends on the engine i suppose (y)

I got advised not to go over 3000rpm when my engine was cold, and let it warm up :eek:

Which means on these cold winter mornings not pushing it to far for about 5-10 minutes :rolleyes:, in summer though its only a matter of a few minutes :D

bring on warm mornings (y)
 
Having bought a new MJ, I'll keep it untill the botom falls out, the reason for this is that I use it to do part-time courier work and this is racking up the miles. Without the associated extra cost of running the car Tax/insurance etc, it will pay for itself at after 14K miles.
Personally I would keep the car as suggested by many, as it such a usefull little workhorse and will last many miles, I'd say 60K is just run in for a modern well made diesel, and would expect another 60k trouble free motoring. Every diesel I have had has done over 150k with minor problems, ie glow plug change, exhaust gasket replace etc. therefore I well expect the MJ to attain at least a similar milelage.

Just keep it - it makes sense!.
 
just a little sign of cost cutting isnt it :rolleyes:
Er, yes. That way the same instrument panel/dials can be used for the same model with different engines.
With respect to redlines differing at different temperatures, if you get in the BMW 7 series, the instruments are like illuminated LCD. On the rev counter the redline moves upwards as the engine warms up :cool:
 
<<I think 40-45% is a more realistic value for a 3 yr old Multijet with average miles, say 36K.>>


Don't depreciation values reflect what has happened in the past? I've no doubt that your figures are correct, but I can't help but think that every time the price of fuel goes up, the value of every small/diesel car also increases. On top of that, with people's mortgages going up as well, surely there is more a demand to down-size, increasing demand for small/diesel cars further.

I know I'd prefer to be selling a Panda, esp a MJ, at the moment rather than a huge petrol 4x4 gas guzzler.

Time will tell, I guess.

Adnap
 
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Hi,

Probably too late to respond to this. I I got some awful offers on the Panda for PX and some good ones. I have NEVER known such variation. So more than even I would say shop around. Eventually got good offers both against a Grande Punto and a Skoda.
 
That's so true.

My 2005 Dynamic 1.2 was worth between 3300 and 5000 € depending on the dealer. Shop around and don't pay any attention to what the dealer says, it's their job to buy cheap and sell expensive.

We even managed to P.E. the company 2003 Previa Diesel with 225.000km on the clock for 7500 euros when some dealers wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole. FSH helped though :)
 
Must agree with what has already been posted in as much as I'm going to keep mine for at least 100,000 miles. One thing that's better than buying a new FIAT is to buy one that's pre-registered. In that case you can throw your depreciation figures out of the window as they're always based on the list price of a car rather than it's pre-registered value. The only down side is that dealers only usually buy basic models in for stock. That's why you don't see many Eleganzas on forecourts but dozens of 1.1 Actives & 1.2 Dynamics.
 
We have a MJ Sporting on a 55 plate, its done about 14.000 miles, the on the road price was £8995, but ours was pre-reg and we got £2000 knocked off. Now we are looking to trade in here are some of the figures we have been quoted for the Sporting.

£5800 for the sporting against a Suzuki Splash.
£5500 " " " " Hyundai i10
£4700 " " " " Fiat 500

Only 3 garages and yet there is £1100 differance between them yet they all say they are working from the same book of figures, i reckon this is a load of Bull s**t.

I dont know if Suzuki have some type of deal on at the present but the Splash has the same MJ engine, but it puts out 75 bhp so it looks as though Fiat have lost a customer.

Ian
 
Don't get suckered by the pre-reg con, all it does is show how much the dealer is prepared to let a new one go for, in fact if you haggle hard enough you can get new cheaper.
 
£5800 for the sporting against a Suzuki Splash.
£5500 " " " " Hyundai i10
£4700 " " " " Fiat 500

Only 3 garages and yet there is £1100 differance between them yet they all say they are working from the same book of figures, i reckon this is a load of Bull s**t.
But you're comparing against different PX cars. The Suzuki dealer may be "charging" you list price for the Splash, but they give it you for less, then make the PX seem generous. Fiat probably won't give you anything off the 500.
At the end of the day, the only price that matters is the price to change.
 
Don't get suckered by the pre-reg con, all it does is show how much the dealer is prepared to let a new one go for, in fact if you haggle hard enough you can get new cheaper.
The 'pre-reg con' as you put it has nothing to do with dealerships.

Pre-registered cars are cheaper because the manufacturers (all of them, not just Fiat) give their dealerships extra money for registering large numbers of new cars to themselves. If the same dealerships had sold the same cars as new they would not have had the margin to sell them as cheaply.
 
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