when do you trade your car in?

sat1983

sat1983

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With the A3 being my first new car I honestly do not know what to do.
The car is approaching it's 2nd birthday in September. The A3 is perfect in every way. I would love to keep it really- and mod it slightly but I know I'd never get my money back.
I'm fairly sure that I had read in a motoring magazine once that trading- in your car on their 2nd birthday apparently made more financial sense.
I honestly don't know wether this is true or not.
I recently went to see a good few dealers to see how much it'd be worth right now and the best figure I could achieve was £14k. Meaning by it's 2nd birthday it'll probably worth less than £13k.
The way I see it, if I want to keep having newish cars and not adding a stupid amount of money every single time it definitely is best not to wait until it's 3rd birthday. The A3 seems to be worth about £9k by then!!
How do you guys do it?
 
Changed mine at 3 years and it cost me an additional £6000 to get a spanker. It would be a similar differential price if you were doing this with a VX Astra/Focus.
Ignore the price they offer for yours and what they want to charge for a new un just tell them the differential price you are looking for.

At the end of the day even an Audi is just a car.

£2000 a year not bad in my books.
 
my Golf had is quite highly specced and had a list of £23200. Now, 2 weeks prior to its 3rd birthday and with 50000 miles on it, it has a p/x value of £8500 :ohmy: and the dealers are telling me its depreciating by £250 / month.

Also, I just sold my 53 plate BMW 320i sport ( list of £29000 ) 2 month ago....it only had 14000 miles on it and we got £12000 as a private sale.

IMO, there is never a "good" time as it always costs a fortune...
 
You are correct about modding, you won't get your money back you will just enhance your own personal ownership experience, I always put the car back to standard and sell the parts on, it doesn't stop me altering things as I enjoy the process and if tasteful will have no affect on residuals.

2 years is as good a time as any with the car still having 12mths warranty remaining but as said just concentrate on CTC - (cost to change), go in knowing what your car is worth, what other dealers will advertise a smilar spec for and how much discount is usually available on any new car you are considering this will give you a net figure to aim for but HAGGLE, there is always a good margin despite what the sales guy tells you. Our cars are all mass produced so even if you fall in love with one if the deal isn't right theres another similar car elsewhere.

Ex dealer demo are a good haggling point as dealers don't pay the vat on them and run them for 3 months usually so this gives you an indication of the margin involved.

Good luck..
 
sell it privately otherwise your paying someone to sell the car on your behalf which reduces your budget for the next purchase

in terms of depreciation, the older a car gets the less it depreciates so if you are looking to reduce your exposure to deprecistion keep it for longer
 
sleep envy said:
sell it privately otherwise your paying someone to sell the car on your behalf which reduces your budget for the next purchase

in terms of depreciation, the older a car gets the less it depreciates so if you are looking to reduce your exposure to deprecistion keep it for longer
Click to expand...

Spot on , if you have money to burn trade in whenever you've had enough of it 1-2years sounds about right!

Me i can't afford to change cars every 1-2 years , so i'll keep the S3 until the price bottoms out with a bit of luck between 12-15k for a 4 year old car with 40k on the clock and start again!

p
 
yeap... that is why I am trying to keep mine a bit longer... right now would be silly money lost. But I want to sell it...

Pedro
 
There are other issues at work e.g. the arrival of a facelift and the arrival of the all new model in a couple of years. I'll probably be keeping mine for 2-2.5 years then trade it in within plenty of time before the all new A3 arrives. If you're trading in an AP A3 after the all new model arrives you'll be in for a right kicking financially.
 
I get rid of mine when they get to about 40K miles or I get bored, which ever is sooner. The worst has been my MCS which I wanted to sell after 2 weeks but managed to keep it for 6 months (there was a lead time on it's replacement)

Currently trying to decide what to replace my coupe with. I try not to think of the money I have lost. fortunately I get to claim back all my mileage fomr the tax man which covers my losses pretty much.

J.
 
When it comes to cars I buy ( the wife's ), we usually replace as soon as the warranty runs out, or is going to run out.
I cannot be ***** with unexpected repair bills.
Tyres and servicing, fine.
An out of the blue £500 because the 'widget' broke would send me ballistic.
Set montly payments, no repair bills.
That's our motto.
 
Seems OK... at least you know that you are spending that much monthly and there are no unexpected costs... have you considered renting, bowfer?

Pedro
 
Always sell private, Ok its a pain but worth it. It means you have the luxury of buying private too.

I saved 3K selling my Golf private, then buying the S3 from an independant that didnt really want p/x anyway.

Ive saved about 8K on my last 3 car changes by selling private and going to the next purchase without p/x.

It a right hassle but 8K is a lot of money (to me anyway!)

Good luck
 
modded car doesn't affect residuals? I have to disagree with this statement - I would much prefer to buy a standard car than a 'fiddled' with one - there is absolutely no way of verifying those twiddles have been done properly and won't cause probs down the road - much prefer a standard unfettled one, miles better. I would accept a fiddled with one - but I would accept it cheaper as it isn't factory standard.

£6k to change after 3 years thats unbelievable. I've just had a row with my insurance company as after putting in for a claim for diminution have put a value of £18250 for a 11 month old car (£27k list price) so whats that all about!??!
 
My A3 at 3 years old Audi said £14k P/X against a new TT.

Mines a Sportback, 2.0TDI Sport with 20k (then).

Seen private adds for 05 same spec for £14k now with about 30k on clock.
 
Crisis said:
My A3 at 3 years old Audi said £14k P/X against a new TT.

Mines a Sportback, 2.0TDI Sport with 20k (then).

Seen private adds for 05 same spec for £14k now with about 30k on clock.
Click to expand...

How the hell did you manage £14k!! Even with the low mileage, it was a 3 year old car!!
What was the cost to change though?:happy:
 
Well in the end never went through with it as it was my mums car then and I bought it off her. Cost to change would have been about £12k? And that would of been 'cash' as it were no finance deals for them.
 
newbiecrg said:
Seems OK... at least you know that you are spending that much monthly and there are no unexpected costs... have you considered renting, bowfer?
Click to expand...

That's a very good point, Pedro.
I will look at it next, for sure.
No worrying about depreciation etc.
A friend got his wife a Mini (albeit a very basic one, with steel wheels:scared2:) for £150 a month.
 
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