I'm trying to decide if there is a market for a nice '15 ML250. I will be buying a new vehicle in a couple months and have to decide whether to trade or try and sell it my self. Any thoughts. The car is in very good condition with 86k miles and has been serviced by the book. AEM completed when it first became available. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

List it on several sites and see if you get interest at a price higher than the trade offer you received.

Otherwise trade it in the deal for the replacement vehicle.

 

You can run ebay search for sold vehicles to start.
Not too many diesel MB in USA, so don't expect too many comparable.
When I want to simply get rid of vehicle, I post it on ebay starting with $1 and no reserve. Always worked.

 

Just listed in Marketplace.

 

Sold locally, got my asking price.

 

While I understand a lot of people like to replace their new cars after two to three years, economically, that is just about the worst way to have a car. Cars depreciate the most in the first three years and the lease terms take that into account if you are leasing. Your monthly lease expenses will be higher than the corresponding purchase expenses (unless you can somehow deduct your lease expenses) and you have nothing at the end of the lease. Conversely, a two to three year old used car is the optimum purchase assuming you are going to keep the vehicle for the remainder of its designed lifetime - the price reflects the massive depreciation, and you should have five to seven years of use before the car shows issues with wear and tear.

The factor pushing down used EV prices is the question about how the battery was treated. That adds a risk discount to the pricing. ICE vehicles also have a risk discount - was the car serviced properly and driven reasonably, but the repair costs for ICE engines are lower than a battery replacement. The risk discount for and EV is probably way too high at this point as there is not enough experience to judge the impacts of poor battery treatment (excessive charging to 100%, etc.).

If you purchase or lease an EV with the intent to replace it in three years, the low resale value is going to cost you. That is just the way it is. On the other hand, if you keep the car for its designed lifetime, you should do very well with the significantly lower operational costs winning out over the long run. This will hold for at least ten to twenty years until the reduced number of ICE vehicles started affecting the price of gasoline, at which point gasoline could be very expensive to obtain, or become very cheap (or it might fluctuate a lot).

In my case, I purchase vehicles and hold them until they are no longer economically maintainable. My ML is at 300,000 miles; at this point the cost of repairs exceeds both the market value of the car and the value it provides to me, so I will be in the market for a new vehicle soon. If I look at the total cost of ownership over the 15 years I have driven it, it was a bargain. Same is true if I look at it by cost per mile.

 

Current market value is easy to determine from many web sites. The value provided now can be determined from the alternative cost if I had to rent a similar car to provide the same service it does for me now. Does that help?

The longer term costs come from the purchase plus service costs as well as gasoline purchases over the years. You need to include insurance and taxes, as well as interest costs for the loan. Rule of thumb for any new car is you will pay the purchase price again in the first three years if you include depreciation. That might be a little lower with an EV as there is less service and no gasoline expense, but currently the real world depreciation is higher.

I do keep the service records so this kind of calculation is relatively easy. But I will admit I have to estimate gasoline based on mileage as I am not keep close track of those expenses. Since I have no way to business expense this car, there is no point in record keeping at that level.

 

Not exactly, my truck I have spend $33k in fuel since new (10yrs, just shy 190k miles). add in about $1300 reg fees for that time and $7500 insurance, about $4k service cost (do it myself), $4k tires. So in 10 years Im over the initial purchase price of $46k by about $4k.
Thats over 10 years and alot of miles. The first 3 years didnt come anywhere near the purchase price of the truck. Now with the cost of used diesel trucks in my area I could get over half of that back if I sold it for a price to make it move.

Problem with EVs is no one I know of wants to cover cost of replacing the main battery, they dont last forever.

 

I included the depreciation of the car, you did not. While cash basis accounting is fine, I don't think it covers the situation here where there is a real loss in value of the vehicle over time.

 

At three years I could of sold my truck with the 50k miles it had for about 5% less then what I paid for it. I should of sold it in 21 or 22 when I could have gotten about 80-90% of what I paid for it. Ahh well hind site 20/20 right.

 

Yes, COVID really changed the car business.

 

Covid -related price increase lasted 2 years and did not create more, than 50% change.
Bad economy after dropped used car prices by 3-fold and has long years to go.

 

You are forgetting the massive supply chain issues that are still impacting auto manufacturing, especially in the semiconductor space. All those canceled orders meant auto manufacturers went to the back of the line for their low volume components, and they foundries are still working through the backlog for mainstream components that were ordered long ago.

 

I wouldnt say dropped by 3 fold. Used car prices atleast on the US west coast are still nuts. Primarily the stuff without a bunch of computers in them but still. New car prices are still crazy as well there are just not as many dealers trying to gouge people with there add on popularity price or whatever they called it during covid, that was $10k or more for many types of vehicles above MSRP.

 

In 2020 I could sell my Sprinter conversion for about $80,000, but I was still needing it, so I waited till this year.
No buyers on autotrader, so put it on ebay with $1 starting price. Sold for $17k.
Sounds low, but then I bought the limo bus during Covid for $8k and parted old camper to make conversion.
Still collected about $3k reselling recliners.
So going from $80k to $17 is more than 3 fold.

 

Ouch!