My car is priceless, according to KBB. "Vehicle is a low volume model so we cannot set a Trade-in or Private Party value"

:)

I had a 325i which I bought new in '02. It was strange because in some ways it was the best car I've ever owned and in others the worst. I'm 63 so I've owned lots of cars. It's gearbox was like butter. The straight 6 has to be one of the smoothest out there. The car always felt planted. It certainly wasn't a fast car, but with the manual you could still have lots of fun with it. The quality of the interior materials was fantastic. It had lots of nice features that I don't really miss.
Now the bad....I don't think it ever went 6 months without some kind of problem. All after the warranty was up. Three of the four window regulators went out at around $500 a pop. Even the service adviser said they were crap. Had problems with the thermostat which was electronic and part of the HVAC system which was another $500. Both rear springs broke which I have never had happen even on the crap domestic cars I've owned. In fact the Bimmer reminded me of an old Pontiac I had. As soon as it got cold it made the strangest noises just like the Pontiac. Didn't inspire much confidence. I could go on more but I'm getting way off target of the thread.

This is not a political forum, keep your politics to yourself sir.

These kind of comments only start flame wars.

uh oh.....someone is a.... :inoutroflpuke:

:inoutroflpuke:

I've seen this come up quite a bit lately, and even though I'm in the "never selling my Z" camp, I thought I'd do a little research to see how the Z's value has held up when compared to a few other cars (even though I'm a little late to the party on this thread). Bear with me on this, as there aren't many natural competitors to the 370Z, so I threw in a few sports coupes along with a couple BMWs and some Japanese entry-level lux models to see how these cars' values all stacked up 5 years on.

A few caveats: all MSRPs and KBB values were for the 'base' trims of each model with standard equipment. I used the average KBB trade-in value and the maximum KBB private party retail value to compute residual values. Residual in this case is just the amount of original MSRP retained (trade/MSRP and retail/MSRP).

http://i59.tinypic.com/8yakg1.jpg

Interestingly, the Z scores just above average with the fourth-highest trade-in residual (from this admittedly small sampling). The three worst residuals from KBB average trade-in value, in order, were the S2000 (likely because it was discontinued?), 335i and Mustang GT. On the other hand the M3, IS350 and Corvette serve to bring the average up with strong residuals.

Aside from a pronounced recent drop as described by the OP, it appears that there's some sticker shock in seeing the value of a 5-year old car, one that started at a MSRP just under $30k. Otherwise, aside from some anecdotes about offers and trade scenarios, it appears that the Z's value is holding up nicely (at least from a theoretical appraisal book value standpoint). Bake in variables like dealers who don't move many Zs to seasonal sales concerns in colder regions, and you can see how the value could take a hit.

So the problems were mostly electrical huh?. Yeah, the high end German cars are what I see as "lease" cars. You only lease them. You don't want to own them more than 3 years from new. It's no coincidence that BMW, Mercedes, and Audi market their cars like this. Consumer reports says that Porsches are reliable. But I see Porsche as an "expensive VW" or a slightly "upscale Audi."

Your model fails to account for the vastly different msrp schemes. Ford runs constant rebates that are huge, BMW consistently sells for msrp, especially on flagships.

Fair enough; this is about as simplistic a comparison as you can perform. It assumes you paid full MSRP across the board, which is how I chose to normalize my calcs. This makes the Germans on this list probably the most accurate calcs, if they tend to sell closer to MSRP.

Of this list, the Mustang likely has the most wiggle room in MSRP vs actual purchase value. So if I had average transaction prices instead of MSRP, the residuals would only trend higher, including the Z.

This still indicates, to me, that the 370Z has decent value retention when compared to other vehicles as opposed to the sentiment in this thread.

^when it comes to buying a car new, I don't think any manufacturer is "firm" on MSRP. I think that's a myth. Maybe in the beginning of the new, refresh model, they'll be firm. But wait at least 6 months and try to buy it then. I bet you can get the new C7 at a slight discount by the end of this year, mark my word. I looked into getting one, and the Chevy salesman told me something like, "GM will intentionally produce a low volume of this Corvette because it wants to keep the Corvette 'exclusive'..." I was like, "yeah sure" to myself. In 2 to 3 years, the C7 will become ubiquitous and Chevy dealers will discount them a good bit. Even Porsche 911 turbos (997), $150,000 cars, were being sold at or near invoice. Car dealers are not in love with their inventory. If a car dealer is firm on price, then it means that dealer is allocated a very small amount of that model, or they just don't want your business enough.

I always purchase my cars a few years used after they are out of the largest depreciation phase. As a very general rule of thumb cars depreciate around 50% in 4 years.

Just a note, 3 weeks ago I bought my 09 370z base (aftermarket 20 inch wheels and stillen intakes) for $17,800 private party no tax in AZ with 44K miles on it.

In late 08, I had a local BMW dealer talked down $5000 on a 2009 M3 coupe.

One could also bring up that BMW's get leased at a much higher rate than the other cars in the list..

This wasn't a 6 month, $300,000 study on car depreciation differences, it was a quick comparison based off of like categories. His model didn't fail at all, the only fail was your comprehension of it.

:iagree: I appreciate the effort to put together the numbers. Scientific? No. Helpful ballpark figures? Definitely.

So, less than 10% off?

That's like getting 2.8k off a mustang, when in reality you'll get something like 10k off.


Thanks for proving my point.

Isn't arguing that the Mustang has better value retention than my estimate by reasoning that there's $10k on the hood akin to cutting off your nose to spite your face?

If the average Mustang GT transaction price is in the low $20k range, then yes, the 5-year old KBB value above would indicate that it has a strong residual value.

I don't mean this as an affront to the Mustang...it has been expressed here and elsewhere that the Z has depreciated beyond an acceptable level, and my stance is that it hasn't.