Do you guys think the Prius Prime will retain its value?

A good portion of the reason that Prius Prime may not hold its value, is that the incentives offered by Toyota as well as the states reduce its value when you buy a new one. Other factors affecting resale include price of gas, reliability, obsolescence of features offered on the old car versus the new car. Don't buy a car as an investment. So far as a rule, Prii have a better resale than most cars today. With OPEC's latest move to reduce oil output and the California tax on gas being increased, I see the price of gas going up substantially in my state at least in November 2017. This should increase demand for all Prii.. The car is reliable, efficient, luxurious and fun to drive. If you have the money, buy the car!

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I only have the example of our 2014 BMW-i3 REx:

• $53k MSRP
• $29.9k end of lease May 2016
• ~$23-25k seen on EBay

Mine is NOT for sale.

Bob Wilson

 

I paid $24,000 for my 2012 PIP, and sold it for $10,000 to a used car dealer who sold it very quickly for $13,000.
My car had 103,000 miles and was in very good condition. It still had 50k/5years California mandated warranty remaining on the traction battery. I don't know if you call that a "good" resale value. My friend had a fairly late model Mercedes she paid $45,000, with over 100k miles; dealer offered her $22k, so she had to sell it herself for about $25k.

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It's a high tech car, and will go the way high tech goes. It will be out-high tech'ed someday.

Newer cars will have newer features, perhaps features that we don't know about now.

Some new features could become must - have features.

I would guess 3 - 7 years.

just my opinion.

jp

 

Good point about the technology becoming obsolete in time.

But as long as everything works, I think a lot of the resale value will depend on the price of gasoline.

I sold my 2006 Gen 2 Prius in 2012 w/110k miles for half of what I paid for it; average gas price then was $3.60/gal. A guy drove over from Alabama with cash and paid over my reserve eBay price so his son would not have to commute in a v8 pickup truck.

In 2016 I sold the 2012 pip w 55k miles for about a third of what I paid, , and gas was about $2.10/gal.

yesterday gas was $2.24/gal.

Who knows what factors affecting gas prices will be present when it's trade-in time for the Prime?

In the meantime, I may have to re-fuel for the second time in 5200 miles this week.

 

The price of gas is a factor in Prii resale, but gas is cheap in most of the country, and OPEC's influence might be waning.

As mentioned, the incentives for plug ins lower the price for buying a new one is already under MSRP by a good portion. Another factor in used plug-in prices is that many are being leased, because people have concerns of the battery life, and know the next one they get will have better improvements than what is seen in a non-plug in car over the same time frame. The leasing thus leads to a large supply of used cars on the market. Luxury cars also tend to experience a larger than normal, and Toyota has poised the Prime as a more luxurious Prius, or they tried too.

tl;dr The incentives on a new Prime bring its effective price down to that of the Prius. Expect its used value to be close to that of a Prius then. It could drop below a Prius depending on how well the fancier features age, and what new plug ins are offering in range.

 

Same thing came up to my mind before I bought my Prime, resale value. I don't know if Toyota will drop the price after the Federal tax credit expired. I got my solar panel in last year to get my 30% Federal tax credit. Some people predicts solar system price will drop after Federal Tax Credit goes out. If Toyota drops Prime price (or provide huge rebate to compensate for tax credit). It may affect the resale value. One thing to mention that POTUS doesn't believe global warning and have a deep cut at EPA. So Fed incentive not looking good.

 

to date, ev's have shown high depreciation. no one wants someone else's used battery.

 

Just two weeks ago, I sold a 2005 Prius for $4000. It was on Craigslist for not even a couple hours before someone called and wanted to buy it that day. 118k miles on it. I think as long as you get all the discounts for it you can and keep it functional and pretty, then sell it yourself, you'll get a good bit back.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Yep, the depreciation now seen on Plug ins only hurts if you somehow weren't able to take advantage of them when buying.

 

i disagree. the pip tax credit was only $2500., so a base net out around 30k. the resale value has dropped precipitously.
leafs, volts and i-3's are fairing no better.
now people are buying $30,000. prime premiums for less than $20,000. what will that do to the resale value?

 

A big part is the unreasoned fear of battery health and life. This is not helped by the absence of credible battery metrics. For example, used plug-in ads do not report 'xx%' capacity remaining.

Bob Wilson

 

agreed. and i don't think the mfg.'s care enough to do something about it.

 

Well with the volt I've heard rumors that after some years the range on the batteries drop substantially and that they'd be better to lease so you don't have to be stuck with a short ranged clown car.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I don't know about Volts, too few of them around here, especially on the used car market. The early Leafs especially, are terrible range losers. My buddy who runs a used car lot says he's seen them with as low as 40 mile range; just a luxury golf cart. Bring that very, very, very long extension cord with you!!


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People like me not buying PIP just for it's range . For EV range is very important, however for a PI even battery range drops you should still get a very decent hybrid to drive. IMHO. That's why PP's 55 MPG is much better than Volts 42 MPG when cars get older.

 

The first Leaf, Volt, and PiP were over priced to begin with. Part was because the cost of traction packs being high because the production infrastructure was still new. The cost and improvements of batteries are like those that follow computer components; they've gotten better and cheaper in time, so older technology ones have dropped in price, even for new. But the prices were surely fluffed up some on account of the incentives available.

Take the Volt and Prime, they are both an improvement in EV operation in everyway over the previous generation, and they are both substantially cheaper to buy.

The i3 is a BMW, and not an i8 BMW. The low price, luxury segment has some of the worse depreciation rates in the car world, and that also applies to the likes of Accord and Lexus.

While people are buying a $30k Prime for $20k, the depreciation from $30k only applies to those that bought at $30K. To everybody elese it is a depreciation from $20k. When the incentives are gone, the MSRP of that $30k Prime will also drop.

I would like to see that info.

There is a big regulatory difference between a BEV and a PHEV. The manufacturer is free to write whatever warranty they want for a BEV's traction battery, and stress that battery in anyway they want. It is only concerns over company reputation that get them to put out a decent product. The Leaf battery cooling system is just a simple passive, as in no fan, air one. The battery chemistry in the first cars might have been fine for temperate areas, but can lose range faster in hot ones. Look for cars with the lizard pack in you are shopping for a used Leaf. Those have a better, more heat resistant chemistry.

PHEV is a hybrid that still has an ICE, and thus it falls under car emission regulations. The base federal 8year/100k warranty advertised on a hybrid battery isn't because the manufacturer wanted to warranty it for that long, but because the battery was deemed part of the emission system, and thus falls under the mandatory emission warranty for all ICE cars that is that long. A manufacturer can choose not to have the 10yr/150k mile one in CARB states, but then the car is excluded for incentives like rebates and HOV access, nor would it count for ZEV credits.

The forced warranty means the manufacturer takes extra care of the battery in a PHEV, because they don't want to pay to replace it under warranty.

 

the volt and prime will likely be worth peanuts after a few years, even compared to the net, net cost. but not everyone gets a deal, you can only get 20k in the northeast. and even then, that has changed over time and depends on the dealer.
everyone should base depreciation on what they paid, and what they get when they sell trade. but if enough discounts get out there, they eventually hurt the whole resale market.