Surprised with falling E89 used values

[flybobbie]

When I bought my 23i I was a bit ignorant of the various versions.
I saw a blue one daily on a car park and thought what a nice car...I want one!
I even sat in a previous version Zed and it did nothing for me. (Depressing grey black interior).
I just went colour Orion, interior Kansas and satnav and was happy with that.
My 2009 car 3 1/2 years ago was 18k from BMW, probably now only worth 11k private if lucky.
I'm for the long term, just can't see buying another car, so resale value not important.
To me it's a 18k car and look after it as such.

What I find on looking at Autotrader is how few cars have nice interiors, a lot of black spec and no satnav.
Must go against selling when so many interior options were available.
The Tutonic black interiors of Audi and Porche would put me off them.

Over the years I have lost about 2k a year on cars (except a few old bangers that cost £200) so if I keep 9 years I would be more than happy.

 

[metal licker]

This thread invited my first post on this forum, so bear with me please. I live across the pond in the US, and just bought my first BMW; a silver Z4 35i. The E89 has a N54 engine, is a 2012, had 11,300 miles on it, and complete records. The CARFAX showed one owner, and his list of destinations was still in the NAV. He drove it around northern Virginia and made one trip to Florida, (about 2,000 miles round trip). The original window sticker was in the glove box and the car was very well equipped. The sticker price was $62,900 (in 2012). It had been for sale for 3 months when I bought it for $37,000 which included "Certified" previously owned status and warranty thru 2018. It was a 41% discount off of sticker, ($25,900), for a car with less than a year's normal mileage. The first owner incurred a depreciation cost of $2.30 for each mile he drove it.

I am 65, owned a number of British Leyland, Porsche and Lotus cars as a youngster, and besides being heavier, fatter, balder and less nimble wanted desperately to recapture a bit of my youth with a roadster in retirement. I leaned towards a more modern model since crawling around a restored MG, Triumph, or Jaguar to keep it running was NOT in my plans; I expect to drive the daylights out of this Z, NOT "wrench" on it, so reliability and longer service intervals appealed to me. (As did the much better performance, highway manners and creature comforts!) I have added 2,000 miles to the odometer in just 4 weeks and am totally in love with this car. It is, without doubt, the finest car I have ever owned, and exceeds every expectation I had. I am one happy, sunburned, old man. Honestly, the $70,000 sticker on a new Z never entered my mind - it was TOO big of a conceit, but at this discounted price it was irresistible.

Curiously I found 5 Z4s within 100 miles of Washington D.C. with low miles, and low prices similar to mine - this was the third car I looked at. I mused about the rotten resale values, but it was my good fortune. I examined why prices were so heavily discounted and discovered three obvious reasons. First, and this my not be as true in Britain, a roadster, as a vehicle class, is impractical to many in America and requires an understanding and acceptance of what it means to own one. Americans like to spread out, carry a lot of junk and believe a larger vehicle is "safer". You can only take one of the kids with you, your mother in law won't fit, your Uncle can't get his legs to bend enough to get in it and there is no room for the monthly supply of groceries. Secondly, BMW has broadened their line with so many different performance offerings, the average American consumer can buy a similarly performing sedan with room for four AND the groceries from BMW or any number of other constructors. My attention was drawn to the Z by an article in Car and Driver that compared 4 "Luxury Performance Roadsters" which included the Mercedes SLK, Porsche Boxster, and the Chevrolet Corvette as well as the BMW Z4 35i, all of which are relatively low production volume cars for their makers. So, its a small market - here at least. Finally, my many years of experience owning, maintaining, and racing sailboats gave me a final perspective. I have often laughed at the number of serious yachts in American marinas which never leave their slips. I have raced 2 nights a week, nine months a year out of Baltimore's harbor for 25 years. I know about 40 boats originally worth $500,000 to $2.5 million that were bought for similar reasons to the ones I had with this Z. The owners found they were intimidated by their purchase and really only wanted to sit on the aft deck and have a beer instead of finding crew or developing the skills to be a decent yachtsman. The "idea" of a yacht appealed to them; the reality did not, and for that hubris, they paid huge amounts in depreciation when they finally sold them. I suspect the same is true with roadsters, and the limited market makes resale difficult enough that prices are squeezed further. So, for what it is worth, i thought this recent experience was worthy of sharing on this thread. Hope it helps illuminate things. My advice to anyone is to find a similar value, and drive it like it was stolen. After all BMWs are built to be driven, IMO, and that's my plan!

Fantastic first post Stick it in the newbie section with a pic of your new baby and you'll get a good welcome
Anyhow welcome aboard

 

[Z4Rick]

A very gracious welcome! Thank you.

