Car valuation over time?

Russinating

Russinating

Russinating

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,316
Location
Bristol
We've had our car (Kia Sportage) just over 5 years now and we're approaching 50,000 miles. Coming up to that number and with 2 years warranty left it feels like we're at a crossroads where it might be better to sell it now rather than than wait 2 years or whatever.

Is there a site, similar to Parkers (or even it?) that provides some guidance on value over time, effective depreciation per year and therefore when it may be best to sell?
 
It does give future estimates - e.g. I put a 16 plate car in and it gave a valuation chart up to December 2023.

With a few exceptions I don't think there is really a 'best' time to sell from a depreciation perspective, if you wait two years the car will be worth less but then whatever car you replace it will will likely have depreciated more, assuming you get something newer/more expensive. Most although not all cars have a fairly standard depreciation curve, the big differences tend to come in the first year or so as some cars are heavily discounted and hence suffer heavy depreciation against list price.

Personally in that scenario I think I would keep it until early 2020 and offload it then shortly before the warranty runs out. You've got to ask yourself, are you just looking for an excuse to get a new car as it rarely makes sense to offload a car that is working fine and still under warranty from a financial perspective.
 
It’s got 2 years warranty to run - which is 2 years of warranty most 5 year old cars don’t have - if you’ve got no specific need to change, keep it!
 
We bought a 2012 Kia Sportage with 60000 miles on and 18 months manufacturer warranty for £10,000 a year ago. They still command a decent second hand price, especially with a warranty in place. The key will be to look on autotrader and see what happens to the asking price when the warranty period expires. A quick autotrader search suggests that both 2011 and 2013 cars are roughly equivalent prices corrected for mileage and features (I put sat nav in). This implies that the manufacturer warranty expiring doesn't have too much bearing on asking price currently.

Unless the car is suddenly not fit for purpose or you fancy a change, you'll end up losing cash selling.
 
It's a bit non-sensical really because a transferable manufacturer warranty is a good safety net for a second hand purchase, I don't really see the appeal in a 2011 plate at those prices. Considering the Sportage is what a ~£25k car when new I can only imagine it is because with cars of that age (5 years old) people don't expect to get a warranty anyway so they would not actively seek one out. In fact looking at nearly new prices I really don't see the appeal of these old ones, the saving from buying a 5-7 year old model is tiny compared to most cars, it also means you get a mk3 rather than mk4. I reckon if I wanted one I'd be looking at a 2016 model in '2' trim, seems to be around £12k. A 2011 model is a somewhat ludicrous £7k by comparison.
 
@HangTime - I know, but SUV.

Anything like this commands a ridiculous premium second hand over anything normal.

Also the Kia 7 year warranty is pretty famous so I’m surprised that it doesn’t seem to factor. I only searched very briefly, so perhaps I’m not seeing the whole picture.
 
Russinating said:
We've had our car (Kia Sportage) just over 5 years now and we're approaching 50,000 miles. Coming up to that number and with 2 years warranty left it feels like we're at a crossroads where it might be better to sell it now rather than than wait 2 years or whatever.

Is there a site, similar to Parkers (or even it?) that provides some guidance on value over time, effective depreciation per year and therefore when it may be best to sell?
Click to expand...

if you have looked after it properly then it will be cheaper to keep the car as you know it's history than buying something newer which will depreciate more.

the cheapest cars to own are always one which are reliable and depreciate less.

like an old honda usually.
 
It WILL just keep dropping until it's worth peanuts. Because there's millions of them and enthusiasts place no value in an old Kia.

Most likely it will depreciate steadily until around 100k miles, then the value will plummet.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom