Are people off loading their 35/35is?

B21

B21

Elite
 Scottish Borders
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Is it me?

Seems like every other day somebody is off loading a 35i/35is at what by last year’s standards are low prices…

To be fair some of them are higher mileage / older examples…

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155553120564?hash=item2437b04134:g:6uwAAOSwObJkX6qz

This chap says he’s spent 6.5k on his in the last year and now it’s got a hydraulic leak from the roof.. :tumbleweed:

Yellow 35i at £14.5k

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202305077119023

Another 5 on AT under £12k
 
All I keep seeing is how many things go wrong with these cars and how much they cost to get repaired. Perhaps that is a factor for people wanting to sell, who knows. I have been thinking about getting one but not so sure now as I’m having so much fun in my 3.0si and not to mention the ZMR in the garage.
 
Yup, they have seen the light and are trading them in for cars that go round corners and stay in one piece until the end of your journey. :D
 
Perhaps it the financial squeeze that making people sell their weekend/sunny day toys.
 
Prices are all over the place right now. I spent all winter searching for the right vehicle and just picked up a 2013 35is in Germany which was in very good condition with full service history and complete owners history as well. I looked at hundreds of Z4s in Europe over the past 6 months and due to the fact there are so many of these on the roads, the vast majority of vehicles for sale are in poor condition as they age or have spotty history.

There is one shop in the Netherlands that specializes in importing good specimen BMWs and especially Z4s, mainly from Germany, shining them up perfectly and selling them at a premium in the Netherlands. A good example LCI 35is with sub 60k Miles from them will cost you 35-40K EUR right now. https://www.carcreations.nl/ this gives a good idea of the high end in Europe of nice cars with good history and good options. You can get a good LCI 35is for 30-35K privately in Germany these days but they are few an far between.

In the UK it seems prices are much much lower.
 
Hejnfelt said:
In the UK it seems prices are much much lower.
Click to expand...
And yet the prices of used cars in the UK is higher than it has ever been in my lifetime. Mostly now driven by the huge increase in new car costs IMHO. Covid started it with a lack of new cars at all, now manufacturers have hiked their new prices by 30-40% in may cases.
I've been looking at 5 year old cars that are 90% of their original retail cost due to a new version of the same car being 35% more than the cost 5 years ago.

There was a 'rule of thumb' for used prices in the UK until quite recently:
40-50% depreciation in 3 years
50% of the 50% residual in 6 years
And so on until everything was a few hundred quid then stayed there. Then 'desirable' or exceptional cars started rising from there.
Not anymore. That rule has been torn up and it's "get as much as you can. Some idiot will pay it". And they do!
 
Low milage late plate cars in good shape still seem to be strong money.

A couple of 2016 AUC cars on the trader for £28k.
 
Pondrew said:
Hejnfelt said:
In the UK it seems prices are much much lower.
Click to expand...
And yet the prices of used cars in the UK is higher than it has ever been in my lifetime. Mostly now driven by the huge increase in new car costs IMHO. Covid started it with a lack of new cars at all, now manufacturers have hiked their new prices by 30-40% in may cases.
I've been looking at 5 year old cars that are 90% of their original retail cost due to a new version of the same car being 35% more than the cost 5 years ago.

There was a 'rule of thumb' for used prices in the UK until quite recently:
40-50% depreciation in 3 years
50% of the 50% residual in 6 years
And so on until everything was a few hundred quid then stayed there. Then 'desirable' or exceptional cars started rising from there.
Not anymore. That rule has been torn up and it's "get as much as you can. Some idiot will pay it". And they do!
Click to expand...

This is true, my mate in the UK just paid 13k for a 5 year old Toyota Yaris with around mid 20s to 30k on the clock. A few years back I was selling 3 year old Yaris with a lot less miles for around 6k! But still prices in the UK are way lower than anywhere in Europe or anyone else for that matter. You should still consider yourself lucky. :)
 
Fixing up an older one is still significantly cheaper than a new one... and the new ones.. well just don't make me smile like the e89... It's a fun little car and I'm not handing out $60k to have that fun.
 
