Vfacts August 2010

[Cooper69S]

Originally Posted by Brazen

What does Ford need to get more private buyers in? All along I have said private buyers want more wagons or hatches but thats gone from Falcon now. Is it time to make the XR6 permanently $36990 driveaway?

I think few private buyers see the sense in spending $37k on an xr6 that will be worth $27k by this time next year and $22k by the year after. Is there any huge difference between a new car and an 18 month old one? Many of us can probably afford a new one but don't see much sense in losing $15k in depreciation over 2 years when a near new car will feel pretty much the same as one bought new after a couple of months of ownership. I bought my BF2 18 months old in perfect condition for $13900. I might consider a new one, but it would only be via a novated lease or some other arrangement where I don't wear the full cost of depreciation - I've got better things to do with my money than throw away that much...

I reckon the system works fine at the moment. most new buyers are buying at some sort of significan discount (fleet, lease etc) then the private people buy them for a more reasonable price s/h at 18 months old and everybody wins.

possible exceptions are cars in demand where depreciation is very low and it works out only slightly more to get a new one - eg near new Mazda's - nearly bought a new one a few years ago when s/h units were close to the same price. ended up finding a s/h bargain and went with that...
Falcons and the like will never have that sort of demand since fleets are buying and offloading so many that there are always plenty of near-new ones to choose from at huge price savings over new.