The value of my pd vRS, is falling faster than a lead balloon...is it time to sell ?

[studmuffin]

I bought my 57 plate pd vRS June 10, I paid £9500 and it had just done over 57k my annual mileage is about 16k, so the mileage on it now is 92500 and I would be lucky to get 5500k, in a part/ex deal.... 4k hit in 26 months, is that the norm on a 4 and half year old vrs, as I'm now wondering whether to sell before its worth peanuts...

It needs 2 new front boots and its had a new fuel pump and relay and a new lambda sensor, which all cost 550 at mate's rates, the car was off the road for 3 weeks during June and I was on the verge of getting rid then as I had enough, its all running fine and behaving itself at the moment..

As the value is plummeting, I am now wondering whether to trade it in while its still worth a reasonable amount. I am in a fortunate position that the car is all paid for and I have never had a car loan for the last nine years. I will have to have a car loan on my next car though, if I was already paying a car loan now, I would change the car tomorrow, as I would be used to paying out a monthly amount for a car. So not having a car loan for the last nine years to having to pay a car loan of 150ish a month is going to be a bit of a culture shock !

I think I have 3 options....

1. Bite the bullet now and have the dreaded car loan , and trade my vrs in and try to get a 2-3 year old fl cr vrs for about 11k, which would be within my budget of about 150 a month.

2. Wait until next year until the new octy 3 is out and try to get a bargain as people trade in their vrs's in. I would still save 150 a month from now until then, so I would hopefully have about £1500 saved up, the only downfall would be...my vrs would be on about 110k, as I would have done another 16k and I know with it being over 100k mileage and a another year older, it would be worth even less !

3. Remap and dpf delete and enjoy !

I would still try to save some cash up, I would just run it for the next 2-3 years and forget about changing until then, but then, it would be about 7/8 years old with 150k on the clock...

Sorry about the essay, but what to do for the least cost....

Thanks guys !

[FUBAR]

I would take option 3 in your shoes personally. Or you just spend 11k now + interest to loose even more over next few years you have already taken a hit get your moneys worth would be my way.

[drefaldwyn]

Agreed - Option 3!

There's lots of life left in the old girl yet.

£4k in 26 months .... mmmmm .... Let's face it the most you could lose in the next 10 years is £5.5k.

Dave

[jrw]

You didn't say where you bought the car from? If it was from a dealer then the loading on that car would be £1.5-2k from the trade in price so I would imagine it would have been traded in for £8k. 32k and over 2 years later it is worth £2k less off the original trade in value. I don't think that is too bad.

This is all based on you buying it from a dealer though!

[blackspaven]

Unless it's unreliable, I don't see what's the benefit of a newer car when they're pretty much identical.

[vRSuper1]

Hello there, I'm in a bit of a similar situation to you. I've got a 57-plate octy vrs tdi pd and its got 72.5K miles on the clock. I do approx 20k miles per year and am considering swapping it for an fl octy vrs tdi cr at 2 years old with less than10k miles on it.

I want to get it moved on before the gap get too big to swap it. Problem is, like you, I either run it into the ground and end paying virtually the full 12/13/14k for a nearly new vrs in the future or I get rid now and take a loan for 6/7/8k. Not sure what to do?

I paid £10800 for my 57-plate with only 18k miles in 2009 with 1 previous keeper from carcraft. Reckon I did ok.

Anybody any ideas what mine would be worth a) sold privately b)traded in at skoda?

It has full service history, virtually new michelin pilot sport 3s all round and has done virtually all motorway miles commuting to and from work.

[silver1011]

Option 3 every time.

I too have a 57 plate vRS PD170. I also paid £9,500 for it back in October, most options and with 33,000 miles.

I reckon it's worth about £7K tops.

I got a £150/month loan over 5 years. At 25K a year by the time the car is paid for it'll be about knackered.

As yours is paid for then keep it until it dies - that's my plan

Start sticking that £150/month away now and this combined with the P/X in 2 or three 3 years time will be a good chunk towards the cost of your next car.

[studmuffin]

well thanks for the quick replies guys !

