My car has dropped $6500 invalue 6 months

[John_H]

Oh, and Chad -
I sincerely appreciate that your presence changed rapidly from one of frustration and outrage to a posture of acceptance and understanding. That is the mark of knowledge.

[Padawan]

Originally Posted by Chad W

I hope you all have a great day and have many happy miles ahead of you. VROOM VROOM!!

[forestacademy]

Oh Chad
When this thread started out I thought It was going to go the way of many in the past. But a Standard Passion for over $20K was just out of the park. A Cabrio is still high but if those are Custom leather seats we are talking a different story.

One lesson that has been mentioned here many times, is resale doesn't care about extras. Some folks have spent many hrs dismantling their smarts and putting in thousants of dollars into modifications and upgrades only to see it just doesn't matter when it comes time to sell.
Just like you may think everyone wants a pool in your yard and lots of beutiful flowers, but the buyer may not want all the work and would rather have a padio and doesn't want to pay extra for what you put into it. The same for a car.

If you want extras then do it for yourself and only do it if you plan on keeping it long enough for you to get your moneys worth.

I hope you stick around and get that car out of the garage more and enjoy it.

I'm sorry if you got hit early on because of your excitment on the car lot. But I hope you keep it and get $20 grand of use and enjoyment out of your car.

PS: Now that you have plenty of posts, Start sharing some pictures of that over priced smart of yours

Let the Flaming end


One more thing, If I had done my homework like I usualy do with a thread like this I would have seen your only other post back in Dec noted you had a rag top. That would have greatly altered my first post.

I would have called you a dolt for not knowing what you owned

[MB DNA]

Originally Posted by Chad W

For All I'm sorry to have upset so many pepole on this site.
Thanks for the advice I will just leave it at that and I hope you all have a great day and have many happy miles ahead of you. VROOM VROOM!!

Chad,

Unfortunately your title is rather inflamatory and on this forum is like waving a red flag in front of a raging bull - thus the flaming responses.

That combined with little factual support to include the Passion versus Cabrio confusion (which may have contributed to your perceived lost value?) and your $21,434 cost(?) basis.

As mentioned by others - in this economy a new car without a proven resale value taking a 30% hit is really not that bad. With new unsold inventory at every smart dealer the used market would be soft. With only a gap of $5,000 between new/used most folks would go to the dealer rather than hassle with bank financing on used.

Get over the "value" of your new car - the average (smart) car is simply a means of transportation and although it can certainly make a (smart) statement, it will seldom be a sound investment.

The big question should really be is your smart giving you "more smiles per mile?" And how do you put a value on that?

Top back, gotta go!

[Big Panda]

Chad, thanks for taking the beating and still you come back. I know I may have come across a bit too strong (I know I have a tendency to do that from time to time ) but it's just out of frustration when I see or hear of someone that is sooooo upset and says things like "I'll get even with THEM" and "I'll make them pay". Believe me, I've been there and well, all it does is eat at YOU while 'they' go about their business. Businesses can only 'pay' sometimes if they had a conscience. Since they DON'T, then they for the most part could care less. THAT'S why one needs to look out for ones self.

Hope you continue to enjoy your smart and that it gives you trouble-free service.

OH, and FWIW, the new Dodge Challenger doesn't have a spare either.......

[Kermit]

Chad, looks like you took all the light flames like a champ.

Hopefully you keep your Smart as the first year is when you take the biggest hit for depreciation. After that, it's all downhill - just not as steep of a hill. (pun intended)

[Karl Roth]

Wanna see some numbers for Maybach depreciation in the first six months HEH hEH GOT SOME CADDY TOO
karl

[2micro4u]

Im happy with my Smart and the Value of it lies on what its worth to me for I don't plan on selling it any time soon so the current value is not important to me. Also just for the record any time you buy a new car it looses $500 - $2000 the moment you drive it off the lot on most cars.
If you want a way around it you can purchase one used and it will help lessen the blow of the Depressiation loss.

Even if the value is low now..it can increase as the economy improves.

[Gilbert's]

Sorry to hear that Chad... But, I bought my Mini Cooper S 40k with all track option John Cooper UK now the price is 18,000 and I lost 20+ k but sitting in the garrage.

[Brabus]

Here's the value on my nearly fully loaded (minus fog lights and alarm) Passion black/silver cabrio with 8k miles which cost about $18,500. The value has actually increased this week by $75. The book value went up. I suspect Kelly Blue Book discovered we finally got a day of sunshine in the Northeast. It's been nonstop rain for months, so it's ALMOST beach weather here. Almost, just need the rain to stop.

KBB Trade-in Value:
Excellent $15,000;
Good $14,200;
Fair $12,800

KBB Private Party Value
Excellent $17,155;
Good $16,225;
Fair $15,105

So IMO, it's held it's value rather well considering this is arguably the worse time in history to sell a used car. However, I believe these book values are a bit high though I also think the car is currently undervalued due to gas prices & the economy/struggling auto industry.

I suspect I'll take a bigger hit though on my Brabus, but I figured that when I bought it.

There was a Smart with 8,300 miles on it with similar options as mine sell the other day on eBay for $15k, so I suspect excellent trade-in value is probably a fair price to sell my Passion now that it is Summer. Things could change in a heartbeat should gas prices go up, i.e. another Hurricane disaster, etc. You never know!