Gen 1 PIP Resale Value Is Egregious

Last month I got our '12 Adv. with 36,000 miles for just under $13,000. I was watching for a while and felt like that was a good deal too.

 

That's a great deal. It has to do with the region you live in. The PIP was never sold here in Florida. Tampa hybrids where I bought mine had to buy them all from out of state and bring them here. I would have bought bought a plane ticket and drove it back for that price.

 

Same with PA. I went to NY for this one. It was a NYC car, so has a few scratches, but is fine with me.

 

What's next car for you, Prius 5 Guy? Seem to recall you have some doubts about Prime.

 

really? i thought cali was high and east coast was low.

 

I think that is what we are saying.

 

srry, neohippy mentioned in post #60 that the only places he found that had great prices was cali.

 

I guess the plugins take the biggest hit in depreciation. My 2009 base model Prius with a 172,200 miles book value is currently worth $6,600 not bad. It was worth $7k 10 months ago at 160,747 miles. You can get a 3rd gen Avalon and a 2006 RAV4 for about 6k-7k. I'm considering getting one later on.

 

My rule of thumb 20 years ago, 70K on a 3yr. old car is 1/2 price of new.

Maybe now it's 70K on a 4yr old.

 

I don't quite understand the complaint - what car doesn't depreciate? Answer: none. Some depreciate faster due to market demand; improved technology, etc. And prices vary per location as is noted from people posting different prices in different regions. But computers, phones, and (tech-y) cars are some of the worst things to buy new if you are expecting to retain value against what you paid. Other things as well - ask people in 2010 about their home value vs 2008. Talk about losing real money.

And I did get a great deal on a 2012 PiP Advanced - but it was an UNUSUAL deal. I would cautious to assess market values based on the deals people talk about here. Like MPG, everyone will have a slightly different result I suspect.

 

I found that cars that has big incentives or discounts when new sold new, really take a hit on re-sale value. Before buying my current Prius I was looking at the volt. Very similar situation, I remember years back looking at a used Corolla at the time Chevy had re-badged it called the Nova - with big discounts new, where Toyota as pretty much sticker price, this made the Chevy was thousands less on resale

But plain and simple, cars are very bad investments, I'm sure the original owner of the one I purchased had the tax benefits and maybe even a sticker discount - thus the lower resale value.

 

I was at Carmax last week and was amazed at how low some EV cars sell for. They had 3 year old Nissan Leaf models well under 10,000, one was around 7 or 8k and only had 25k miles. Is this because the batteries have degraded so much already or what is going on here?

 

Resale Value hits us in Virginia as our local towns use a big annual car tax to balance the budget (which sucks but...)

During the 2008 recession, used car values went way up, especially Prius, so we'd get letters from the town saying "your taxes are going up on your car, but its not our fault, it's because your car value is actually increasing with time" and now of course the opposite effect is in play.

So we should not blame PiP for economic realities beyond its control. I'd say the PiP resale value held very nicely until gaso prices dived a couple years ago.

Meanwhile, buy a PiP while the gettin's good. I might, not sure.

 

Forbes say the Leaf has the worst depreciation of any car these days. New Cars That Suffer The Worst Resale Values

 

I noticed our local Honda dealership was awash in Leafs, maybe lease returns?

 

pip resale was hurt by massive toyota dumping, more than any other factor. (california excluded)

but o/p says his is only worth 11k in l.a., which seems odd, because it's just a little less here.

 

I guess I could wait two years and see how the Prime depreciates... Of course, I wouldn't get the $7500 in rebates, refund, and credit. My carpool stickers will have expired, as will the included maintenance. A lso,I would be missing out on a really great ride and a 1000 miles between fill-ups. I did get my PIP Advanced used at 30% of the sticker price [yep 30% of, not 30% off]. I figured I'd trade it in, but my wife likes not gassing up, and I figure we'll get at least another 100K out of it.

 

In CA the plug in prices are going for mid 15K to 18K. You can find them cheaper but they'll have salvage titles.

After purchasing my Used Plug In, I am definitely noticing more plug ins on the road now. Not sure of it's a placebo effect. When I had my 2012 Prius I didn't see as much Plugins.