You didn't say where you bought the car from? If it was from a dealer then the loading on that car would be £1.5-2k from the trade in price so I would imagine it would have been traded in for £8k. 32k and over 2 years later it is worth £2k less off the original trade in value. I don't think that is too bad.

This is all based on you buying it from a dealer though!

yep, from carstar in leeds, i did manage to haggle another 200 quid off the screen price so i think i got a good deal..

Unless it's unreliable, I don't see what's the benefit of a newer car when they're pretty much identical.

yeah your most probally right....but i was seriously thinking of getting rid when, my vrs went all wrong and was off the road for 3 weeks after breaking down 150 miles away from my house in scarborough and totally ruined my jubilee weekend...then to cap it all off, it wasnt repaired in time for my holiday to iow so 5 adults had to sqeeze into a fiat punto for a 400 mile holiday trip !

i was even considering buying a....wait for it....a citroen ds3....yes i was even thinking about buying a s***oen, things were that bad !

thats when i was offered just over 5k on my vrs on a part ex deal.

have always liked the candy white fl vrs...perhaps one day......

.

Anybody any ideas what mine would be worth a) sold privately b)traded in at skoda?

It has full service history, virtually new michelin pilot sport 3s all round and has done virtually all motorway miles commuting to and from work.

i think 6k max, you could be lucky and get just over 6k, yours has done less miles than mine and mine is worth 5500 max part/ex, i think about 7-500ish private

Edited 31 July, 2012 by studmuffin

[studmuffin]

Option 3 every time.

I too have a 57 plate vRS PD170. I also paid £9,500 for it back in October, most options and with 33,000 miles.

I reckon it's worth about £7K tops.

I got a £150/month loan over 5 years. At 25K a year by the time the car is paid for it'll be about knackered.

As yours is paid for then keep it until it dies - that's my plan

Start sticking that £150/month away now and this combined with the P/X in 2 or three 3 years time will be a good chunk towards the cost of your next car.

I have never had to worry about car deprecation until now, because I only used to pay a couple of grand for a car and generally ran it until…. it didnt run or there was more rust than metal, and as they were all mainly fords, that process didn’t take very long…..

It was not until jan 09 when I had some serious cash and I had recently started a new job where I was commuting 40 miles a day, that I thought I need a newish reliable car, so I paid 7600 for a 1 year old 57 plate diesel vectra sri which had done 17k, I ran that with no problems for 18 months and traded it in for 7k plus 2500 cash for my vrs…

Now that 9500 is disappearing, and I know some cars lose money quicker than others, but im at the point of what do I do? Do I change it now while it still worth a bit or do I run it into the ground?

I have never been in this position before, as normally all my previous cars were worth peanuts by the time I changed it, or I was fed up with, spending more money on body filler than petrol.....

Edited 31 July, 2012 by studmuffin

[Nick P]

Option 3

[XK140]

Option3 is likely to be the most economical...if you fancied something different then that's another thing but I wouldn't bother just changing to a FL.

[Aspman]

I've an 07 TFSI and I've noticed the Parkers value has pretty much stayed static for that last year at about £5400. I think you've probably seen the biggest drops in value now and it'll slow quitye a lot.

It will drop when your car hits a birthday but then stay steady for the rest of the year. That seems to be how it works now. I was thinking of trading in but the car is serviced and shod for the year now so there seems little point.

[studmuffin]

I've an 07 TFSI and I've noticed the Parkers value has pretty much stayed static for that last year at about £5400. I think you've probably seen the biggest drops in value now and it'll slow quitye a lot.

It will drop when your car hits a birthday but then stay steady for the rest of the year. That seems to be how it works now. I was thinking of trading in but the car is serviced and shod for the year now so there seems little point.

Yeah agreed, I was wondering that myself !

Hopefully my vrs value will stabalise a bit now, I was a bit worried though as it was losing 2k a year !

[Too Tall]

Unless you are breaking down every week with massive repair bills, changing cars will ***ALWAYS*** cost you money. No matter how you try to rationalise it If you think the depreciation on your second hand car is bad, wait untill you buy a new car and watch it's value drop.

[PC1212]

I bet you have enjoyed the last few motoring years though?

