Possible to own and run a £20k car for a year and sell for no loss including costs?

Del Lardo · 2 Nov 2015 at 14:14

xs2man said:
But anything you are looking at, that may appreciate, or not lose too much value, will come with it the inherent risk of throwing an eye watering bill at you. That's why people buy new diesels.

Lexus IS-F for £18910, 24 month Lexus warranty for £795, £295 for a service and can resell in a year with 12 month warranty which will certainly help the sale.

Don't get much lower risk than that bill wise.

I am assuming that the tyres, brakes, exhaust are all good and that it only needs an intermediate service in the year of ownership

adam cool dude · 2 Nov 2015 at 14:16

JDM cars are the place to be at this price. My car is worth double what I paid and is at the bottom of the spectrum.

Supra six speed, Evo 6 TME, 2.0 twin scroll impreza's, FD2 type r's etc.

p1RATE · 2 Nov 2015 at 14:19

The only thing that i could think of at this moment was a DB7. If you find someone desperate to sell you can pick for up for under 20 and make your money waiting for the right buyer to come along. You do run the risk of high maintenance but if you have a mate called Edd china im sure you'll be fine.

Just saw the last post. I have had a good experience with jap cars too but i doubt you'll need to use your full budget. My last one was a supra which i sold for 1k more than i paid a year later, they hold their value very well.

xs2man · 2 Nov 2015 at 15:43

Del Lardo said:
Lexus IS-F for £18910, 24 month Lexus warranty for £795, £295 for a service and can resell in a year with 12 month warranty which will certainly help the sale.

Don't get much lower risk than that bill wise.

I am assuming that the tyres, brakes, exhaust are all good and that it only needs an intermediate service in the year of ownership

Ok. How is that going to work then? I've just done a quick search on Autotrader, and the prices of these cars absolutely reflect their age.

So
2008 ranges from £14 - 21k.
2009 £22 - 24k,
2010 ~ £26k,
2011 £29-30k
etc. etc.

That looks to me a pretty much guaranteed £2k+ per year depreciation. I mean, granted, that isn't a huge amount of depreciation for a car such as this, but it is a LONG way from zero depreciation, or even appreciation (which is essentially what needs to happen to cover the "costs" of running such a car, £1100 by your own reckoning).

If the OP wants something that seriously costs nothing over a year, it's a gamble on something older, and more of a classic with the chance of throwing a big bill.

Or up the budget substantially, and get on a waiting list got a 911 GT3 or something similar where people will pay the premium to skip the queue.

KiNgPiN83 · 2 Nov 2015 at 15:50

I bought my WRX STi for £5.5K about 2 years ago and I'm seeing similar higher mileage examples now going for £6.5-7.5k. Not that i want to sell it right now but its nice to know.

Although to be fair i didn't buy it to make money on it i bought it because i was rebelling against my previous sensible car choices.

jimmy321 · 2 Nov 2015 at 15:54

With the *recession* knocking on the door car prices may well go down by quite some margin!

*That's just a personal opinion but it looks likely* to me.

Del Lardo · 2 Nov 2015 at 15:56

xs2man said:
Ok. How is that going to work then? I've just done a quick search on Autotrader, and the prices of these cars absolutely reflect their age.

So
2008 ranges from £14 - 21k.
2009 £22 - 24k,
2010 ~ £26k,
2011 £29-30k
etc. etc.

That looks to me a pretty much guaranteed £2k+ per year depreciation. I mean, granted, that isn't a huge amount of depreciation for a car such as this, but it is a LONG way from zero depreciation, or even appreciation (which is essentially what needs to happen to cover the "costs" of running such a car, £1100 by your own reckoning).

If the OP wants something that seriously costs nothing over a year, it's a gamble on something older, and more of a classic with the chance of throwing a big bill.

Or up the budget substantially, and get on a waiting list got a 911 GT3 or something similar where people will pay the premium to skip the queue.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201510057516231 try and get it for £14-15k if s(he) is a desperate seller, in a years time with a year full Lexus warantee try and sell it for £16k+ when the dealer cars about the same age will have gone from £19-20k to £17-18k.

Sure there is a risk but it's a risk of a small loss rather than a catastrophic bill.

Frozennova · 2 Nov 2015 at 16:11

Late 2.0 STI Impreza is a fairly good option.