 

[stuartinzg]

The "idea" of a yacht appealed to them; the reality did not, and for that hubris, they paid huge amounts in depreciation when they finally sold them. I suspect the same is true with roadsters, and the limited market makes resale difficult enough that prices are squeezed further. So, for what it is worth, i thought this recent experience was worthy of sharing on this thread. Hope it helps illuminate things. My advice to anyone is to find a similar value, and drive it like it was stolen. After all BMWs are built to be driven, IMO, and that's my plan!

Exactly this! I bought my Z for 25k (~$37k) and considered it the best performance per buck I could hope for. It had only covered 18k miles and is an iS model. My view is that for 25k I can also buy a Ford Focus or poverty spec Mustang. I bought the Z as a replacement for a super bike so that I wouldn't kill myself ! Therefore, I see the Z as a more practical bike, not a less practical car

 

[Z4Rick]

This post might provide further clarification of the pricing trend we are discussing here:
http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8108&p=1286011#p1286011

 

[Z4_35i]

Interesting ...

Put our 35i into webuyanycar today and got a valuation of £13,255.00

2009 35i DCT
2nd owner, owned for last 4 years
46,100 miles
Sat Nav
Heated Seats
Black Sapphire with Red Leather Seats
296 Alloys, no cracks in 4 years
Full service history at local independent

What you can't put into webuyanycar is

Latest 2016 maps for SatNav
Michelin Pilot Super Sports
Eibach Pro Kit, with Hunter wheel alignment and camber reduction
ESS Stage 2
Lux Angel Eyes

 

[stuartinzg]

Wbac is rubbish for this type of car.

 

[mr wilks]

Interesting ...

Put our 35i into webuyanycar today and got a valuation of £13,255.00

2009 35i DCT
2nd owner, owned for last 4 years
46,100 miles
Sat Nav
Heated Seats
Black Sapphire with Red Leather Seats
296 Alloys, no cracks in 4 years
Full service history at local independent

What you can't put into webuyanycar is

Latest 2016 maps for SatNav
Michelin Pilot Super Sports
Eibach Pro Kit, with Hunter wheel alignment and camber reduction
ESS Stage 2
Lux Angel Eyes

For your car without the above mods id say that was bang on WBAC target . they offer trade money so you would hope to get 10%/ 15% over their offer & that imo is where your car would be as a private sale :?

 

[Angie4m]

Interesting ...

Put our 35i into webuyanycar today and got a valuation of £13,255.00

2009 35i DCT
2nd owner, owned for last 4 years
46,100 miles
Sat Nav
Heated Seats
Black Sapphire with Red Leather Seats
296 Alloys, no cracks in 4 years
Full service history at local independent

What you can't put into webuyanycar is

Latest 2016 maps for SatNav
Michelin Pilot Super Sports
Eibach Pro Kit, with Hunter wheel alignment and camber reduction
ESS Stage 2
Lux Angel Eyes

For your car without the above mods id say that was bang on WBAC target . they offer trade money so you would hope to get 10%/ 15% over their offer & that imo is where your car would be as a private sale :?

I say it's under value however WBAC are after small, low tax, 'fuel efficent' cars that can be punted on quickly and with good returns.

Cars like this will still offer good returns but not as much a polo for example. According to some of the figures I've seen your looking at 1k more trade for good condition with that millage and not taking any extras into consideration apart from the DTC.

WBAC is always somewhere to look to gauge a price of looking for a really quick sale, I just don't think people get their whole business model (I'm excluding you from that comment Mr Wilks) and that depending on the type of car you may not get the best value. Infact I bet you'd get a better offer from a BMW dealer assuming they've not got a lot of stock of convertibles as the weather gets better.

 

[Sgreen]

Wbac is rubbish for this type of car.

Any type of car! We have looked at a variety of cars with wbac when we have to sell them and every time they have insultingly off the mark.

 

[mr wilks]

Wbac is rubbish for this type of car.

Any type of car! We have looked at a variety of cars with wbac when we have to sell them and every time they have insultingly off the mark.

You have to bear in mind why WBAC is in business , its not there to take cars off customers at their market value , they would need charitable status for that or be bankrupt in weeks
They source vehicles for the trade & want to pay trade money , i use them to get a value on a car which you could then expect to get 10% 15% or even 20% more for ( & a pal who works at Bowker BMW tells me they often do the same then offer £150 more to get the deal :wink: )
Id say over the years their online valuations pretty much reflect the current market :wink:

 

[ronk]

Wbac is rubbish for this type of car.

