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E89 Prices

Z450 said:
I think it seems worse than it is, due to how over inflated car prices beocme during Covid. The reality is most cars don’t appreciate, we had a short spell when they did. I think it’s hard for those who bought at the peak and are now selling!

That's exactly what it is. Prices for cars are correcting themselves after covid.

If you ignore the temporary dramatic rise in car prices the depreciation is probably on a steady curve. If you bought a car at peak prices the correction feels like heavy depreciation.
 
simnew said:
I certainly wouldn’t go by prices from WBAC…. Those are low to start with.

It depends what it is. Some cars they offer terrible values, but others they offer a fair price. They can't all be bad offers when they are so popular

The prices WBAC offer for the Z4 match up with trade in prices. They are offering fair money for the Z4.
 
B21 said:
ibroker said:
The 35is are standing up relatively well. Late nice ones can push £22.5 which i think is ok.


WBAC 2011 35is 80k £5k

Thats a ridiculous post. No one with a 35is with low miles is going to go to WBAC. And thats a high miler at 80k. Not reflective.
 
Beerman said:
Apart from not ... knowing the seasons of the year, your argument is holding up well.
You're right and I was wrong. I had no idea that Autumn in the UK lasts near as damn it until Christmas.

That said, I'll bet you London to a brick that the convertible market collapses in October. :)
 
But surely the E89 isn't a convertible in the usual sense as it's effectively a Coupe with the roof up?

At the end of the day I think they have just fallen into the 10+ year old BMW ownership demographic, with limited appeal for many who need more than 2 seats. And they do seem to be starting to suffer issues with the roof mechanism.

I'm still struggling to get to grips with my first E86 being 8 years old when I bought it, but my current one is 18! :o
 
I paid dealer 18k for my 23i in 2012 and accept it's value is going down by at least 1k a year.
Still to me it's a 18k car, i intend to keep, so try to look after it likes it's a 18k car.
wbac value probably 5k, one of those vehicle score sites said 8k, i think that is slightly optimistic.
 
If you pay several thousand for a run of the mill car it will go down in value by 1k a year.
Only once you get to cars valued a couple of grand there will always be a market for starter cheap transport losing a few hundred a year.
Only once did i buy Audi 8o for £1500 and sold it year later for £1500.
 
I think sometimes we can get concerned about the value, if you can afford to buy and run the car then enjoyment should be the priority and any potential future value is surly a bonus?!
 
Someone i knew would have a new car every few months, i asked why and how.
He said dealers need to buy new and get to second hand value quick to drop the price and keep the quotas up.
Must have known someone in the trade.
 
For me, the problem is not price, but car: the 35iS. I believe that only 450 were exported to the UK and finding a low-mileage one now is difficult.

Just as bad is finding an alternative. I nearly bought an M4 Convertible Competition Package with 5k miles on the clock and may still, but it's not really what I what.
 
Busterboo said:
For me, the problem is not price, but car: the 35iS. I believe that only 450 were exported to the UK and finding a low-mileage one now is difficult.

Just as bad is finding an alternative. I nearly bought an M4 Convertible Competition Package with 5k miles on the clock and may still, but it's not really what I what.
There are 376 examples of the 35is still registered, with a few more SORN. Unless you really wanted the 35is, you'd surely be better to buy a 35i and chuck a map on it? Downside is that there aren't loads of MSport 35i models either. There look to be about 1,000 35i/is examples of all variations currently registered.
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/bmw_z4_sdrive35is_auto

It really is a bit of a waiting game, as someone who's in the market for at 35i/is. It's the same story as the E85 - so many small-engined examples were made, that the 35s tend not to be particularly well known or thought of.

I'm also going to look at an M4 convertible at a dealer near me, but my preference would be an E89. M4s are ten-a-penny, and people seem to own them a couple of years before moving them on. Whereas I suspect that folk with 35i/is models tend to hang onto them a bit longer. No data to back that up, just a hunch.
 
DaveP said:
Busterboo said:
For me, the problem is not price, but car: the 35iS. I believe that only 450 were exported to the UK and finding a low-mileage one now is difficult.

Just as bad is finding an alternative. I nearly bought an M4 Convertible Competition Package with 5k miles on the clock and may still, but it's not really what I what.
There are 376 examples of the 35is still registered, with a few more SORN. Unless you really wanted the 35is, you'd surely be better to buy a 35i and chuck a map on it? Downside is that there aren't loads of MSport 35i models either. There look to be about 1,000 35i/is examples of all variations currently registered.
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/bmw_z4_sdrive35is_auto

It really is a bit of a waiting game, as someone who's in the market for at 35i/is. It's the same story as the E85 - so many small-engined examples were made, that the 35s tend not to be particularly well known or thought of.

I'm also going to look at an M4 convertible at a dealer near me, but my preference would be an E89. M4s are ten-a-penny, and people seem to own them a couple of years before moving them on. Whereas I suspect that folk with 35i/is models tend to hang onto them a bit longer. No data to back that up, just a hunch.

Looks like the attrition rate is about 4 cars a year (written off?) ..another 90 years and none left..

