car value in 1 year?

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todd_k

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is there a website that will tell you the approximate value of your car in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, etc with normal wear and tear?
 
Did you try KBB.com? I'm not sure if it will work or not, but might get you in the general direction.

(Kelly Blue Book)
 
Short answer = much less. Very few cars appreciate unfortunately.
I'm sure you can look at the new vs. current prices of similar models that were new a year to three years ago. It can at least give you an idea of annual depreciation of that particular make/model. You can find this data on KBB.com and Edmunds.com. This really would only be accurate on vehicles that haven't had major design or feature overhauls in the time period you're looking at.
 
I thought you could look up "residual" values somewhere, maybe Consumer Reports had it. Not sure if you could get 1 year, since 1 year leases aren't common, but 2, 3, and 5 year are probably available.
Also, some general "rules of thumb" are out the window right now due to gas prices ---- example, pickup trucks and SUVs used to average out at about 50% of original price at the 5 year mark, my truck is closer to 30% now, it's a 2002 model w/reasonable mileage and above avg. condition.
 
Consumer reports, I believe, has a ballpark rating of residual value, or something similar, in the annual car issue. Generally speaking, the best resale value will be something like a Honda or a Toyota. When we bought the Civic, we were looking at used models before realizing that we were only saving a couple grand buying a car that was three years old with 50k miles, so we just bought new.

As a general rule of thumb, any car that you would be comfortable buying used (like a Civic, whose reliability is about as good as it gets) is probably going to hold its value very well. Large domestic SUVs, not so much, domestic cars in general, not so much.

But, get your hands on the Consumer Reports issue, or I bet someone over at Car Talk's web forum could point you in the right direction (I used to hang out there a bit).
 
Bird, i expected better of you. You are one of those "honda, toyota" buyers aren't you. Truth of the matter is as of the late 90's the american manufacturers woke up and realized that the asian auto makers were gaining tremendous ground on them and the main reason was reliability. I would tell you that, with GM anyway, that if you take a comparable car to the camry or the civic or what ever you will find that they last just as long. They realized that just a little to late based on the fact that GM is no longer the #1 auto maker in sales as of 2 or 3 months ago.

As far as what will you car be worth when you decide to sell it in 1 2 or 3 years, if you want to be able to sell it and get out of it what you owe on it you need to do one of two things: either you drive it for the whole note if it is 4 years or longer OR, you get the note for 3 years. On a typical 3 year note you will owe about what it is worth after a year and a half and from that point you will start building the "equity". I use the term "equity" and cars loosely, unless it is a Mustang Boss or a corvette. I dont think any other new cars out there right now will be building equity any time soon.


Edit: Flame on!
 
Reverend JC said:
Bird, i expected better of you. You are one of those "honda, toyota" buyers aren't you. Truth of the matter is as of the late 90's the american manufacturers woke up and realized that the asian auto makers were gaining tremendous ground on them and the main reason was reliability. I would tell you that, with GM anyway, that if you take a comparable car to the camry or the civic or what ever you will find that they last just as long. They realized that just a little to late based on the fact that GM is no longer the #1 auto maker in sales as of 2 or 3 months ago.

As long as my opinion on the matter remains the consensus, my car will be worth a LOT more money when I turn around and sell it than if I bought a GM. That was absolutely part of the equation; I could buy a Civic, drive it four or five years, and not lose much value. That's NOT going to be the case with a GM product. Whether the Civic truly is a better vehicle or not (I still believe it is) is secondary in this instance to what public perceptions of the vehicles are.

I'm also getting 38MPG and have an ultra-low emmissions vehicle that's not a hybrid, FWIW.
 
Reverend JC said:
Bird, i expected better of you. You are one of those "honda, toyota" buyers aren't you. Truth of the matter is as of the late 90's the american manufacturers woke up and realized that the asian auto makers were gaining tremendous ground on them and the main reason was reliability. I would tell you that, with GM anyway, that if you take a comparable car to the camry or the civic or what ever you will find that they last just as long. They realized that just a little to late based on the fact that GM is no longer the #1 auto maker in sales as of 2 or 3 months ago.

As far as what will you car be worth when you decide to sell it in 1 2 or 3 years, if you want to be able to sell it and get out of it what you owe on it you need to do one of two things: either you drive it for the whole note if it is 4 years or longer OR, you get the note for 3 years. On a typical 3 year note you will owe about what it is worth after a year and a half and from that point you will start building the "equity". I use the term "equity" and cars loosely, unless it is a Mustang Boss or a corvette. I dont think any other new cars out there right now will be building equity any time soon.


