OV9

So been properly looking for a few months now, driven 3 cars.

330d M Sport Touring 2013 car 78k miles private- couldn’t agree a price and it sold, seemed a good car but bodywork needed lots of attention.

640d Gran Coupe 2013 62k miles dealer
Lively car but a tyre had been damaged /wheelbearing had gone, dealer - the local bmw dealer used place which takes the franchise trade in’s too old/miley for the main dealer I suspect. The salesman was like eh, ok, after telling him of the issues, I was like k thx bai x

A8 4.2 petrol 2005
The last one caught my eye as was local, same owner for 10 years, massive spec, but it threw a CEL, the stereo didn’t work, the dynamic lights errored and it was impossible to clear the windows

Tl;dr

The used mkt seems a lot more expensive these days, to get a decent engined (not 4 pot) used car, 5k used to get you a lot of good options but it seems that’s now 10k+ And that’s an 8 yr old car.

Criteria- German, 3l, auto, comfortable- petrol/diesel not fussed

BMW 3’r, 5’r, 6’r, 7’r
Audi A6/7/8
Merc CLS
Under 80k miles

And don’t get me started on the price of the SUV/4x4 stuff

I am sure there’s a cheap car covid impact, dragging the bottom of the mkt up, and the pcp stuff that masks the true cost of a car as it’s all about the monthlies.

Clearly the answer is an F80 M3 competition at 35+ grand

Budget?

You can get a lovely CLS petrol for that not a lot of money. They never did the 400 in Shooting Brake (Jobbo) spec, but this would be a lovely place to spend some time as you've other saloons on your list.

I agree - I was surprised when COVID didn’t affect used prices, but more than that I’m surprised what interesting stuff goes for now. And how the unwanted big-engined stuff which used to plummet to £10k by its 6th birthday now seems to be £20-30k.

Not sure where the sweet spot is now; probably a 3yr old big diesel for £25k. SUV equivalents make them look good value. But I can see merit in a 12-18 month old Audi Q8 50TDI for low 40s, since they should still be worth £30k in a few years.

ETA: I’d never buy from the dealer Simon has linked, but a CLS seemed good value to me. Not seen one on those alloys before.

Budget, max I think is about 25k the 911 and the rest are staying but I need a daily with 4 doors.

This for example begins to look reasonable. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... archad=New

As Jobbo says you could pick up a large engined A8 for 5k when they were 7/8 years old, same car now is double that.

Another thing is how good the bmw infotainment systems are, certainly post ‘16, but again CarPlay makes most of them redundant. My mums 18 reg Astra with it was a revelation.

Jobbo wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:47 am

ETA: I’d never buy from the dealer Simon has linked, but a CLS seemed good value to me. Not seen one on those alloys before.

It's where I got my C Class and they were just fine to me. The Mercs/BMWs etc are at a different site to their other stock, they were supremely efficient and courteous on both test drive and collection and it was a fair price with no haggling nonsense.

Your insistence that everything is only worth £5k has been a forum running joke

Car prices do seem a bit daft, my mito looks like it’s still worth the same now as when I bought it 2 years ago and 20,000 fewer miles on the clock

Not seen any real Covid fallout bargains at all. Maybe a few panic sales at the very start of it all.

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:10 pm Your insistence that everything is only worth £5k has been a forum running joke

Bought that Ferrari yet?

Simon wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 12:54 pm

Jobbo wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:47 am

ETA: I’d never buy from the dealer Simon has linked, but a CLS seemed good value to me. Not seen one on those alloys before.

It's where I got my C Class and they were just fine to me. The Mercs/BMWs etc are at a different site to their other stock, they were supremely efficient and courteous on both test drive and collection and it was a fair price with no haggling nonsense.

Glad you had a good experience with them. When we went to look at cars there, we were given the hard sell and the salesman kept pushing for us to put a deposit down despite us making it clear from the start that we were not going to do that on the day. He also didn't know much about the cars on sale, and admitted to driving a customer car they had in for repairs like a complete Muppet. Wasn't impressed at all. This was six or so years ago though, so plenty of time for them to change for the better.

Foz wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:56 pm

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:10 pm Your insistence that everything is only worth £5k has been a forum running joke

Bought that Ferrari yet?

Couldn’t agree a price and it sold.

Apparently £5k wasn't a sensible offer.

Just offered 5k for this, I think he will accept

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... archad=New

Foz wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 3:44 pm Just offered 5k for this, I think he will accept

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... archad=New

Maybe not, but it’ll be a £5k car when you trade it in I imagine

Jobbo wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:48 pm

Foz wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 3:44 pm Just offered 5k for this, I think he will accept

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... archad=New

Maybe not, but it’ll be a £5k car when you trade it in I imagine

I keep cars for a long time!

Foz wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 5:25 pm

Jobbo wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:48 pm

Foz wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 3:44 pm Just offered 5k for this, I think he will accept

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-detail ... archad=New

Maybe not, but it’ll be a £5k car when you trade it in I imagine

I keep cars for a long time!

Worth 5k

I saw (on AT, not in person) a few nice looking CLS 350 Grand Editions when I was looking in late summer, 2010 models, 60-70k miles, under £8k

£8k is the new £5k !

Allowing for inflation, it literally is