Say BYE BYE to our resale!

as far as benefits of owning a Prius, next time you are showing a house to a customer you might need this http://www.priups.com/

which car can do this?

 

My mum's a realtor and so is a close friend of mine. I do a little computer consulting for them now and again. I get to hear all of their horror stories of driving all over the place for people that certainly don't have any loyalty. I could imagine how having an unreliable car would REALLY make that a living hell.

 

I have only know of a couple dealers that had them sitting on the lots that didn't have a list of people waiting for them. They were trying to sell them for a LOT more than the sticker price. Could be more likely that he's become one of the greedy ones.

My dealer was most interested in selling me the $1495 extended service for $2200 and thought I was nuts for not popping for the Low Jack. I'm sure there are good dealers out there, I've just never met one.

Enjoy your Prius...it really is a great little car. You might let up on the peddle a bit though because you should be getting 50+ out of her.

 

I see your fairly new to the fourm.... not sure what you are aware of yet
.. just wanted to make sure you were aware that the service plan can be bought here for less than 1000.00. If you already bought it, you can cancel and buy here.

http://priuschat.com/Discounted-Toyota-Pri...acts-t3130.html

Just watching your back!

 

Respectfully, no. No way is a car by any stretch of the imagination an "investment." Read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and learn what an investment is. A car is a necessary expense. You can make a good choice with it, or a poor choice, but there's nothing about a car in 99.9% of circumstances that puts any cash in your pocket.

 

You're only thinking of investments in a very narrow way. Hell, the food you purchase is an investment. You're expected return may not be monetary. A excellent bottle of wine is an investment in the experience to drinking really outstanding wine. If a car isn't an investment then why would you buy anything but the cheapest POS you could find? Why, because you don't want the damn thing at the shop or any number of reasons. I see the point that you're making and I agree with you... up to a point. Not everything in this world revolves around the bloody dollar-pound-yen-euro. That's the point that I'm making.

 

I wish! :lol: No, I'm a Yank just like 80% (or more) of the folks here on PC. I'm a fan of the commonwealth though.

Actually, I'm glad I'm not an Aussie (no offense to all the Aussies on the board). It seems like every animal there is the most leathal of its kind. Sea Snakes, Funnel Web spiders. Hell the wombats are probably poisonous! Then there are the dingos!

Seriously though, I'm proud of my American roots (the Constitution is a phenomenal document). At times I have to roll my eyes, but people everywhere do that. As they say "The grass is always greeener...".

 

oh you can stretch your imagination a little farther than that can't you? :lol:

Recently there have been reports of 04 and 05 owners actually selling thier cars for the same if not even more than they bought it for. When you consider the use they got out of it too, thats a bargain.

But as you know word pictures usually and rarely are applicatble on all levels unless you look at them on that level.

When you've heard the term "if a fruit tree doesn't bear fruit, it will be cut down and cast into the fire".... did you catch thats not talking about trees anymore but lazy self centered people?

I saying this for the sake of not getting into an arguement... what starts most arguements is when one person misinterprets the other.... most of the time they are in agreement the whole time but wrestling over word meanings and terms!

Do you really think I gave that example to show a means how to buy and a prius to make money as an investment?, Or showing how the value of stocks go up and down based on supply and demand and political tensions at play? And likewise the value of the prius can be pulled back and forth based on the underlying currents.

Even thought right now at this moment, yes there is little incentive to buy an older prius without the owner loosing out, but when the tax incentive for the 06 dissipates, that counterbalance will be removed.

 

Well fortunately AND unfortunatlely "according to how you look at it", I have a feeling that the bubble will burst. Not immediatly but in the next few years.
Right now toyota is doubleing and then attempting to double again the production as batteries become availaible... but at the same time the demand is going up due to consumer knowledge of how cool they are! As those two counterbalance each other.. so goes the price.
The price of gas will obviously affect the balance too!

Most american cars are just another dent free body with a few minor modifications in the shape put over the same frame.... so what affects resale is "mileage, condition, and to a very minor degree, extra amenities"... go look at kbb.com and you'll see what I mean.

But the prius is technology based also.. like buying a new computer that will be outdated soon. The cool 06's won't seem so cool later when the new ones come out getting 85 or 100 mph with nicer amenities?

