BluBenz320

Hi,

Anyone know why c320 depreciate so fast?

I had my 2002 C320 20 months ago with metallic paint, bose sound and cd changer. Paid like CAN$63000 out the door.

Now I would be lucky if i can trade it in for CAN$40000 with just 20000kms. Although I can save CAN$6000 on tax... but still... i was hoping for CAN$43000-CAN$44000 range.

Any idea?

i thought benz don't depreciate so fast!!!

-BluBenz

Josh K

You'll never get anything close to what your car's worth by trading it in. Many dealers don't sell cars on their lot anymore, they sell them to wholesalers, so they routinely give you less than wholesale so they can turn a profit selling to wholesalers. Also even if they do sell pre-owned cars on their lot, they still tend to offer below wholesale because people are accustomed to getting low-balled on their car so dealers take advantage of this and turn it into more profit. Also, even if you don't drive a lot, dealerships will not give you any more money to reflect a low miles add. My best friend is the General Sales Manager of a BMW dealership, and company policy is that they "buy cars, not miles." If you want to get more money for your car, your best bet is to sell it privately.

oggle

Car dealerships are looking to make money with your trade-in car, so obviously they're going to lowball you every single time.

I tried trading in my 1990 300ZX turbo a few years ago. An idiot dealer offered like $6k so I flipped him off. Sold it later on my own (by listing an ad on Autobuys) for $12k. Talk about a lowball offer!

FrankW

first year rule: 20% hit. And then slow down every year...

SUNILP

dealer offered 11,500 for my 98 Toyota Tacoma with 25k miles. I sold it on ebay for 18,500!

underwhirled

I've just designed two rather large car dealerships for different dealers. What I didn't realize is the money that paid for each of these new facilities came from money that they had gotten from either used car trade-ins or from doing service on cars.

One of my clients was very proud when he told me stories about how much money he had made off of this car or that car. They don't make enough money (usually) off of new car sales to pay for their facility.

This particular dealer has installed no less than 30 service bays - where they actually make a fortune; however, getting peoples car for nothing and selling it for much more happens about 15 to 20 times a day

I suspect that you'd still get a somewhat fair price if you sold it yourself, but new cars can be financed longer at cheaper interest rates. This lowers the car payment and steals your potential customer from you. Wait a year or so. I believe you'll see this even out.

CRB

In addition to what has been said: The C-class is being discounted unlike any Benz in history. This is supposed to be a volume car for DC and come hell or high water ( or below invoice discounting ) the dealerships are going to move the iron.

The freshening of the C-class line next year will further cut into resale value. Autospies.com has an interesting listing of what wholesale/auction prices currently are for a whole slew of high-end luxury cars. Here is the link to the file(Requires MS Word):

Wholesale/auction price list

There are a couple of C-classes on the list.

BluBenz320

yeah i have seen that too...

oh well... let hope the car still have a good value when the e350 comes out.

i have set my mind on that car. so saving up saving up

-BluBenz

Mercedes101

its not just the C Class - you can get invoice pricing on the New E, ML which certainly doesnt help the value on a 2 or 3 year old model. On low production cars its supply and demand.

C280Sportster

One thing to note, the world economy has gotten much worse in the past 20 months. All these 0% financing options on new cars have lowered the value of used cars.

I also think the best benz to buy is one that is 3-4 years old.

On the positive side (or much maybe not), if the Euro keeps getting stronger and the US Dollar weaker (or insert your currency here), that should effect the cost of MBs outside of the Euro-zone. Some people have said the Euro will be 40% stronger than the dollar (I don't think it will get there), that will raise the price of all new MBs and help the used ones keep some extra value.

steffen

Actually, I'd buy a one or two year old MB if I wanted to save money. You'd get a current chassis, most of the latest safety features, you save on the big depreciation of not buying new, and you still have a 2-3 year factory warranty.

But then, I always end up buying NEW. I guess that's why the used prices are so low. No buyers.

--Steffen

jpb5151

That's what we'll probably do for our next Benz. I'm hoping there'll be some good used diesel E's in a few years, or maybe we'll be after an E500 4matic.

tberry

yep i agree. actually thats what i'll do with my next car. let someone else eat ther first year depreciation. I'm gonna buy a 1.5-2 yrs old car that way good deal of factory warranty remain. Right now my lease on the C230coupe vs what its worth is depressing if i think about it

c230_2k2

The value went down when mercedes starts to offer big rebates on the new cars.

FrankW

doesn't matter what rebates are they offering. The first year hit will still be around 20%. It just seems like it depreciated fast because maybe you bought a year end car. Doesn't matter when in a year did you bought the car, once the next year car came, your car will be hit with huge depreciation. It's just like buying a brand new 2003 BMW 530i at $47k out of door. The reason that they are selling it that cheap for a mid-size luxury car is because the new 5 will hit the showroom in october and then no one will likely get a old styled 5-series even if it's brand new. Still then even after only 2 months your brand new 03 530i will worth 20% less than what you originally paid for.

trench

Maybe even less if the new model is more popular (which with the Bangle-effect may not be the case for the new 5-er). This has happened in recent Mercedes history with the SL. Once the new body style came out nobody wanted the previous body style. I saw some year-old SLs lose ~40% of their value.

- BT

ElHefe

True.. People have no idea how much money dealerships make from performing service and maintenance on vehicles.

FrankW

ture when the car is preowned. If the car is new, the dealership will not let it go any less than what they paid for the car. I've seen a 01 SL600 sit in the showroom for more than a year and half and nobody wants to buy it because the new SL500 is more attractive to the buyer.

session

How was that experience, selling on eBay? Was your buyer local or did they travel to arrange a pick up?

MB-BOB

If you want a price closer to your expectation, take it to CarMax and get a price quote from them. I know several people who took their low-ball offers from other dealers and were very happy with the CarMax offer.

I recently was offered $1800 for a 96 Caravan at a Honda dealer, but CarMax offered $4350 (KBB trade-in price in good condition was $4600) So I took the CarMax offer.

Their process is extremely low pressure... They inspect your car and give you a written offer, and you have 7-days or 300 miles to accept it. If you do, you just bring the offer, car, and title, etc., back to the Cashier's window at CarMax, and they cut you a check... 30 minutes, max.

Very painless way to sell a used car, IMO.

Of course, they charge a no-dicker premium if you ever buy a car from CarMax, but that's a different issue.