Used Chevrolet Volt? talk about depreciation

[ksa8907]

Find Your Car: Used Chevrolet Volt Listings Near Kokomo, IN 46902 - AutoTrader.com

25-30k for a used Volts, 1 year old, almost half price!

Im blown away at how cheap, relatively, these are. probably fleet vehicles off lease, but still. a couple more years and i might have one of these.

[Daox]

Meh, it'll go up I'm sure. I bet the first Prius' had horribly low resale value too. Once the car is proven it'll skyrocket I bet.

[War_Wagon]

Cars that are one or two years old are in a weird position to sell. Coming up with $30k out of your pocket to buy a used car is a lot harder for most people that coming up with $40k for a new one, as with the new one they will qualify for better financing options, as well as any manufacturer offered incentives, and in some states/provinces gov't incentives to buy hybrid vehicles.

For example, a new Volt here has an MSRP of $41900. Take away a $2000 manufacturer cash back incentive, plus in BC I will receive $5000 from the govt for buying a new low emission vehicle, and being a new car I can take advantage of any GM financing or leasing offers at the time. So that puts me at $35100, plus I get a lot more options for how to pay for it. That same car, 1 year old with 25000KMs might be $30000 on someone's lot, but comes with no govt grant, no manufacturer incentives, and fewer options for financing/leasing it. So while it's $12000 less to start, it's going to be a lot less attractive for most people to buy, unless they have $30,000 in the bank and can write a cheque for it.

And yes those cars are going to be fleet units for the most part, and given the time of year I would bet they are ex-rentals. Car rental season dies at the start of September, so the rental companies turn in their fleets, and this is the time of year where you will start seeing your local dealership lots fill up with 6 month to 1 year old cars that all have around the same mileage on them.

[gone-ot]

...and there's the "TAX write-off" that's already been used.

[jamesqf]

Also think about location. I mean, Kokomo, Indiana? Put them on a truck and send them to the west coast, and I bet they'd sell for enough more to more than cover the shipping cost.

[War_Wagon]

Very good point. Even if they don't sell for more on the coast, they will at least sell, and not still be sitting there in February, a year older and worth even less than they are now.

[rmay635703]

[QUOTE=ksa8907;328657
25-30k for a used Volts, 1 year old, almost half price!

Im blown away at how cheap, relatively, these are. probably fleet vehicles off lease, but still. a couple more years and i might have one of these.[/QUOTE]

Up here they are $27k and up but really didn't you ever hear, the instant you drive a new car off the lot you have lost 50% ?

Lately some odd things have been causing that not to always be true but it always was and likely always will be that way.

[Ryland]

How do you put 36,000 miles on a car in a year??? blue book value on a Chevy Volt with that many miles on it, in perfect shape is $29,700, retail price on a Volt is what, $41,000, then a $7,500 tax credit makes it $33,500, and some states have their own tax credit as well, then if it's part of a fleet then there might be other tax write offs that you can make and buying vehicles for a business lets you write off depreciation on the vehicle at an accelerated rate and with business vehicle expenses you also get a write off per mile so it really makes sense then to buy vehicles like this that have a low operating cost new and sell them while they still have peek value and you've written them off as being nearly used up even if you have to take a $5000 loss on selling them if it makes them move faster.

Also, compare it with a car like the Acura TSX, a $30,000 car new...I picked it because after tax credit it costs almost as much as a Volt and could otherwise be in the same class of car, the KBB value on the Acura is $23,200 for a 2011 model with 36,000 miles, so it lost $6,500 to $7000 in a year while the Volt lost $4000 according to KBB, of course as you have pointed out, there are parts of the country that some vehicles are selling for much much less! and in your area the volt has lost just over $7,000 in value in the last year.

[TedV]

Originally Posted by Ryland

How do you put 36,000 miles on a car in a year???

Simple. You drive it. At one point I was putting over 1000 miles on my car a week. That equals at least 52,000 miles a year. 36K sounds like average to low miles to me. Maybe people buy high MPG vehicles to cut the cost of driving so many miles.

[niky]

Actually, Prii are infamous for their stupid-high resale value.

25k sounds just about right for something that likely costs 33k (after tax breaks) brand new.