Future values / Depreciation on large petrol engined cars?

Soldato
Joined
28 Oct 2002
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Looking at replacements for the E55 and I was originally considering a Jaguar XF 3.0D S Portfolio, but have spotted a couple of 5.0 V8's of interest. I have worked out that on my mileage they would cost an extra £1000-£1200 annually in fuel and road tax over the diesel, which I can swallow. My bigger concern is depreciation.

What are peoples thoughts on large engined petrol cars or the XF V8 in particular going forward?

My E55 Merc seems to have lost 40% of the value of what I paid for it just over 2 years ago and it was already 5 years old then! I would have thought it would have done better than that and that's had as much of an impact on its total cost as the fuel has!
 
My worry would be that although it doesn't make a huge difference to total cost of ownership joe public loves cheap tax/diesel mpg figures making large engine petrol cars drop their value like stones. Couple that with fuel prices likely to climb steadily and I'd worry you'd struggle to shift it for decent money. Having said that it's an exec saloon and people are prepared to stomach higher running costs.
 
Reasons why are well documented but put simply there just is not the market for 2nd hand big V8s that there is for the diesels and for that reason depreciation is absolutely savage on these.

If its a long term thing great if you change it in a year your going to get bitten.
 
Even mid-sized engine petrol cars are taking a beating. Couldn't help but notice that my 330i was no more expensive to buy than most similar age 320Ds. Just happy that I'm not doing enough miles to care about the fuel consumption.
 
Remember this: The current average CO2 from a car has dropped massively in the last few years. I don't know when, or by how much, but in the future the road tax bands will drop and all the people fapping over their Golf costing £30 to tax will be paying much higher rates again
 
I think big engine saloon's cars will keep getting worse and worse.

Some of the contract hire deals make more sense then owning the cars now.

Example
Bmw 640d a few weeks ago
389 per month with 3 months down + Vat
total cost over 2 years = 12 200 inc VAT.

Mercedes C63
435 + vat 6 months down at 20k per year.
total costs 15k over 2 years inc vat.

There is no road tax to pay, the car comes with new tyres and you will have no warranty or up keep costs other then possible a service or 2.

To me it just does not make sense to put 30k (assume the XFR) down on a car which will depreciate by 11+k over 2 years, then consider you have to pay for a warranty and road tax. Its works out to close to the same cost over 2 years and you get to drive a brand new car which you do not care by how much it will deprecate as you are just going to hand it back.
 
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If your looking at the 5.0 v8 XF I'd take the 3.0D S over it as its almost as powerful and gets significantly better economy. But then you could always look at the XFR that does about the same MPG as the 5.0 v8 but has a whole heap more power and is a lot more fun to drive and tend to come very highly spec'd

I managed an average of 28 MPG across a tank much to my utter amazement last week, with long journeys I've been seeing high 20's average, round town doesn't do it many favours thou :D

I also see that this is my last chance of owning something with a big petrol engine before the government and fuel prices make it impractical over the next few years.
 
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I'm not sure I completely agree. Whilst the costs of petrol will drive down the values, particularly in cars over 5 years old. There are now so few coming to the market that they do retain a certain exclusivity about them and special cars with big petrol engines won't depreciate any heavier than they do already.

Cars that will depreciate heavily are cars where the diesel is good and the petrol isn't a performance variant such as a 550i or a 5.0 xf. Which is great as those are the kind of cars I buy when they get older! Problem is there won't be enough of them around!
 
If your looking at the 5.0 v8 XF I'd take the 3.0D S over it as its almost as powerful and gets significantly better economy. But then you could always look at the XFR that does about the same MPG as the 5.0 v8 but has a whole heap more power and is a lot more fun to drive and tend to come very highly spec'd

I managed an average of 28 MPG across a tank much to my utter amazement last week, with long journeys I've been seeing high 20's average, round town doesn't do it many favours thou :D

I also see that this is my last chance of owning something with a big petrol engine before the government and fuel prices make it impractical over the next few years.

I agree with you there. If its the 5.0v8 I would go for the diesel S but if you really wanted to go for a petrol I would go for the XFR.
 
Would plan on keeping the car for 2-3 years. Realistically I can't see it lasting much longer as I always like a change.

One of the reasons behind looking at the 5.0 V8 would be that if I can pick one up for significantly cheaper than an equivalent age/mileage diesel S. XFR's are lovely, but they are more expensive to buy than the diesel S and more expensive to run, and I find myself using the E55's full potential less and less. At least the V8 would be cheaper to buy than either and slightly less expensive to run than the XFR.

The V8 has similar torque to the diesel S, but over 100bhp more. Its has very similar stats to the E39 M5 engine, which is no slouch!

Maybe I will just see what comes up at a good price, missed out on a bargain 10 plate diesel S by a few hours last week.
 
Residual values after 3 years / 30,000 miles:

Jaguar XF 3.0D S Portfolio:

List price: £48,780
Residual value: £17,675 (36%)

Jaguar XF 5.0 V8 Portfolio:

List price: £51,045
Residual value: £17,750 (35%)

Not much in it, really.
 
Residual values after 3 years / 30,000 miles:

Jaguar XF 3.0D S Portfolio:

List price: £48,780
Residual value: £17,675 (36%)

Jaguar XF 5.0 V8 Portfolio:

List price: £51,045
Residual value: £17,750 (35%)

Not much in it, really.

Are those figures for trade in, private sale or trade sale?
 
Hi there

No question in it, 5.0 V8 everytime. OK the Diesel may save you a few grand, but in the grand scheme of things do you really want a diesel, I know for a fact you will miss the high-revving nature of a petrol V8 and the performance which goes with it. Get the 5.0 and enjoy the car. :)
 
Is it fair to assume that V8 (and bigger) -wise in the long-long-term, the value of soggy and complicated wafters will ultimately drop through the floor irrespective of condition, whilst sportier cars will retain some desirability? I guess that may be predicated on the sportier cars also being relatively simpler.

Frankly, if I found myself considering the big engined wafters but having to worry about residual values I'd just not bother. Looking at Lashout's figures just cements it for me.
 
Knowing a few of the cars you've had in the past, if you're thinking of getting a diesel over a V8 petrol then nearly new V8s are going to be free sooner rather than later.
 
Residual values after 3 years / 30,000 miles:

Jaguar XF 3.0D S Portfolio:

List price: £48,780
Residual value: £17,675 (36%)

Jaguar XF 5.0 V8 Portfolio:

List price: £51,045
Residual value: £17,750 (35%)

Not much in it, really.
My data says 37.4% for the petrol but 43.1% for the diesel.
 
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