What a shock - luxury limos for £3,000.

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

i purchased my mercedes 7 seat, elegance est,car in 1997 with £12,000 worth of extras, £51,000.purchase price. since then it has covered 190,000 miles and has had £4,700 spent on it. today i thought i would just see what the going price is on auto trader. they had 5 est. cars, 3 of them 7 seaters. they were circa my reg. date, 1997 - 1998. mileage 116,000 to 140,000. they were all trade with full mb service history, but the shock for me was the asking prices, £2,000 to £3,700, so the people who traded them in must have been looking at £1,500 to £3,200. being that the merc. estate is known to be the best, most comfortable, safe, load / people carrier, and how reliable, etc. then why are these vehicles so cheap ? the vauxhall vectra estates circa same age were the same price, no comparison. why ? is it the fear of mpg ? or repair costs ? i don't understand it. ? herbiemercman.

 

[television]

Its the whole range of cars. they have all crashed

 

[Alex M Grieve]

Its the whole range of cars. they have all crashed

As have the prices in many cases!

 

[discoking]

i purchased my mercedes 7 seat, elegance est,car in 1997 with £12,000 worth of extras, £51,000.purchase price. since then it has covered 190,000 miles and has had £4,700 spent on it. today i thought i would just see what the going price is on auto trader. they had 5 est. cars, 3 of them 7 seaters. they were circa my reg. date, 1997 - 1998. mileage 116,000 to 140,000. they were all trade with full mb service history, but the shock for me was the asking prices, £2,000 to £3,700, so the people who traded them in must have been looking at £1,500 to £3,200. being that the merc. estate is known to be the best, most comfortable, safe, load / people carrier, and how reliable, etc. then why are these vehicles so cheap ? the vauxhall vectra estates circa same age were the same price, no comparison. why ? is it the fear of mpg ? or repair costs ? i don't understand it. ? herbiemercman.

Well your car is 12yrs old and how many other mass produced cars do you see selling for that money at that age?

Regarding £12k of extra's,unfortunately extra's very rarely add any monetry value to a car once they get over 5yrs old.They make them more saleable but not anymore valuable.

Vectra estates at that age with that mileage in tidy nick wouldn't retail even a £1000,more like £600-700.So the Merc is holding it's value a lot better than the vectra in real terms.

it's all about right unfortunately....sorry if thats not what you want to hear tho.

 

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Assuming that you've managed to pick a good un' it does call into question the value of mb servicing though I would say??

 

[popuptoaster]

most people looking for seven seats buy people carriers, besides, old mercs (or any luxury car for that matter) are always cheap, i've spent my life driving old luxo barges 'cos they are cheap, the perceived running costs frighten your normal punter, the more expensive the car is in the first place the more of its value it loses when sold on, i avoid this problem by always being owner number 4 or 5.

If you want a like for like comparison take the granada scorpio and the sierra, pretty much identical under the skin, once they hit 7 or 8 years old the grannies were cheaper than the sierras, yet mechanically they were the same, with better equipped and more roomy interiors and pretty much identcal looks.

 

[jberks]

Nearly 4k for a 12 year old car is pretty good IMO.
As above, Luxury cars come with a high running cost. Older ones are more likely to need parts. The parts were built for a 40k car so carry the appropriate price. If you're top budget is £4k then £250 for, say, a new set of front brakes will be very uncomfortable. An exhaust will cost the family their summer holiday in many cases. Additionally, if you spend £50k on a car, fuel consumption, cost of tyres etc isn't going to phase you. Those prices don't come down just because its 12 years old.
Compare that to a vectra and you'll see why someone with that kind of money drools over the merc but spends another few hundred and buys the younger vauxhall.

 

[jberks]

Just having a quick flick through autotrader. Looked at the RR Phantoms for a laugh. 18,000 miler, £118,000. So thats around £7 per mile in depreciation. Now I don't care how rich you are, that has to hurt.

 

[st4]

Just having a quick flick through autotrader. Looked at the RR Phantoms for a laugh. 18,000 miler, £118,000. So thats around £7 per mile in depreciation. Now I don't care how rich you are, that has to hurt.

how old is it. 53 plates with 46k are kicking off about £100k.

Can't help but think you'll get a much newer Arnage Turbo V8 for that money.

 

[Alex M Grieve]

Just having a quick flick through autotrader. Looked at the RR Phantoms for a laugh. 18,000 miler, £118,000. So thats around £7 per mile in depreciation. Now I don't care how rich you are, that has to hurt.

They also come up at "classic auctions" - cars which cost the earth in the late 1990s, very few miles on them and reserved at less than £10,000. Given their size, you would think you might get more than that just for melting them down and selling the metalwork for reuse!

 

[stumpy]

Just having a quick flick through autotrader. Looked at the RR Phantoms for a laugh. 18,000 miler, £118,000. So thats around £7 per mile in depreciation. Now I don't care how rich you are, that has to hurt.

A client of mine has been offered 130k for his 08 plate as a trade in. Serious value but not the easiest car to own.

 

[twistedsanity]

i had a 97 7 seater elegance, rotten as a rotten thing, most are tarred with the same brush around that year, mine sold for about £1500 last summer with below 120,000 miles