 

I haven't entered the conversation yet, and I may regret this but I have a few observations that I feel compelled to add for the good of the order.

First, a car is not an investment. It is a capital expense, a continuing expense. The only way to evaluate a vehicle is to view it in terms of total cost of ownership. TCO is a historical evaluation, not a predictive evaluation. If at the end of 10 years the vehicle has cost you less than a comparable vehicle of the same age and mileage then you have done well and have made a smart choice. Carry on. If the vehicle has cost more than a comparable vehicle some thought needs to go into the next purchase. However, vehicles are a consumable item. Vehicles are a liability and as such they do not appreciate they depreciate. If individuals were smart about car ownership they would depreciate them like a business would. That way, when you decide to liquidate the vehicle you already have cash on reserve which can buy another vehicle and the trade-in value you receive or the cash from a sale you receive from the old vehicle can also be put toward the purchase. However, people don't manage money well and as such do not use a depreciation reserve to prepare for their next vehicle purchase expense. Vehicles can be purchased cash, but it requires planning, saving, some sacrifice and perseverance to get that chain of save then buy established.

I have a couple realtor friends and in general they do not buy new cars for their business purposes. They buy late model, clean, lease returns for their work and ferrying around clients. Somebody else ate the depreciation and they are benefiting from it. There is no such thing as depreciation if you hold a vehicle until it is dead or has no residual market value. However if you must have late model vehicles that are presentable to clients it is better to get something lightly used and clean than to buy new, especially if you are going to be turning it every 24 months. These friends to purchase new cars for themselves when they feel the need and almost never use them for business. That makes sense to me.

 

I haven't seen where anyone imply they were an investment as get a return for profit.
But its a good point to bring up. Most folks just want to have thier car worth as much as possible upon resale... this is what the thread is about.
Its not reasonable to say since its not an investment, you shouldn't think along those lines.
They were just seeing the resale price of thier car go down 3100.00 in one fell swoop and felt that the money new customers were getting felt like was coming right out of thier pockets!
My rebuttal, was "well not exactly".... once that dissapates, all will be back to normal.

True, a car owner "may" be willing to sell in the future a a price comparable to a 05 since he vitually paid the same!... but I still think once the dust settles there will be very little loss to the 05's and before, due to the 06 tax credit.

Now if they kept doing that every year.. then yes.. but they won't.

 

Thanks to this forum I did get a refund directly from Toyota (kinda' nice) and plan to get the discounted one when I get close to 30,000 miles. No reason to let someone else use my money for 2 years while the factory warranty is in place...speaking of investments.

Thanks for taking the time to make sure I knew about it!

 

Yeah, it can be rough when there are a lot of hills involved. I have two homes 80 miles apart and one a mile higher. I make the round trip once a week. And the averages are strange because a round trip up and down doesn't give me the same mpg as down and up. I still come out of a round trip averaging 50+ in either case. I do know how steep hills can really hurt though. And sometimes I just can't resist passing those SUVs going UP the hills!

The nice part is, no matter how you drive you're still cleaner and more efficiant...period.

Enjoy!!

 

Hey.. your welcome... I intend to do the same when I get my 06... you never know, it could be totaled or you could even sell it or it could even be stolen..
no reason to get the warranty till you need it!

 

Boy, what a long thread already! I have to chime and concur that remaxmanager is NUTS to be looking at selling any new car (Prius or not) after only 1.5 years.

I feel bad already about selling my 02 Nissan Maxima (bougnt new) that's a little over 4 years old w/only 33K miles if I accept the Prius I put down a deposit on because of the depreciation hit. I already have 2 cars and don't need a 3rd.

Cars lose most of their value in the first 2-3 years. Remaxmanager should really be looking into leasing if he's keeping cars for that short a period of time.

I also disagree about the assertion point that any car, if it's cared for will last, regardless of nameplate. That's a crock. Some makes and models have poor reliability and each car has some trouble spots. We had 3 GM cars, 2 were pretty unreliable and had NOTHING to do w/how well or not well they were cared for. I can post the gory details if anyone cares. Go look up people's VW Touareg horror stories for a laugh too...

FWIW, BOTH my power window motors and regulators failed on my 04 Nissan 350Z in <20K miles. That has virtually 0 relationship to how I took care of it. Apparently, it's a common prob for the 03 and 04 models.