Prius heavy depreciation?

Which is why a car is a terrible investment and why if you are only going to keep the vehicle a short time you should lease....If you are going to keep the car 6 years or more then depreciation in the first year really does not matter. IMO

 

Those screen prints represent National Averages, and were meant to show the recent up-swing in price. Unfortunately, I can not go back in time and price a IV w/Nav from two months ago. I do know the current price of a IV w/Nav here in Atlanta is $25,834. Here is the USAA Price Quote done today on a IV w/Nav:


This is a USAA Price Quote I did a month ago for a member who flew here from Southern California to purchase because the price was so much less than in CA. This is a IV w/Solar Roof, and option that lists for close to $2000 more than the Nav Options:


Drop $2K from that price and you're under $25K! I never said you could purchase one for that today, but you could not long ago...

OP said he was just interested a Base IV, so here a price quote I just ran, it shows a Base IV sale price of $23,710, a price that is under $25K!



These prices are guaranteed by USAA, I have found Truecar.com prices to be the same in most cases. I used USAA to purchase my Prius, and the dealership did honor the price with no problem!

 

Depends on your ownership mode.

If you are constantly trading in/up your cars, I guess it matters a lot. I figured most Prius owners as more likely to be buy-and-hold. We are, anyway. We gave the first one to oldest kid (no squabbles, amazingly, but then again, "free" is a great price) and then bought very late model used one from Car-Max. Everyone is happy.

As with most cars, until the annual maintenance costs outweigh the average annual expense of new car (guesstimate your "annual opportunity cost" of initial outlay (ie, what would those funds earn otherwise) plus calculate some average annual depreciation of new vehicle in the first 2-3 years) you are better keeping car longer.

 

The higher prices for newer cars will help reduce depreciation. And a declining dollar vs the yen will mean even higher prices for Prius buyers (even if Toyota does start up the Miss. plant).

 

I agree with Paul in that a month ago the Truecar prices were quite a bit lower. He bought one as did I and I can honestly say, the specified Truecar affiliated dealers were honoring the quoted prices.

Last month I was getting quotes in the Atlanta area for a III with solar.....$23,300 plus $599 dealer fee.

No wonder why the OP is getting a lower trade-in that he'd of hoped for.....The new ones are being discounted heavily. The Toyota Brand has been bashed so severely by the media on top of an already bad economy for buying cars that it actually created a wonderful buying opportunity for a new Prius!

Craig

 

i just checked my 08 with 20,000 miles pkg II. kbb.com trade in value excellent condition (which it is) $15,000. good condition $14,000. i paid $21,000. 3 years old. i think that's pretty good.

 

Sorry, you can't get a III with solar option. Only comes in a IV... Maybe that's why it was so cheap?

 

No he didn't. The OP said: his car was "Blizzard White Prius IV with Nav ". In addition to the NAV, i think the Blizzard adds another $220 premium. The NAV option adds about $2.4K.

FYI - Local Car Max prices for the models you mentioned, with the NAV is about $1K more, or $26.7K. However, without a complete listing of all the options, it's hard to say the cars you are quoting are identical to the ones car max lists...which do spell out all the options on the car. I've found no IV, with NAV under $25K. Add another $220 for blizzard white.

As far as what the OP was quoted, he wasn't low balled. He was quoted the trade-in value, which given the fact that the dealer has to have his profit margin in that, is considerably lower than either the retail value ($24K) or the "sale by owner" price" ~ $22k-$23K. He bought it for a bit over $28K, and after 8K miles, the dealer will sell his car (if he elects to trade it in) for between $23.5K-$24.5K. That's about a 15% depreciation. I think national average is around 20-25% the first year.

 

Bought my 2010 IV [mats only] msrp 27550 -- bought thru truecar for 25051 plus 152 doc fee. Done 9/15. They over paid for my trade by at least 1500-2000 because they were desperate to move the prius. They are languishing on the lots in the St. Louis area. Dealers all have 30 or more cars. I love the car. Most fun I've had driving in years. Will keep it for 7 years then give it to my grandaughter who will be 17. Depreciation issues mean nothing to me at this point.

