Prius resale value is plummeting

It's not unusual for a car to drop $10k the moment you drive off the showroom floor. An additional 5k is probably depending on how many miles you have on it for two years beyond the first is about 2.5k per year which to me does not seem to be unreasonable. And you will never get a good price going to the dealer to sell--they are desperate now and have too much new stock to have to worry about used cars which sit and take up real estate.

The way I look at it, the value of these cars is (1) in driving them as much as possible, i.e. trying to achieve fuel savings of up to $2k/yr and (2) selling them when fuel prices are at $4-$5/gallon--when people are desperate to save money. I think these times are right around the corner.

Now (or at least a week or two ago was )is the time to buy a new prius and drive it!

 

All this incentive thing from Toyota dealers is bull, and as everyone knows KBB is in bed with dealers.

Take the same car, cost of trade-in sometime only 50% of retail price for the same car by dealers as per KBB.

And dealers take advantage of KBB listing to show as if that is bible for the pricing.

 

Just wait till gas prices rocket up again. They will.
.
_H*

 

Like stocks go up and down: currently toyota cars are low. As the saying goes: buy low, sell high. Right now is the time to buy, not sell.

 

All the car pricing sources make use of dealer sales prices to set their market values since those dealers incompletely reflect the going market rate of a vehicle.

 

perhaps prices reflected a Prius Bubble?

 

There is some truth to this. I remember a few years back (San Francisco) hearing that it was very difficult to get a Prius at MSRP and I read that early on there was quite a long waiting list.

After the bad news kept coming out about the Prius, I actually went and bought 2 of these, a 07 and a 08 . The prices aren't too far off of KBB around here and I had to be quite prompt to jump on the deals or the cars would be gone

 

incidentally, lease price on a new Insight is pretty insane right now. There are lots of factors contributing to lower resale on cars like this...

 

yep, just bought a prius last weekend. 2007 w/ 45k miles. package 4.

 

Any car is an expense & will depreciate. Guaranteed. Once in awhile there is a little fluke in the degree of consistency, but it all comes out in the wash. Unless you own a classic, expect a downward trend on value.

I'm not thrilled with the current state of affairs BUT: I bought my Prius to drive, not invest. I still operate a vehicle that gets 50 mpg or so. It has given no maintenance cost other than operating costs. It still does all the things I like, want & expect. I am not disappointed at all in my Prius. I think when gasoline goes back up, I'll like it even better.

 

Who cares if the resale value is dropping. You can't predict the future. If you made the best informed decision at the time that you purchased the car, then you should be happy.

 

Cars depreciate. I've had a lot of experience with that. Supply and demand... in the early 90s, SUVs retained their value very well. Then everyone bought one and gas prices went up. The Gen III is selling pretty well and a lot of them to owners of Gen I and/or II Prii. Gas prices are down from the 2008 highs. And the war on Toyota by the media and the fat cat lawyers.

I've used 1500 gallons less gasoline since I got my Prius (the S10 pickup got about 14 mpg vs 53 plus for the Prius). I'm happy enough.

 

I bought the Prius to drive and my house to live in. Neither are an "investment". I buy my cars new and drive them 15 to 20 years. I have no desire to change cars for the sake of changing cars. My 1995 Tercel is still running well. Same with my house - I have no interest in what it is "worth". I like living in it.

 

+1 Sums it up for me, too. I have no need to know what either is worth until I get ready to sell.

So, as far as I am concerned, my Prius is worth just as much as it was the day I drove it off the dealer's lot.

 

I'd like to say +1 but I'm just not sure. I'm 23 years old. The Prius is my first car I bought. How do I stop myself from buying every 5 years? I just love Toyota/Lexus!

 

Actually most dealers don't even use Kelly they use the black book.

When i traded in my 2007 Kelly (Dec 3 2009) said mine was worth $16000, dealer only offered me $13500, car max gave me $16000.

My 2007 would still be worth $15200 according to Kelly but i have real low mileage, 17500 miles.

 

Who said I would want to sell either of our two Prii? Im keeping them!

Im glad that idiot in California is out of the car now. He was making us look bad!

 

I buy my cars to drive them. That's their value to me. Is my car worth less to me than it was a month ago? Yes. It's got one more month of wear on it and so, is one more month closer to when I replace it. The current price isn't going to change how long I'm keeping it or what I get for it after I drive it into the ground.

The only downside to the price now is that if I totalled it in an accident, I wouldn't get as much from my insurance.... but it also wouldn't cost me as much to replace it, so it's still a wash.

 

"Prius resale value is plummeting"

A statement of fact.
A statement of fact isolated in time and circumstance.
A single still-frame extracted from a dynamic movie.

It is true at this moment, and may be so for a little time.
But it is not true for all time, either the factual past, nor the
speculative but probable future.

I've read here that back in '06 buyers were waiting 6 months to get a
new Prius.
I'll bet resale values were not plummeting at that time.

I know for a fact that in mid-'08 when gas was at $4+, buyers were
again waiting months to get a new Prius.
Predatory dealers were adding up to $5K surcharges.
2 and 3 year old Prius were selling for more that the original purchase
price.
Resale value was not plummeting during those months either.

Gas is predicted to up to $3.50 by the end of the summer.
I expect resale prices to rebound, and skyrocket it the price goes to $4+
again.

So what's the point here?

If you have the $$$, buy the cleanest, low mileage '08 or '09 you can
find.
Get it detailed, keep it in a garage and run it for an hour or so every
week.
Its a near certainty that you can make 10% in the next year,
20% is possible, 30% not wholly impossible.

So, again I ask, what's the point here?

I hoping that this isn't another FUD thread.
I notice the OP is a first time poster with no follow-up.
Could be he's gone on an out-of-town trip.
It has happened before.

I'm about this close -->||<-- to dropping the "T" word.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see what develops.