Any type of car! We have looked at a variety of cars with wbac when we have to sell them and every time they have insultingly off the mark.

You have to bear in mind why WBAC is in business , its not there to take cars off customers at their market value , they would need charitable status for that or be bankrupt in weeks
They source vehicles for the trade & want to pay trade money , i use them to get a value on a car which you could then expect to get 10% 15% or even 20% more for ( & a pal who works at Bowker BMW tells me they often do the same then offer £150 more to get the deal :wink: )
Id say over the years their online valuations pretty much reflect the current market :wink:

I tend agree with that - their valuation of my wife's Audi was in line with the trade in value that BMW offered last July.

 

[Mobeer]

I was positively surprised by the offer from WBAC:

2009 23i, manual, 27k miles, sat nav, heated seats, service history

- WBAC offered £10,500 just now (I expect this would be haggled down a bit on the day)
- BMW dealership offered £8,500 trade-in about 8 months ago

 

[mr wilks]

I was positively surprised by the offer from WBAC:

2009 23i, manual, 27k miles, sat nav, heated seats, service history

- WBAC offered £10,500 just now (I expect this would be haggled down a bit on the day)
- BMW dealership offered £8,500 trade-in about 8 months ago

Yea that's not bad , in my search i came across a good few 2009 2.3s around 40k between £10k & £11k
3.0s £12k/£13k & 3.5i from £13k , best 3.5Is i found was a 60k 59 at Cooper Reading for £15500 I pondered & hesitated for 3 hours , rang back & it was sold :wink:

 

[Z4_35i]

I thought the WBAC price wasn't that bad in comparison to a trade price, as they expect the car to be used and not in a cosseted pristine condition as all our Z4's are .

We used them a couple of years ago to move on an old V8 Jeep Grand Cherokee we had as a runabout and tip car for 5 years, it only had a week's MOT, needed new tyres all round, battery was on it's last legs, plus had an ABS fault light, quite a few little dents and they still gave us the same price as the initial one quoted through their website. Much easier than trying to sell private as we weren't looking to trade.

 

[mr wilks]

Bearing in mind i started this post a little over 12 months ago there's been no slowing in the fall of 89s whatsoever
Glad i waited the year out as i think they've bottomed now & likely to rise from here

 

[Yorkie Z]

Bearing in mind i started this post a little over 12 months ago there's been no slowing in the fall of 89s whatsoever
Glad i waited the year out as i think they've bottomed now & likely to rise from here

You keep telling yourself that Andy. They'll be giving them away free with every £100 spent at Tesco soon

 

[mr wilks]

Now this does look worth all of the ask , , its the plum choice for me 3.0i(auto) 52k covered in good colour with sport seats & 296 19s (although desc says 17s :? ) for £10400k at a dealer so warrantied now that's £2k under any similar car ive seen i shoulda waited that bit longer http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201605013521746?minimum-badge-engine-size=2.2&postcode=bb120hr&page=1&maximum-age=up_to_7_years_old&searchcontext=default&sort=default&search-target=usedcars&radius=1501&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&model=z4&make=bmw&logcode=p

or for those who have to have nav & has to be Msport then how about this 2.3i at £11700 on a 10 plate

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201604163037874?page=2&radius=1501&postcode=bb120hr&maximum-age=up_to_7_years_old&model=z4&sort=default&minimum-badge-engine-size=2.2&search-target=usedcars&searchcontext=default&make=bmw&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&logcode=p

 

[billz]

We are looking at a so called upgrade to the E89 28i, 35i as preference but also possibly the 3.0i in a couple of months. Makes me wonder if we would not be better off keeping our 2008 3.0si with 50k on it.

 

[Nictrix]

Now this does look worth all of the ask , , its the plum choice for me 3.0i(auto) 52k covered in good colour with sport seats & 296 19s (although desc says 17s :? ) for £10400k at a dealer so warrantied now that's £2k under any similar car ive seen i shoulda waited that bit longer http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201605013521746?minimum-badge-engine-size=2.2&postcode=bb120hr&page=1&maximum-age=up_to_7_years_old&searchcontext=default&sort=default&search-target=usedcars&radius=1501&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&model=z4&make=bmw&logcode=p

or for those who have to have nav & has to be Msport then how about this 2.3i at £11700 on a 10 plate

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201604163037874?page=2&radius=1501&postcode=bb120hr&maximum-age=up_to_7_years_old&model=z4&sort=default&minimum-badge-engine-size=2.2&search-target=usedcars&searchcontext=default&make=bmw&onesearchad=used%2Cnearlynew%2Cnew&logcode=p

That 2nd one looks good for 73,000 miles, shame about the dent in the bonnet though