The rise of the used car market

[Sam McGoo]

vanquish is an epic car and debated one before buying the GT but rear seats made it a no go. Still huge value for money for that engine, those looks and road presence.

The GT's usable rear seats is such a big draw. There are very few 'special' 2 door cars with usable rear seats, and the reason many of us chose one.

I don't understand why, for the sake of a few inches, so many prestige manufacturers just squeeze in a pretty unusable 2+2.

 

[zagatoes30]

Must admit never understood the concept of squeezing two rear seats into a sports coupe where the rear seats can only be used by people with very short legs but then these cars seem so much more popular than the Maserati Gas which have useable rear legroom. Nowt as ***** as folk they say.

 

[zagatoes30]

The USA 25 year old car import rules are what have driven the massive increase in prices of Supras, GTRs etc.

This was what drove SZ prices to make a major price point shift and more than a few cars have made their way stateside

 

[Felonious Crud]

The GT's usable rear seats is such a big draw. There are very few 'special' 2 door cars with usable rear seats, and the reason many of us chose one.

I don't understand why, for the sake of a few inches, so many prestige manufacturers just squeeze in a pretty unusable 2+2.

As I proved in mine, the GTS will take 4 people and all their luggage on a 3-week Eurothrash. OK, Mrs Crud may have packed fewer pairs of shoes than she'd have liked but, to be fair, she had the same issue when we did a similar trip in a Discovery.

 

[Harry]

The GT's usable rear seats is such a big draw. There are very few 'special' 2 door cars with usable rear seats, and the reason many of us chose one.

I don't understand why, for the sake of a few inches, so many prestige manufacturers just squeeze in a pretty unusable 2+2.

It’s good for large handbags and taking out nieces and nephews under the age of ten. It also means you never get asked to give people a lift home after a party.

 

[Ewan]

I'm keen on a Vanquish. A two-seat Vanquish is one of the few cars I consider trading my 2 seat Stradale for.

Having the back seat area flat and carpeted, ready for luggage/shopping is for more useful and practical for me. If I want/need to carry 4 or more people, I'll fit them comfortably into a proper sized car, not try to squeeze them into a sports GT.

On a completely different issue, yesterday I was chatting to a serial Maserati owner who was recently running a Levante Trofeo as a daily car. That's heroic.

 

[hashluck]

I'm keen on a Vanquish. A two-seat Vanquish is one of the few cars I consider trading my 2 seat Stradale for.

Having the back seat area flat and carpeted, ready for luggage/shopping is for more useful and practical for me. If I want/need to carry 4 or more people, I'll fit them comfortably into a proper sized car, not try to squeeze them into a sports GT.

Quite right! Stradale and Vanquish are still quite different cars Ewan - best to have both

Good luck though finding a 2+0 Vanquish, even better luck finding a lightweight seat version all (9 globally) of which are 2+0 rather like the original (proper) Stradale

 

[rockits]

Surprised so many manufactures bother with all these as pretty much useless 2+2's. They might as well make them a bit smaller and lighter then just be 2 seaters with a reasonable boot. Imagine a slightly smaller/lighter Strad with 2 seats......

 

[Vince2]

Thought I’d see what my 2012 GTS Auto 38,000, FSH, 2nd owner would fetch on WBAC.
22/7 £30.745
1/8 £31,000
15/8 £31,650
29/8 £31,725
Don’t want to sell but it’s interesting how it’s going up.
another 12 months and I’ll get my money back!

8/9 £32,345

 

[Chrisb2015]

Quite right! Stradale and Vanquish are still quite different cars Ewan - best to have both

Good luck though finding a 2+0 Vanquish, even better luck finding a lightweight seat version all (9 globally) of which are 2+0 rather like the original (proper) Stradale

Funnily enough there have been two for sale recently with the lightweight buckets. A black one still for sale at Aston Works and a white one for sale privately which has now disappeared. I have driven the white one twice and it has some history being the 8 speed Vanquish press car. The black one is the earlier 6 speed unfortunately.

There is also a Cobalt blue one that has been sold a few times.

 

[Andyk]

Funnily enough there have been two for sale recently with the lightweight buckets. A black one still for sale at Aston Works and a white one for sale privately which has now disappeared. I have driven the white one twice and it has some history being the 8 speed Vanquish press car. The black one is the earlier 6 speed unfortunately.

There is also a Cobalt blue one that has been sold a few times.

I really liked the white one. It was for sale about a year or so ago at an Aston dealer and take an age to sell and then as you say has come up recently but when I saw it it was being sold by a second hand car dealer and for more than it was up for at the Aston dealer. Watch loads of press videos with it in and feel in love with it. Not seen the black car though at Aston Works. Will take a look…

 

[hashluck]

I really liked the white one. It was for sale about a year or so ago at an Aston dealer and take an age to sell and then as you say has come up recently but when I saw it it was being sold by a second hand car dealer and for more than it was up for at the Aston dealer. Watch loads of press videos with it in and feel in love with it. Not seen the black car though at Aston Works. Will take a look…

Indeed not seen the Storm Black at Works before and even though a 6-speed looks stunning. The Cobalt Blue example seen previously is also stunning but also 6-speed. The white was not for me but is very individual. The only other I have seen is a German car in a very interesting scheme. From memory it may have been Kopi Bronze or similar with tan interior.