 

FWIW - The depreciation on the Prius is still significantly better than the national average for all cars, and would guess it's in the top 10% in terms of holding it's value.

Also, don't know how big your dealership is, but in the Mid-Atlantic, a 30 car inventory is small. Granted, most folks are use to the idea that you had to wait to get your Prius, or there might have only been a handful on the dealers lot. Not the case anymore. All that's happened is that the inventory numbers of the Prius are now beginning to approach normal/average values for most cars.

By the way, with more and more hybrid/electric models reaching the market this year, and next, I do expect the price for the current Prius to moderate. Increased competition, allong with the state of the economy will almost insure that prices will reamin fairly steady, or in some regional markets where the Prius does not sell well, even come down - IMO.

 

Sure you can! Craig has one... These are directly from the Toyota Website (Today), and are available for immediate delivey:






I'm not arguing, because it's pointless, I'm just relaying the facts...

The Prius II is not available with either the Nav or Solar Roof option, you can get either option on a Prius III and IV. The Solar Roof is not available on the Prius V either...

 

Are you talking 30 cars total or 30 Prius? I haven't walked around a Toyota dealership lately, but I would be surprised if the local ones have 30 Prius in stock.

I thought the same thing when the Ford Fusion/Milan hybrids came out, and the Accord, Altima, etc. hybrids were available. And then the Insight II was supposed to be a strong challenger. But through it all, the Prius has kept pretty consistently at 50% or a little more of the total hybrid market share in the U.S. If China follows thru on their threats to restrict the rare-earth exports (that are needed for NiMH batteries), then a lot of hybrids may be impacted and prices will go up.

I'm not "loosing" anything on my car, but I am losing about 50%, after 4.5 years: $23K to $11.3K (Trade-in value, low miles on kbb.com, private party price is $13K). That seems pretty reasonable to me (not that I'm ready to trade it in yet). Especially when you consider I've saved about $2400 in gas compared to a reasonable alternative.

When do the 2011's come out? Must be pretty soon, so I would expect a price dip on the remaining 2010's.

 

Just came across this article (Buying Used Hybrids Is Better Bang for Your Buck, Says Blue Book | Fast Company), although I don't agree with most of their commentary, they do say this about used cars:

 

Used cars are almost always a better buy, hybrid or not. "low" gas prices since the 2008 mind-crush are definitely not helping hybrid sales.

The idea that just because a tiny ford fiesta can get 40 mpg on the highway hybrids are threatened is purely insane. It's rated at high 20's city, more than 20 mpg short of the Prius and is smaller.

I am mostly unimpressed with hybrid versions of normal cars. The chevy tahoe yanks city mileage up huge, something like 50% to give it 20 or 21 city (and that is a massive vehicle), but in most other cars it's not a fabulous increase and you pay quite a premium for it.

 

My bad. Although this has nothing to do with what type of car the OP was talking aboiut, ie, a IV with NAV.

Now a III with just NAV at under $25K, sure, I believe that.

 

An inventory of around 30 Prii is not uncommon (now) in many Mid-Atlantic toyota dealerships. That might break down like this - 12 II's (of varying colors), 8 III's, 7 IV and 3 V's. And if i had to guess, that's probably pretty close to the breakdown of Prii sales.

 

You really need to do your homework.

Craig

 

You really need to read above.

Dog

 

:lalala:
This is getting no where fast.

Craig

 

Refer back to Post #22, I said I couldn't go back in time to price a IV w/Nav in the Atlanta Area, but I did have a IV with a Solar Roof that sold for $26,924. Back out the cost of the Solar Roof $3,564 and add in the cost of the Nav $2,124 and you have a selling price of $25,484. Granted it is just over $25K, but with some keen negotiating skills (I whittled an additional $330 off my III w/Nav that has less mark-up) and persistence, you could conceivably walk away with a IV w/Nav for under $25K. So, I don't have hard evidence of one selling under $25K, but I'd also say it's not outside the realm of possibilities, or at least wasn't a month or so ago!