I assume the attrition rate accelerates as rust / not economic to repair becomes key factors
 
My frustration with looking for a 35i/is over the past few months is how few cars seem to fall into the sweet spot of the middle ground.

I could have my pick of early 'SE' spec cars with low mileage at £10k, or high miler M-Sports at £11-12k. Plenty of low-miler later cars sitting unsold at silly money too (£16k+).

There seems to be very little in that sweet spot in the middle. An M-Sport with 70k or so should be around ~£13k give or take, but they just don't seem to be getting sold.
 
DaveP said:
My frustration with looking for a 35i/is over the past few months is how few cars seem to fall into the sweet spot of the middle ground.

I could have my pick of early 'SE' spec cars with low mileage at £10k, or high miler M-Sports at £11-12k. Plenty of low-miler later cars sitting unsold at silly money too (£16k+).

There seems to be very little in that sweet spot in the middle. An M-Sport with 70k or so should be around ~£13k give or take, but they just don't seem to be getting sold.

I think there's a bit of emotion of cars in the 70k-100k area..given the wide variation of when things fail on the N55 E89s it seems people are adverse to embracing that mileage segment..

Surprised at how many poorly spec N54 there are..
 
B21 said:
DaveP said:
My frustration with looking for a 35i/is over the past few months is how few cars seem to fall into the sweet spot of the middle ground.

I could have my pick of early 'SE' spec cars with low mileage at £10k, or high miler M-Sports at £11-12k. Plenty of low-miler later cars sitting unsold at silly money too (£16k+).

There seems to be very little in that sweet spot in the middle. An M-Sport with 70k or so should be around ~£13k give or take, but they just don't seem to be getting sold.

I think there's a bit of emotion of cars in the 70k-100k area..given the wide variation of when things fail on the N55 E89s it seems people are adverse to embracing that mileage segment..

Surprised at how many poorly spec N54 there are..
I'd consider one in that neck of the woods at the right price (i.e. leaving me enough to fix the big ticket N54 issues), but there seem to be a lot of dreamers selling 35s right now given the length the Autotrader ads have been up.

Almost all that are coming up in my saved search (under £18k, under 80k miles) have been advertised since before October last year, with no movement in price.
 
DaveP said:
B21 said:
DaveP said:
My frustration with looking for a 35i/is over the past few months is how few cars seem to fall into the sweet spot of the middle ground.

I could have my pick of early 'SE' spec cars with low mileage at £10k, or high miler M-Sports at £11-12k. Plenty of low-miler later cars sitting unsold at silly money too (£16k+).

There seems to be very little in that sweet spot in the middle. An M-Sport with 70k or so should be around ~£13k give or take, but they just don't seem to be getting sold.

I think there's a bit of emotion of cars in the 70k-100k area..given the wide variation of when things fail on the N55 E89s it seems people are adverse to embracing that mileage segment..

Surprised at how many poorly spec N54 there are..
I'd consider one in that neck of the woods at the right price (i.e. leaving me enough to fix the big ticket N54 issues), but there seem to be a lot of dreamers selling 35s right now given the length the Autotrader ads have been up.

Almost all that are coming up in my saved search (under £18k, under 80k miles) have been advertised since before October last year, with no movement in price.

There are two (at least) contradictions…

Some folks seeing other E89s at higher prices assume that’s where the market is..not realising many haven’t shifted in months and in some cases years..

Since many of these cars are garage queens the owners don’t feel the need to offload them quickly given how prices were say 50% higher three years ago..

A couple I looked at in the past were grest examples where the owners had lost their medicals..

Waiting for someone to die / taken into care is one strategy.. :tumbleweed:
 
There are 2 35is' that have recently been listed on Autorader at what seems like sensible money - the one that's just tipped 100k is the first sub £10k example I've seen and the ither is the cheapest valencia example I've ever seen.

Screenshot_20250206_134252_Auto Trader.jpg
 
DaveP said:
Almost all that are coming up in my saved search (under £18k, under 80k miles) have been advertised since before October last year, with no movement in price.
That seems to be a common issue with these type of cars. Many, many are 'fun' cars, not dailies. So therefore most will have been bought with cash as a frivolous toy. Therefore, people wishing to sell are not in any hurry as there is no financial pressure on the sale.
There are other forces at play aswell. Many people only keep these cars for a short time, so will have paid top money up until very recently. So they don't want to take a huge hit on the price for a 'fun' car. Many are also still living in 2022/23 price-land and refusing to give in to the crash in the market.

I lost 20% on the sale of our E89 this week, in 12 months. And yet, it was still deemed to be expensive! All because I paid 2023 prices in Jan 2024.

You see a lot of adverts on the forum similar to "if I don't get good money I will put it away and use it next year" type of attitude. As the market stands that attitude will not sell anything.

All my opinion from what I see. :)
 
Gwest44 said:
There are 2 35is' that have recently been listed on Autorader at what seems like sensible money - the one that's just tipped 100k is the first sub £10k example I've seen and the ither is the cheapest valencia example I've ever seen.

Screenshot_20250206_134252_Auto Trader.jpg
That first one is actually an auction on a third-party auction site. I reckon it should probably go for a smidge over £10k, but not by much.

If it goes for much less, it's a real level-setter for the 35i market.
 
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