Fw: [s-cars] wish I were in the market for a car...

[Keith Maddock]

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 09:08:09 -0500, Mark Strangways
<strangconst at rogers.com> wrote:
> > I have looked at some on German web sites,
> > With 6 Speed sticks they are still only worth in the teens (euro).
> >
> > Why Audi can't hold it's value is a mystery, but works ok for me :)

ANY high displacement (over 2.0 to 2.5L ) car with high horsepower
(over 250-300) gasoline engined car in Germany will depreciate like a
rock.

This is due to 
A) Gas prices
B) Displacement tax
C) Insurance which goes up exponentially with hp, regardless of vehicle age.

Theory: Check a 4 year old S8 vs 750i vs S55 AMG vs M5 and you'll
probably see fairly similar depreciation rates....

Data:
2000-2001 from www.mobile.de

S8's:   16k -40k, median approx 28k  (146 of 165 were Automatic!)
750:  15k - 44k, median aprox 25k  (38 avail)
M5:   16k - 49k median approx 30k (136 avail)
S55 AMG:  27k - 57k   median approx 45k
S600: 32k  - 55k   median approx 43k

interesting to see the MB S-class holding price a good bit better than
the A8 and 7 series, then again their new price is also quite higher.


And for kicks: 

RS6's at 45k - 80k (or lease @ 990/month) (127 avail!!) 
RS2's holding well at 11k-22k (17 avail)
S6 Plus : 12k-16k (6 avail)

Cheers,
keith