Edit: Flame on!

Owning a 99 GM I have to disagree, it is a total POS..

ToddK - can you just look at an older model? We just recently purchased a new USED car and it is amazing the way Hondas hold value.
 
I can not argue the MPG, that is truely good. And yes, the main two Asian auto makers have done a very very good job with marketing and keeping the price of their vehicles up. It is the same idea that GM uses. If you were going to buy domestic truck and were not loyal to any brand and didnt care but wanted the most resale who would you choose? Probably a Chevy or a GMC because the standard public perception is they have a higher resale value. GM and all of the domestic auto makers need to hammer home that marketing idea alot more than they are right now if they ever want to have a chance at number 1 again.

I am not saying they are not good cars (honda and toyota) i think they are nice and well equiped. What are they new? Do they have a higher resale because you paid more for them? Not trying to be smart, i really do not know.

My BIL is so brainwashed by the "Only buy toyota" fiance that he bought a used base camry with 95k on it, i think it was a 99, and paid 6k for it.

Oh, and did i mention it had a salvaged title!!?!?!?!?!?!? moron.

"it will run until 250 K blah blah blah blah".........moron

Bird, now that you have clarified you reasons for purchase beyond "its a honda" , not that you needed too, but it makes sense that it was the right purchase for you.
 
I think I paid a touch more than $15k for the Civic. It's a real basic car. Equivalent used cars, same basic equipment, three years old, were going for like $12k. It's just basic transportation, but it does the job and it's efficient as hell.
 
JC your BIL is not that stupid.

To continue my comparison. I have a 94 integra with 195k miles, other than a clutch it has not had any issues. It is also turbo charged, makes 250 wheel hp and gets 31mpg. I also have a 99 z24, 90k miles and gets mid 20 mpg, has had lots of problems.

The quality difference between the two cars is amazing, the chevy is literally falling apart and has had non stop electrical issues. The acura is in perfect condition other than some rust. Honestly I have no doubt the Acura will make it past 250k miles, I'm not sure the Chevy will hit 150k.

Chevy doesn't need hype, they need to make a quality product that will last.
 
i think it is obvious i am pro GM, that aside i did read about the new Chevy Volt coming out and it is supposed to get something stupid like 150 mpg. did not see the cost on it though. but i suppose if one tends to lean towards saving the environment then cost is not an issue.

Me, suburbans and crew cab trucks all the way! you can haul more grain in them:drunk:
 
Todd said:
JC your BIL is not that stupid.


No, he really is. with a salvaged title, that means that it has been wrecked and the insurance co has totalled the vehicle and some guy has made it look like new and and then sold it. He should have paid no more than 3 for that vehicle.
 
I think there are some "GM and ford buyers" here. Really, who cares what vehicles you buy? I know from personal experience that GM and Ford cars (I've never owned a truck) are much worse than Toyota and Honda. My girlfriend has a 2002 Ford Focus with only 60,000 miles. I have a 99 Volkswagen Bug with 115,000 miles and had very few problems. We've already had to invest well over $2,000 in this piece of crap Focus (opposed to the normal stuff for the Bug, like tires, etc.)

I think the majority speaks for itself. Considering Toyata and Honda's cars are best sellers is no suprise. They last a rediculous amount of miles with relativitely few problems. The resale value on these cars mops the floor vs GM and Ford.

Another thing. Just because GM and Ford started in the United States doesn't mean they still produce them in the US. GM and Ford assemble their cars outside of the US while Toyota is actually beginning to manufactor in the US. So really Toyota is becoming more "american" than GM and Ford are right now. The Toyota nascars are the only "american" stock cars in the circuit as well.

And as a side note. Unless you have 69 model vehicles and back (and certain vehicles at that) no vehicle is a good investment. I will never buy a brand new car, just because in the 5 years that it's paid off most cars lose over 50-75% of their value. I could see if you have a company vehicle it being worth purchasing new vehicles (or if you make a good amount of money and have it to spare) but overall, in my opinion, buying a brand new car just to "have one" is a suffering blow to the average person's financial plan. You could invest that extra $15,000 and make it worth something, instead of throwing down a toilet every 5 years. That 2-500 a month you spend on your new car could become millions one day. They say if you save $650 a month (starting at 25 years old I think) and have 7-8% intrest (possible in stock market, mutual funds, bonds and other investments) you will be a millionaire by 60. Saving this much a month is possible if you spend close to that much on your new car and it's expensive insurance.
 