 

[Andyk]

Indeed not seen the Storm Black at Works before and even though a 6-speed looks stunning. The Cobalt Blue example seen previously is also stunning but also 6-speed. The white was not for me but is very individual. The only other I have seen is a German car in a very interesting scheme. From memory it may have been Kopi Bronze or similar with tan interior.

Dick Lovett had a 6 speed 2 plus 2 in Kopi bronze a few months back and it really suited the car. Not for everyone I’m sure but I liked it.

 

[Wack61]

How long can it continue?
I've tracked the WBAC value of my BMW M140i for the last 3 years.
Doing a valuation today, the price has exceeded the valuation of over two years ago.
But today, its twice the age, and twice the mileage!!
It's so tempting to 'cash in', and hold off a replacement until the market stabilises, downwards.
But will it?
Can't continue rising, but will it level off?
If leveling off no point cashing in.
Was watching an analysis on YouTube in the US car trade, and the conclusion is that the car trade in 3 years will be in crisis.
All those buying today at inflated values will be in so much negative equity in 3 years time, after the market returns to normal, that they won't be able to get themselves into the next car, even rolling over their negative equity will be too much for the financial lenders to allow.
Basically saying if you need a new car today, lease it.
I was surprised a colleague at work buying an Audi S3 a couple of weeks ago for £25K, on a 66 plate, with 30K miles.
That's more than I paid for my 17 plate M140i three and a half years ago with only 3K miles!

It's everything that's affected

Decided I'm done with driving for work , told them Monday , started cleaning the truck up yesterday but dropside pickups attract the wrong sort of buyer so I was dreading selling it

Until WBAC

I paid £5500 for it 3 years ago with 24k on

It now has 74k on and is 10 years old

Their valuation


They've removed the option to add damage probably so they can get you down there , I know they're going to reduce it but it shows you how things have changed , they offered £2800 last year

I'll find out tomorrow what they actually offer

 

[Felonious Crud]

This went for good coin. https://collectingcars.com/for-sale...tm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=alert_v2

 

[Oneball]

This went for good coin. https://collectingcars.com/for-sale...tm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=alert_v2

View attachment 90226

Fab colour, not sure I’d trust 1/3 of Bross with building my engine!

 

[Delmonte]

It's everything that's affected

Decided I'm done with driving for work , told them Monday , started cleaning the truck up yesterday but dropside pickups attract the wrong sort of buyer so I was dreading selling it

Until WBAC

I paid £5500 for it 3 years ago with 24k on

It now has 74k on and is 10 years old

Their valuation
View attachment 90221

They've removed the option to add damage probably so they can get you down there , I know they're going to reduce it but it shows you how things have changed , they offered £2800 last year

I'll find out tomorrow what they actually offer

Not everything.... I don’t want to depress myself by asking them for a price on my 4200...
And they came nowhere near offering what dealers are asking for same model / year wife’s mini (25% less than dealers asking) or what I got private sale to first viewer (about 15% less even after their 15th ever increasing offer)

 

[Delmonte]

Surprised so many manufactures bother with all these as pretty much useless 2+2's. They might as well make them a bit smaller and lighter then just be 2 seaters with a reasonable boot. Imagine a slightly smaller/lighter Strad with 2 seats......

Interesting debate about the back seat thing. I really don’t need back seats as don’t have kids, and hardly ever need back seat passengers. So the back seats are used as luggage space, in that sense the 4200 is bang on perfect for trans Euro, 2 week blasts for the 2 of us, even with the mountain of **** that wife takes, and space for tons of wine on way back.
So when I’ve been looking at alternatives, I’d love a 2 seater but hardly any have enough luggage space. Ruled out Vantage, Evora, MX5, pretty much all of em. Only one we could find was Mini 2 seat coupe, so bought one, & managed it for a week in Cornwall but its hardly a trans Euro blaster. Interesting layout that no one else uses though (2 seats but big boot uses space where seats would be on normal mini).
Manufacturers have got it in their heads that 2 seaters sell less volume, and they never make money on them, only use them as halo cars.... (which annoyingly also rules out their 2 seaters for the likes of me).

 

[Ewan]

On the Maserati website Enricos Pages there’s an article showing how he removed the back seats from his Ghibli (mkII) and replaced them with a carpeted luggage section with straps. Perfect for his European wine buying trips.
It would be nice to do this on a Ghibli Cup, making a GT3/Strad version of an iconic 90’s Maser.

 

[Oneball]

Lotus tried the extra luggage thing but 2 seat Evoras are less desirable and rarer than 2+2 as far fewer bought them.