What will happen to car prices following the credit crunch?

[Welshbeef]

Just thinking here aloud - cars in todays market seem to be worth maybe 30% if your lucky after 3 years with some far far less - it used to be just shy of 50% so my question is if this credit crunch continues how long would it have to continue for the precident to be set for the future that all new cars will be worth at best 30% after 3 years use? Or as we now have many 55reg cars in the trade which are advertised at much less than private sellers with their 53/04/54 plate equivalents does it mean we have already reached this point?

If we have then will anyone privately buy a brand new car again - unless it is to keep until it dies? But then again why wouldnt you just buy a 3 year old one and run that until it dies saving 70% in the process?

[Neil_H]

The prices will fall until they become attractive to what few buyers have the money to spend.

As for what happens in the future - it's all down to supply and demand. If the economy improves and people have money to spend again, there will be more buyers and prices will firm up. That's assuming nothing changes WRT to road tax and fuel prices etc...

[Kentish]

Same with houses, ours has lost £100k in value in the past 8 or 9 months.

Time to tighten those belts and hang on to what you have!

We just bought a new car but we are going to keep it for over 5 years and after that prices are more linked to condition and service history. It's an excellent car with a massive spec and Japanese so will be reliable and we are likely to keep it beyond 5 yrs.

[Timmy35]

I was wondering whether the market for pre-2001 cars might not hold up better than new/newer car prices.

Cheap n' cheerful. And exempt from the new mentalist tax rules.

[Kentish]

It's amazing what some people still think their cars are worth.

I just read an advert for an R reg (1998) Freelander 1.8 petrol with 80k+ miles in average condition and they are asking for £3k.

We sold ours a few weeks back for £3300 and that was 5 years newer (2003 car) with less than half the miles and in exceptional condition and a one owner car and the facelifted model.

People wonder why they get no calls!