Christopher72 said:
Fixing up an older one is still significantly cheaper than a new one... and the new ones.. well just don't make me smile like the e89... It's a fun little car and I'm not handing out $60k to have that fun.
Click to expand...
I see you have the N54 engine.....smiles may not last too long, though. They tend to be a very demanding mistress. :D
 
lol.. Even with all of the silver B21 has put into making his banana sliders better than a new e89... still prolly isn't $60k per car, I'm guessing. :poke:
 
But, but, but Brexit was supposed to put £££ in the pockets of the British people. Yet they cannot afford to fix a puny German engine ? Bloody hell !

Oh … ‘banana sliders’ … instant classic !
 
Does anyone want a roadster these days? Does anyone even know what a 35i/35is is?

When people ask me what car I drive, I always mention the Focus first, then I describe the Z4 as an orange 2 seat convertible BMW with a loud exhaust. Even if they're a "car person", there's little chance they'll know what I mean if I say 35is.

That first one on ebay... he spent £2.5k on replacing injectors even though nothing was wrong with them, and another £4k on other probably unnecessary preventative maintenance, then decided to sell the car anyway? For £9k? Either he's mental, or something doesn't add up with the story...

Oh, and after 2 years and 17k miles, my disastrous N54 has needed new coils and possibly a new rocker cover gasket. It's a wonder I've managed to keep it on the road without winning the lottery :thumbsup:
 
We are discussing 10 yr old complex cars having problems that are very expensive to fix, it’s easy to get a bill for £5k, unless you are a very skilled DIY with a good workshop they are simply unaffordable as a weekend fun car.
 
Are these 3.5s so bad? I’m on my 2nd one with no problems at all from both cars. I sold my first one to a friend who still has it and is up to around 120k and he has had 5 years trouble free motoring (apart from water pump).
 
All of these cars cost money to run its part and parcel. They all have their issues, if you like it you sort if you don't you move it on.

It's also the best time of year to sell being the summer months and with the new tax rates, my M cost £700 to tax last month im not surprised people are starting to offload. Everything is expensive at the moment and 2 seater car is niche and not really that desirable anymore hence why there are barely any options these days.

Everyone wants an SUV.

Saloons, hatches, sports cars, estates they are all selling in low volumes and lots of these models have been ditched or starting to be discontinued because they are hard to put EV platforms in. SUVs have a big area underneath where the battery can be placed so are the easier platforms to convert.
 
Pondrew said:
Hejnfelt said:
In the UK it seems prices are much much lower.
Click to expand...
And yet the prices of used cars in the UK is higher than it has ever been in my lifetime. Mostly now driven by the huge increase in new car costs IMHO. Covid started it with a lack of new cars at all, now manufacturers have hiked their new prices by 30-40% in may cases.
I've been looking at 5 year old cars that are 90% of their original retail cost due to a new version of the same car being 35% more than the cost 5 years ago.

There was a 'rule of thumb' for used prices in the UK until quite recently:
40-50% depreciation in 3 years
50% of the 50% residual in 6 years
And so on until everything was a few hundred quid then stayed there. Then 'desirable' or exceptional cars started rising from there.
Not anymore. That rule has been torn up and it's "get as much as you can. Some idiot will pay it". And they do!
Click to expand...
Used car prices are high right now due to the unavailability of new cars.
My daughter is in new car sales and with a lot of brands, even for small cars like corsas you can wait literally months, even longer if you want options.
Motobility customers can almost double the wait times for their 'free' car as dealers make less profit on them...
 
FWIW I did some number crunching and obviously can prove anything with statistics but..

Taking AT and ‘how many left’ as sources…

In the aviation industry we often take the percentage of a fleet for sale as an indicator of health of the market / aircraft type..

Of the 3.3k 23i 2.9% are on the market

Of the 2.2k 30i 1.3% are on the market

Of the 10.6k N20 versions 1.6% are on the market

Of the 1.4k N54 versions 1.2% are on the market

On that basis whilst prices are certainly much lower it’s seems that N54 E89s are not being dumped at any greater rate than other E89s..

For Busterboo the Atacama yellow versions rank 66/95 and 7/10 in terms of increasing price for their respective variants…
 
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