What's my SOC worth?

Because having flicked through a couple of their trade guides recently and
compared it to what stuff is actually fetching out there on sites like eBay
at the moment, and having compared some of their valuations with those on
Parkers website, they're as bad as all the rest for not reflecting what
stuff is generally fetching out there in the real world at the moment, and
have been for months.

No - I did say 'the bulk of stuff', above?

The bottom fell out of the secondhand car market a while back, and it's the
small stuff which is now starting to pick back up again as the demand for
barges or in fact anything post 2001 that's mid range and petrol has been
pretty much blown away by a combination of the impending changes to the VED
rating system and the current financial problems going on, and thus older
small cars in reasonable condition are still worth a few hundred whereas
your average Mondeo of the same era is wormfood by now.

'All prices are equal, but some are more equal than others'.

 

FiL just sold a 1.0 Micra on a T plate with 50k for 850, phone never
stopped ringing. He just put it in Autotrader, mag only, not online.
Had no tax and MOT til Nov, but did have FSH.

 

Aye, but of late they're *way* off what more current stuff is fetching in
the real world from what I've seen.

My Passat books at around £6k... in reality, I'd probably draw in £4k if I
decided to sell it going by what others seem to be fetching of late... and
this is for a well specced TDI, which aren't affected as such by the initial
VED changes.

If anything, it should be firming up price wise as comparative petrol stuff
has become such an unattractive proposition to some due to said VED changes,
and as a result the prices on mid range stuff has tumbled over the last few
months.

But it isn't... because as with the housing market, things are starting to
stagnate in the motoring world, and by that I mean bikes as well really.

People are keeping their money in their pockets... which is why smaller
older stuff like Lozzos is still in demand; even redundant city types need
to be able to get down the job centre to sign on. ;-)

Yup - most old stuff should be judged purely on its merits rather than what
a guide says.

See Timos Audi A8 - old barge or not, it would have fetched over £2k at the
start of the year... now it'll probably fetch around £1200 if he's lucky,
even though it's a perfectly good car with plenty of life left in it.

 

£500.
Seriously.

 

I wouldn't want to give more than 200 for that car.

 

And I didn't, but I'm not offering it to you, so your comment is
irrelevant

 

Saabs have taken a huge hit recently - I tested a 95 Aero a month or so
back, and have been offered one year old cars at ever decreasing prices
- best deal I was offered was at £13k, for a 1 year old car with under
10k miles on it.

A colleague is very close to doing a deal on a year old Volvo XC90 V8 -
cracking cars, with a list price pushing £50k - deal is likely to be
done at £20k.

You may get burned on the Saab value, but not as much as the owner of
whatever you replace it with - Cayenne V8s appear to be dropping £1k a
month at the moment. If it wasn't for Porsche servicing costs, I'd have
been very tempted to buy one and stick an LPG conversion on it.

My Alfa is a real oddity and I can't really stick a value on it - build
date October 2002, registered brand new in 2006, but brought in as a
personal import - meaning it escapes the new emissions based VED bands,
saving me over £200 / year.

 

I'm thinking of an XKR for my next car, around April next year.

Though this assumes I'll have a job by then.

 

<autotraders>

Bloody hell, they've come down since I looked at prices 3-4 months ago.

I'd really like a 159, but the forums are scaring me off, I could
probably live with a few niggles but a front tyre life of less than
10000 miles is a real killer.

Probably changing next Spring, looked at Mondeos (ugly, Ford), Passat
(had one as a courtesy car for 3 months, liked it but a bit boring),
Mazda 6, Saab 9-5 (originally counted out on cost, bit ugly), Accord
(current favourite), A4 (too pricey), 3 series (pricey, cunty), C5
(possible, but dealers shite). Any other suggestions welcomed, not
looking at 4x4s, budget around 15k.

 

Jaguar S-Type 2.7D (quick, well equipped, very refined)
Chrysler 300C CRD (quick, well equipped, look the dog's danglies, but a
bit American inside for my tastes)
Lexus IS220D (new shape - very nicely equipped in top spec and you know
it will never break)

159s are pretty solid, IMHO, and 10k miles from a set of tyres is pretty
good for me....

 

Volvo?

 

Ahhh, yes, missed that one.

ex-Volvo UK management S80 D5 SE. Around 10 months / 40k miles old -
£12k. Bargain.

S60s are also cheap as chips, but rather dated - the S80 interior is a
work of art.

 

Good when new - but lots of things will break on it over the next few
years.

Our B6 shape Passats have been unreliable heaps of shite - mine is with
the dealer *again* - this time for a replacement clutch and flywheel.

(We've had 100% strike rate on failed fuel pumps, 2 main ECU
replacements, 2 gearboxes and two replacement engines out of 7)

 

SteveH wrote:

I've been watching that and been giving serious thought to picking one
up, even though RHD is a bit of a PITA.

What's the cause? Tax or just gone out of favour?

 

Tax, fuel economy and the facelift looks a bit strange.

 

Yeh, but it's 10k from the front as a *maximum* figure, so anthusiastic
driving is just going to make that worse.

S Type, I don't think I'm old enough, did look at X Type - briefly
Chrysler, too American
Lexus, will take a look, thought they were too pricey

 

Agree on the last point, I've only really been looking at the last of
the pre-facelift version. I don't really GAF about fuel economy either
as I don't really use the car that much and I get petrol at 70c per litre.

 

<autotraders>

Crikey, S80 2.4D SE, 15k miles only 12.5k. Not as ugly as I thought
either, maybe I was looking at S60s when I've been car watching on the
motorway. Will definitely put that on the list.

It sounds weird but I can't have a top spec car as these tend to come
with full or part leather seats and the wife is allergic to leather[1].


[1] Amongst other weird things like match heads, green snooker/pool
tables, certain clothing dyes and other oddities.

 

Even if it gets really bad out there you can always comfort yourself
with the fact that in about 20 years your skills will be in demand
again. That's about the length of time it's taken for people to wake
up to the fact that all the dirty, scruffy mechanical engineers that
were laid off are actually needed and the failure to train
replacements is costing them dearly.

I think it's great because I can earn whatever I want these days and
if I could be bothered to change my job again I could be picking up
about £80k per year. Still shit shifts but at least the money's better
these days.