Ultima and depreciation?

[rich claridge]

Hi guys,

Just visiting from the Porsche Club Great Britain forum - hope you don't mind.

Having recently sold my 911 I'm currently searching (in vain) for a very good 964 RS Lightweight to use as a fast weekend car, trackday car (a couple of track days a year) and for the annual pilgrimage to Le Mans.

The reason why I find myself here is for the same or similar money I could buy an Ultima. A totally different beast I agree - but something deep down makes me smile (tingle?!) whenever I see one.

RS's are currently climbing in value (which is nice but shouldn't be the reason for buying one). I would like to ask, with respect and from your experience, how would a £35,000 Ultima perform in terms of depreciation over say 1 or 5 years?

I totally understand that's not part of the equation in purchasing such a car - but £30k+ is a lot of cash for me, and I wouldn't want to see the car falling drastically in value in the short term to mid-term.

I'd be grateful of your honest opinions,
Regards,

Rich Claridge
Team Gulp Racing

>> Edited by rich claridge on Sunday 23 April 18:28

[edfoxuk]

one positive part of the experience is that whilst factory turn key cars stand at 70 k ish and a real world build is at least half this plus months in the garage, the small pool of finished road going examples hold value very well indeed. The real pain seems to be if you've built the car and have to sell it, it looks hard to recoup all your costs without factoring in all that hard work.

Also insurance is a steal with a kit car policy, (sorry meant to say 'self assembly supercar')

[menostig]

Not quite comparing the same, but over 12 months my £23k Ultima sport lost approx £1000 - £2000 going by the adverts I saw for similar spec ones.

[GTWayne]

Being a self confessed car nut (as I think most of us probably are)the best way I have found to deal with a vehicles depreciation is if say,I purchase a motor for £10K, keep it for a year and sell it for £5K, it has cost me £5K to own and enjoy said motor, I have not suffered a £5K loss.The transaction has been justified(to me at least).I think I will be lucky to see 50% of my Ultima build cost upon resale.Don't care,even at this early stage,it's been worth every penny!

[vipernick]

I own a Porsche 911 Turbo and an Ultima, I think both fall into a similar category! They are both desireable bits of kit and if bought correctly will have low levels of depreciation. As for cars,the 911 in a fully developed car, while the Ultima is an extremely focussed track day car. Extremely quick but will not have the longevity qualities/refinement of the Porsche, they are totally different animals in different classes of motoring. One is a street car heritage/volumebuild/race heritage while the other is a track car, but they both have a following as being the best in their own fields. That is one reason why their depreciation is low! Another is their low volume and demand for them!

[stig]

GTWayne said:

Being a self confessed car nut (as I think most of us probably are)the best way I have found to deal with a vehicles depreciation is if say,I purchase a motor for £10K, keep it for a year and sell it for £5K, it has cost me £5K to own and enjoy said motor, I have not suffered a £5K loss.The transaction has been justified(to me at least).I think I will be lucky to see 50% of my Ultima build cost upon resale.Don't care,even at this early stage,it's been worth every penny!

Some of it depends on how long you'll keep it for, but you should recover way more than 50% come resale. I certainly did on the GTR.