You got to take into account the smile factor... you have been driving around in a VRS not some boring saloon of which there are many!

Some people break the bank and get into serious debt to drive around in a Renfault megane!!!

Ask yourself this question, do you smile to yourself every time you drive her?

Money well spent in my opinion as you "cant` take it with you"!

[flyerphil]

All cars depreciate exponentially, and depending were you are on the curve, depends on how much you loose. That's why I always try and keep cars a long time.

If you buy an old car, then of course you have low depreciation, but the wear out costs escalate. Sometimes it makes sense to buy an old car that's had everything replaced - but then fashion comes into it, which is important when young.

I would say keep it. You have only had it two years, keep it another 3 years and your depreciation costs per year will have reduced considerably.

[studmuffin]

I bet you have enjoyed the last few motoring years though?

You got to take into account the smile factor... you have been driving around in a VRS not some boring saloon of which there are many!

Some people break the bank and get into serious debt to drive around in a Renfault megane!!!

Ask yourself this question, do you smile to yourself every time you drive her?

Money well spent in my opinion as you "cant` take it with you"!

Yep, certainly have enjoyed the last couple of years and long may it continue !

Although about 8 weeks ago I was ready to get rid, when it went wrong, was on the verge of getting a ds3..... but all cars are not immune from breaking down at some point.....

Yeah, going keep it for another 3 or 4 years and maybe get it mapped to make the smile factor even bigger !!!

[silver1011]

Just had my 2007 (57) PD170 vRS valued today. 52,000 miles.

Glasses Guide - P/X valuation = £7,800.

I paid £9,600 for it 10 months ago (with 33,000 miles on it) so it has depreciated £180/month in the time I've had it.

Or £2160 / year...

Or 9.5p / mile.

[Grizzle]

Glasses is useless you need someone with CAP to value your car.

[silver1011]

Oh, hang-on, I 'assumed' it was the Glasses Guide...

The dealer showed me the book (but I didn't see/notice the cover), it was a small but thick book with the really thin paper akin to one of those pocket sized dictionary's.

It therefore may well have been the CAP book, if there is such a thing..?

[blueR36]

As above option 3, why buy a 13 year old ( Designed ) car , put the money you would have spent on a newer one, and then get an Octy 3

[JezF1000]

I've just bought the same car with 78k miles and am booked in with Shark.

You need to ask yourself what a newer VRS will give you that the current one doesn't? If you can't come up with enough reasons then don't change!

I'd say compared to other many other car marques, my car feels like its a year old, not five years old, only downsides are firm ride and not the best noise from the engine.

I've had loads of new cars in the past, but I do enjoy running a car for longer - just getting rid of my Volvo which is 16 years old and has done 222,000 miles and has probably been the best car I've ever had!

[MattyD]

Oh, hang-on, I 'assumed' it was the Glasses Guide...

The dealer showed me the book (but I didn't see/notice the cover), it was a small but thick book with the really thin paper akin to one of those pocket sized dictionary's.

It therefore may well have been the CAP book, if there is such a thing..?

Some dealers use CAP, some use Glasses Guide. We use Glasses here as do most dealers I know

[Hofmiester]

4K in 26 months is actually not bad.

My BMW 325i M-Sport (2007 reg) - Bought for £12.5K, sold for £8.5K just 15 months later :(

My Octavia VRS TFSI (2006 reg) - Bought for £13.5K, sold for £8K only 20 months later

If you dont want to worry about depreciation then you need to be buying cars over 6-7 years old, then you get the inconvenience of reliability issues etc

The best value (I spent a lot of time analyzing this) is to buy a small, very economical diesel brand new/nearly new as they hold their value very well. Use this for long journeys where you need reliability.

Then buy a fast, over 10 year old car that is easy to maintain and has lots of parts availably second hand. Drive that for fun!

[sko-with-go]

Keep your current car, it has been through the 'steep part' of its depreciation curve. A new one will cost you what your current car is worth now, in depreciation, over the next three years or so (in addition to your monthly outlay on the new loan)

You've been through financially painfull part, why do it again for the same car ? (unless you can afford to waste the money of course)