The reason I was asking was I don't know at what point it becomes a negative to hold on to a car. My wife wants to drive our cars into the ground but I would prefer to have a little value left in them come trade-in time. I owe about $3000+ on my car and according to NADA, the trade in value is over 10k, retail is over 12k. That is a great situation to be in now but I don't want to drive it into the ground and get a couple thousand for it later.
As for foreign v. domestic, I believe most US cars can be inferior to foreign cars. How many times was the Chevy Cavalier voted worst car in America? I also just don't find many US made cars that I actually find appealing to look at. My last car was a Jeep Cherokee Sport and my first car was a Dodge Dakota so it took me a while to try a foreign car but I've realized that those crazy Germans seem to know what they're doing!
 
I hold on to a car until a cost of repair is more than the car is worth. Case in point - my previous car had the transmission fail and the repair would have been more than the whole car was worth, even using old parts off of other cars. Granted, it was a 1975 model and not worth much of anything at that point.
 
Americans only keep a car for an average of 7 years before trading in (most buy on payments for 5 yrs, so that's only 2 years of outright ownership!--and at avg. 15,000 miles/yr., that's just 105,000 on the odometer). It's more economical to own a vehicle longer before selling, but psychologically, people want the latest and greatest (marketing works here). This may be why U.S. automakers don't improve their vehicles to make them last--why bother if the driver is only going to keep it for seven years? This is just conjecture.
 
todd_k said:
The reason I was asking was I don't know at what point it becomes a negative to hold on to a car. My wife wants to drive our cars into the ground but I would prefer to have a little value left in them come trade-in time. I owe about $3000+ on my car and according to NADA, the trade in value is over 10k, retail is over 12k. That is a great situation to be in now but I don't want to drive it into the ground and get a couple thousand for it later.

todd_k, you're better off selling to a private party than trading in. You can charge a higher price, but it will require a little work and advertising on your part--that's the tradeoff. To see some numbers, use the kbb.com website to see what I mean.

Also, think about what a great situation you would be in after you make the $3,000 payment to no longer be beholden to the bank/dealer. :cross:
 
desiderata said:
todd_k, you're better off selling to a private party than trading in. You can charge a higher price, but it will require a little work and advertising on your part--that's the tradeoff. To see some numbers, use the kbb.com website to see what I mean.

Also, think about what a great situation you would be in after you make the $3,000 payment to no longer be beholden to the bank/dealer. :cross:

I've never sold a car privately, i traded in my Dodge and the Jeep was a lease. I really don't want the hassle of having to arrange test drives and then deal with people who can't get a loan and all that crap.
I also never use kbb, very over-priced but that's from working in auto insurance for 3 years, we always used NADA.
 
Desiderada was correct, IMO, that it was probably a mistake to buy a salvage title vehicle unless the price was stupid-low...
If you can afford the total loss and not carrying collision coverage,, salvage title is ok if purchased for cheap.
If it was pricey, and carry collision coverage on it, you'll be SOL if you ever total it, you'd come out pretty "upside-down"...
 
Reverend JC said:
Bird, i expected better of you. You are one of those "honda, toyota" buyers aren't you. Truth of the matter is as of the late 90's the american manufacturers woke up and realized that the asian auto makers were gaining tremendous ground on them and the main reason was reliability. I would tell you that, with GM anyway, that if you take a comparable car to the camry or the civic or what ever you will find that they last just as long.

Maybe true, maybe not. But reliability isn't the only thing that drives resale. Another reason the domestic cars don't resell as well is that the domestic mfgs are always offering huge discounts in the new models.

todd_k said:
The reason I was asking was I don't know at what point it becomes a negative to hold on to a car. My wife wants to drive our cars into the ground but I would prefer to have a little value left in them come trade-in time.

In most cases, you're better off driving your current car as long as it doesn't require a lot of repairs/maintenance. Any comparable new (or newer) vehicle will depreciate faster. In effect, whatever part of the $10k tradein value you "save" on your existing car by trading it (say, two years) sooner, you'll lose more than that off the value of your new(er) car over the same 2 years.
 
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