2005/55 plate cars are fairly sought after due to the combination of being the last with the 2 litre engine, wider track and DCCD

My dad paid 10k for his in March 2014 and cars with similar age and mileage are 13k on Pistonheads, pretty much yhit

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...p-dccd-widetrack-model-very-low-miles/4479419

And although this is a 2.5 it's had a forged bottom end which gives piece of mind against the common issues and it's a Spec C being a Spec C

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...sti/litchfield-jdm-sti-spec-c-type-25/1937962

EddScott · 2 Nov 2015 at 16:14

Hades said:
If you had £20k for a year and didn't want to lose money then what would you buy? It has to be something interesting.

B7 RS4 Avant

£20K should get a decent well looked after RS4. They've been holding their value well lately so this is what I would get.

LizardKing · 2 Nov 2015 at 16:15

Z4m would be my bet, (or any other M car really), they've done very well in recent years. Else an unmodified Skyline.

But if could can pull together another 10k (back pocket change im sure

) then the NSX, I'm sure they were plenty of sub 20k ones around a few years back, now there all +30k.

bledd · 2 Nov 2015 at 16:22

TVR or similar*

*Then pray that you don't have any problems with it

rare · 2 Nov 2015 at 16:26

Maybe a late (05\06) E46 M3 with low miles. Shouldn't be unreliable and they are still holding strong money

Or a phase 2 Clio v6.

KiNgPiN83 · 2 Nov 2015 at 16:32

bledd. said:
TVR or similar*

*Then pray that you don't have any problems with it

I've been watching those go up over the years. I'd love a Speed 6 but they look like they are slowly getting out of reach...

Back to your point i like to think that if its survived this long, all the gremlins have been fixed.

panthro · 2 Nov 2015 at 17:13

Buy a good example of an M3 CS manual. In the current climate you will not lose money on it, unless you pay over the odds.

Aeleys · 2 Nov 2015 at 18:20

I made money on my jap cars... just need to shop around and then sell to the right people

bayo000 · 2 Nov 2015 at 19:16

Pay off mortgage instead

Dr House · 2 Nov 2015 at 19:23

I sold my Z4 35is maybe around a year ago at around that price. It seems to worth that if not a little more now.

Buying a cab around this time of year and hold it until the start of the summer and maybe you will not lose too much

EvilRob · 2 Nov 2015 at 21:53

xs2man said:
Ok. How is that going to work then? I've just done a quick search on Autotrader, and the prices of these cars absolutely reflect their age.

So
2008 ranges from £14 - 21k.
2009 £22 - 24k,
2010 ~ £26k,
2011 £29-30k
etc. etc.

That looks to me a pretty much guaranteed £2k+ per year depreciation. I mean, granted, that isn't a huge amount of depreciation for a car such as this, but it is a LONG way from zero depreciation, or even appreciation (which is essentially what needs to happen to cover the "costs" of running such a car, £1100 by your own reckoning).

If the OP wants something that seriously costs nothing over a year, it's a gamble on something older, and more of a classic with the chance of throwing a big bill.

Or up the budget substantially, and get on a waiting list got a 911 GT3 or something similar where people will pay the premium to skip the queue.

An older car is always going to be worth less than a newer car at a given point in time, all else being equal. That should be obvious. Who would bother buying the older ones?

If you want to break even or better, the value of the car has to stop going down or increase over the time since you bought it. The price of older or younger examples of the same car is irrelevant (though they will likely do the same).

xs2man · 2 Nov 2015 at 23:21

It's a fairly accurate description of what's going to happen year on year just now though. Of course older cars are generally worth less than newer cars, but next year, they will all be one year older, and will likely have depreciated as much as a result. They aren't really old enough yet for the values to have stabilized on such a relatively "normal" car.

Something like this on the other hand : http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...et=usedcars&postcode=ng138uj&page=2&logcode=p

Has a great chance of not depreciating over a year or so, so long as you don't ruin the low mileage aspect of it.

Having said that, at only £8k, I can't imagine this dropping much money either : http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...et=usedcars&postcode=ng138uj&page=1&logcode=p

s0ck · 2 Nov 2015 at 23:38

Frozennova said:
Late 2.0 STI Impreza is a fairly good option.

2005/55 plate cars are fairly sought after due to the combination of being the last with the 2 litre engine, wider track and DCCD

My dad paid 10k for his in March 2014 and cars with similar age and mileage are 13k on Pistonheads, pretty much yhit

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...p-dccd-widetrack-model-very-low-miles/4479419

And although this is a 2.5 it's had a forged bottom end which gives piece of mind against the common issues and it's a Spec C being a Spec C

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifi...sti/litchfield-jdm-sti-spec-c-type-25/1937962

There's one or two firms that have 'flooded' the market for the last 12 - 18 months with mega high priced japcrap resulting in appreciation across the board.

Quite annoying as a buyer