Mercedes101

Im selling my 3 year old C Class - normal miles (48K). Right options - Full Power Seats, Auto, Moonroof, Navigation. Not a wierd color - White w/Tan and in a wealthy heavily populated area (SF Bay Area) - No accidents/damage - no mods. Anyone who is concerned about resale value of this car should be prepared to face the fact that there isnt any! I have received no interest in paid internet (yahoo), free internet, paid classified paper, online postings at work - whatever! Ive priced the car below the lowest ive seen in paid ads (21,500 plus Navigation). Ive sold plenty of used cars before in the paper, internet, etc and ive always had a decent # of inquiries and sold the vehicles for good prices quickly. I've never seen so little interest in the little Mercedes for whatever reason . I don't know if its the economy, a glut of used cars, a bad rap (totally undeserved - this car's been great) but this car has generated ZERO, ZILCH, NADA inquiries in over 2 weeks. Next step is to take it to the dealer and get totally screwed but letting you guys know to forget the residual values they tell you when you buy it - just enjoy it because your going to have to own it for a long time.

MJ50

normally when i sell my car, it took about 4 weeks to get good number of inquiries... i dunno if it's cuz of C class... btw, y r u selling ur car?

Mercedes101

I replaced it with a BMW 330Ci Coupe. I really don't need a small 4 dr. sedan anymore. My other car is a Tacoma Pickup so i'll have alll my bases covered. BTW - its a C240 so all the C320 owners can rest at ease

Jkw

Never buy a car for resale value!
I think M-B holds their value over the long run, No one wants a 5 year old Acura.
Jkw

revstriker

Couple of things:

First, I would consider a 3 year old car with 48,000 miles to be a car with high mileage. When shopping for a used car, I always look for cars that have about 12,000 miles for every year.

Second, the C240 was never that great of a deal to begin with (IMO). And then, with the launch of the C230 sedan at a lower price, it made it worse.

Anyway, these things are just my own opinion.

Mercedes101

Im not surprised that the car hasnt sold in 2 weeks - its that there has been zero interest even at rock bottom pricing - $21,500 for a NAV car is a good deal - come on. Not even the usual "i'm getting out of prison soon and need wheels real fast...." or people who send you emails like "what color is the white car in your ad?" Ive run paid ad's on yahoo and in the SF Paper - maybe its that someone who can afford 21,500 is going to lease an E Class or buy a brand new Accord or Camry rather than a lowly C class. Maybe the price has to drop to around 14k before the 18 year olds can afford it. The last two car's ive sold (both Japanese) have sold quickly with multiple offers - anyway my point is im a bit disillusioned by the blanket statement that Mercedes hold their value well - im looking at a greater than 50% depreciation in less than 3 years - i dont think a Honda or Toyota would lose that much value.

Revstriker - personally i think the C320 is less attractive than the C240 in terms of resale value. Most people in this price range probably are just buying the hood emblem. The 4000 premium new for a C320 for a bigger engine in a civic sized sedan body isnt likely to translate well when its time to resell.

amdeutsch

Revstriker is correct. I just looked at the auctions and they have a similar car like yours with about 36000 miles @ $21900 Retail & $19900 Wholesale. Private party sales will have to beat that price because dealers can offer a warranty.

Now to your justification of the price difference between C240 and C320. $4000 (your number) buys more than just an engine upgrade: power seats, climatronic, Bose, and a lot of smaller additional features not found on the C240.

In the end it boils down to availability. A new C230 sedan has better power, pricing seems to be below invoice, free maintenance, etc. Cost to benefit ratio here would suggest that people are looking at them instead of a first year model (01) with known reliability problems.

Also what are you basing you 50+ % depreciation statement on. Are you telling us that you bought your car for $43000 when it was new? Are you including taxes, fees, etc?

MIckbee

Have you tried selling it on eBay? Don't laugh, I have sold a few cars on eBay to people all over the country. If your car has a clean CarFax and you provide a lot of pictures, someone will buy it for your price of $21k.

Prior to purchasing my 230K two weeks ago, I was looking for a clean 240. With thise toys you should easily get your price. I was "watching" many in that range and they all sold for more than your price. The cheapest one was an '01 C240 with 37k miles and not a lot of toys. It was a REPO and purchased with a "Buy It Now" for $18,900. Also, your market is much broader as well.

Of course JMHO...

Good luck with your sale!

Oh yeah, you can have it hauled coast to coast for $700 (outside) - $1300 (enclosed). Let me know if you need referals for carriers if you do list it.

Mike T.

The myth of a Mercedes or any other new car "holding its value well" is just that. I think it's based upon the idea that, the percentage of the original MSRP in retained value after x years is higher than another brand.

That's fine in an abstract way, but...the more expensive the car, the more lost money you've puked out the window.

Case in point: my Dad used to have a vehicle reputed to be one of the worst for retained value: a Russian Lada Niva 4x4. He bought it new for $12,000 CDN in 1997, and sold it when his new 2002 Mercedes arrived for $6500. So he lost $5500 in five years.

I challenge ANY car that's as expensive as a Mercedes (even a "cheap" one like the C) to match that in absolute terms. $5500 in depreciation over five years and 85,000 km.

My advice: keep the car over the long haul, unless you like giving money away.

pookie

i plan to keep it for at least 10 years or 200-250k miles or it blows up.

Mike T.

Excellent!

Now, try to keep it long enough to get to the monthly/annual depreciation rate of my Peugeot 405, bought used in 1994 for $12,000 CDN.

It's apparently worth $3500 in Canada (recent insurance claim, 1300 of that was paid out in cash and I still get to use the slightly damaged car) and I've been driving it for ten plus years.

That's an average of under $70 CDN (about $50 US) per month in depreciation, or if you prefer, about $600 per year US in depreciation. That is what I call affordable motoring. Parts expenses? Last year I bought 5 oil filters and a set of plugs. This year I've bought a set of snow tires. No breakdowns.

Hey, the car still works at 316,000+ km!

Yes, it is still fun to drive, after over 280,000 km with me behind the wheel.

A W 203 should be good for over 250 K miles if you're good to it.

My 405's almost at 200,000 miles and will probably exceed 250K too. Now, if someone would only gently run into the other side and I could get another $1300.......

rescueswimmer

If your worried about resale value. Never buy a new car unless you plan on keeping it for 5 + years. Most people understand that when you buy a new car your going to lose about 10-15% as soon as you drive off the lot. So if you change cars like underware then your going to lose money. They best way to buy a car if your shopping for resale. Is buying a demo, pre owned with a few miles on it for acouple thousand less than buying that brand new car. This way you will eat most of that 10-15% loss right away then you wont be uspide down in a car that you want to get rid of. Not to mention with 0% interest the used car market is throughly saturated. Remember your MB is going to hold is value look at book values on Chevy tahoe's 39k new bringing 18-25k 2 years later at the auction. Talk about taking a hit.

Outland

Time to switch to decaf.

r_liebo

For several reasons:
1) Ebay, Internet have created wiser consumers who can buy over a large market.
2) The lease craze of several years back is now flooding the market with high-end used cars.
3) Now that many buyers know wholesale prices, a lot of people are just using middlemen (even dealers) to pluck cars at auctions for them at a couple hundred bucks over wholesale prices, driving down prices further.
4) This market segment is extremely competitive these days, and with such rapid improvements by carmakers, a 3 year old car becomes dated very quickly.

Combine these factors with the hammering C-Classes get from folks like Consumer Reports when it comes to buying used cars, and you've got a hard battle ahead of you.

With that said, I agree with others that Ebay is definitely worth a shot. Works great for many people.

Good luck.

czachari

My 01 740i depreciates at $10K per year. The more expensive the car the higher the dollar amount it depreciates. At some point the depreciation slows down usually when the price of a decent used car is below the price of a new Kia or new Hyundai accent.


CZ

CRB

Here is a couple more:

5) The reliability of these cars is poor to begin with and doesn't get any better with age.

6) Your recent vintage but high mileage car will be out of warranty too soon for most buyers to consider it.

7) The dealers lots are filled with Certified versions of the very car you are selling with extended warranties.

Anyone want to pick up here? Ten should suffice.

davezaristo

It also doesn't help that you can buy a brand new c-class for at least 4-5000 below invoice...so a fully loaded c230k can be bought for around 27k....that's quite a bargain imo...

rescueswimmer

Im not sure what dealer your finding a fully loaded 230k for 27 but if you know of one send it my way. but your point is definitly right on

revstriker

You're suggesting that that your Dad's 46% depreciation over 5 years is somehow better than say a 40% depreciation over the same time period on a higher value car? Loss or gain from an investment is ALWAYS relative to the value of the investment. Yes, 46% of 12k is less in dollars than 40% of 50K. However, the 46% is a larger loss per dollar invested/spent.

Using your logic, if someone would have bought a used car in 1997 for 5k, they would have had a financially better deal than your dad because the most they could have lost was 5k. Who cares if it's 100% of his investment/money spent!

I hope you don't look at other investments this way.

revstriker

I disagree with your comments. I would think that the majority of the people that buy C320s are doing so because they feel the extra money (over the C240) is worth the differences. As amdeutsch has pointed out, there are many other differences between the two cars than just the engine. I would think that these differences would also translate to the used car market. Also, there is NOT another C class sedan with a stronger engine, that costs less. Sure, there are still some people that prefer the 6 cylinder over the Supercharged 4, but I think that the introduction of the C230 sedan really hurt sales and the resale of the C240 (and the C230 coupe).

Also, I would think that most people that are "just buying the hood emblem" are probably more interested in the C230 because of it's price.

davezaristo

You can just go to carsdirect.com and confirm those #s...I am already in the more expensive area (SF Bay Area zip 94015). When I tried LA using 90210, the price is another few hundred less and usually, you can always do better than carsdirect.com's price by at least a few hundred to thousands so that's how i arrive to 27k....

Mercedes101

Checking ebay the average end of auction price for cars with bids on them was 16.97 for a 01 C240 and 18.8 for a C320. The number of auctions that completed succesfully were too small to be significant (2 each) but was 18.8 for a C240 and 20,800 for a C320. Average mileage for the completed auction C240's were 61.5K. 51K for the C320's one of which included a Starmark Warranty. Anybody else wants to put some analysis to these numbers be my guest.

jbcritch

could be that people like me bought a brand new C240 in 2003 with nice options and 0 miles for 27 -28,000. That would really hurt resale of a 3 yr old car......
Best of luck to you, I loved my 330Cic when I had it but needed 4 doors....we should have talked to one another last year and swapped cars....