370z's depreciation in a year? I WANT ONE!!

dalparadise

The longest I've ever kept a car is about 4 years. Yes, that makes me a poor manager of my money. However, I look at it this way -- I put a lot of miles on my cars. What I lose in depreciation, I make up in having no repair costs under warranty and in deriving great satisfaction in driving cars that really interest me. Driving the right kinds of cars -- high demand, good value retention -- lessens the blow considerably. The Z seems to fit into those criteria well.

What I do is watch that value trend downward. There's a point -- at around 45-50 months old and 65000-75000 miles that the lines (imaginary in my case, but someone really anal could probably chart this) representing the resale value, costs to repair and depreciation converge and the car starts to lose value more rapidly. I like to trade or sell near the top of this observed decline. Too early and you leave money on the table. Too late and your car's value to you will exceed its value to potential buyers and it won't draw a good price.

I find this works for me.

__________________
2010 Platinum Graphite Roadster - Tour/Sport/6MT/GReddy SE catback/B&M short shift
If the top is up, it must be parked.