Used car prices - madness across the board including with Lotus

[DrBru]

So across the board for any new to me car im considering, prices are crazy!! not sure what to believe with regards to what I read...ie prices will stay high for a while and may even increase but id be interested to know if cars are actually  selling at the prices advertised as I see a lot sitting around for a long time

Can anyone remind me what the 410 and 430 cars originally retailed at please

Thanks

[5pence]

I believe the 410 cost £85,600 in the UK, compared to £99,800 for the Cup 430.

[Mark Blanchard]

There's a huge bubble in car prices, driven by a few factors, including a shortage of available new cars due to the chip shortages.  Also lots of cheap money around at the moment due to low interest rates. 

Another thing, no one wants money in the bank at the moment as inflation is high, so they're putting their money in to assets, like supercars / classic cars.  Prices are crazy, but what goes up must come down.  Read Manias, Panics and Crashes to find out what will happen.

[jep]

Cars not sold are an easy spot.........cars that have sold, much harder. 😀

Lotus are definitely selling, I have some money in the bank that will testify - and for more than I paid in March 2021.

You have to get your eye in, decide what it right for you and when. If you think this is a spike, which it probably is due to shortage of materials to make new cars, and you are prepared to wait, do that. If you cannot wait, you just need to work at finding the best deal you can. 

There is a very very good value Evora Sport410 for £60K with Lotus Silverstone on PHeads. I would have thought it was worth £65K min. Super rare car, 1 owner, 9,000 miles, AC, stereo, tons of carbon.

Personally, I think pre-2022 Lotus are very safe place to have your dosh.

Justin

 

[Mark Blanchard]

There's an article about used car prices here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/01/11/used-car-prices-soar-30pc-supply-squeeze-persists/

[C8RKH]

That's behind a paywall.  Certainly noticed that a lot of dealer "used" car forecourts are not awash with cars, irrespective of make/price point. The valuation on my used Seat Arona that I bought as a run around in September, has gone up this year on webuyanycar by £700 and is now only £200 less than I paid it for from a main dealer with 2 years warranty etc.

[Barrykearley]

The dealers i work for all have very limited stocks. Normally it’s a pain in the ass even finding parking on-site for my van - these days it’s an absolute doddle.

there has been a lot of consolidation of dealerships in the marketplace as well - those whom are in the know will be all too aware of.

[DrBru]

I have to admit I find it strange that people are prepared to pay so much over the odds in what appears to be a bubble. Lets say the market is inflated by 20-30%....Not such a big deal I suppose if you are looking to purchase a little runaround Ford fiesta or something that is around the 5k mark but if you are looking at a 100k budget, then that percentage increase is huge.

I started off around 12 months ago with a healthy budget of 80-90k for my next performance car. A lotus 410/430 and Audi R8 v10 plus ended up being my top choices but with the current market Im not prepared to pay a premium so looks like ill need to be a little more patient

[jep]

No-one has a crystal ball (that works).  If you did, you'd have bought 12 months ago.

Get on with it is my advise. Lotus is less affected by bubbles and they ain't making any more Evora, Exige or Elise (though perhaps Elise will reappear made by others).

That Evora Sport410 at £60k is as it would have been 12 months ago, price-wise. 

Justin

 

[mayak]

25 minutes ago, jep said:

though perhaps Elise will reappear made by others

True, maybe Radford brings back the Elise. Although, I can imagine that safety regulations will not allow it anymore in many markets (like it's already the case in the US).

Edited January 12, 2022 by mayak

[jep]

I hope Lotus don't sell the rights to Elise but I would understand if they did. 

I imagine there is a business case for making say 800 pa at a premium price..... just as S1 plan was back in '96. 

Limited production is the key to being a successful (very long term) low volume sports car manufacturer. You won't get super rich but you should survive with the right product, which Elise is. 

Justin

 

[390ja]

We just traded my wife’s work horse fiesta in against a zoe, I expected to just about break even getting out of the pcp deal but we ended up with £3k equity, even though she’d done 34k miles on a 12k mile agreement (got out early from a 4year, 6k miles/year pcp)

And that was just trading it in.

I rolled up with it next the weekend and bit his hand off!

[R300XXX]

1 hour ago, jep said:

No-one has a crystal ball (that works).  If you did, you'd have bought 12 months ago.

Get on with it is my advise. Lotus is less affected by bubbles and they ain't making any more Evora, Exige or Elise (though perhaps Elise will reappear made by others).

That Evora Sport410 at £60k is as it would have been 12 months ago, price-wise. 

Justin

 

I assume that will be a pre face lift one?

[jep]

Lotus Evora Grey 2019 for sale in Bristol | Rybrook Group

@R300XXX Not sure they ever did a facelift/makeover of the Evora Sport410. Here is a 2019 registered car and it looks the same to me as a 2016 car but happy to be corrected. There are no pictures of Lotus Silverstone 2016 car on-line.

Used Lotus Evora 410 Sport (U372) For Sale | Lotus Silverstone Ltd -

My understanding was Evora Sport410 was the first more track focussed Evora. Limited to 150 cars per annum (press release 2016 and much reported by journos) but very few ever sold. Perhaps less than 30 made? I am trying to establish how many.

Justin

[C8RKH]

11 minutes ago, jep said:

 Not sure they ever did a facelift/makeover of the Evora Sport410. Here is a 2019 registered car and it looks the same to me as a 2016 car but happy to be corrected. There are no pictures of Lotus Silverstone 2016 car on-line.

They didn't.  Around 25 Evora 410 Sport in the UK (I believe that is the correct model designation) in manual, with 2 I believe as IPS.  @jep still looking for my CoP, it's in a box. I know which box. I just need to find that box! lol....

After the 410 Sport the next model was the GT410 Sport that had the revised front and rear bumpers, deleted the carbon seats for the softer Sparcos, lost some carbon trim (e.g. rear diffuser surround except some earlier cars where lotus was using up new/old stock) and deleted the gorgeous ultra lightweight wheels that were exclusive to the 410 Sport as a +0.  

iirc, the Evora 410 Sport was announced in 2016, models built in 2016 and 2017 and then the cars were mostly registered in 16, 17, with a small number registered later in 18 and 19 as they were sold. So for instance mine is an April 2018 registered car but it was built in 2017. It was one of two that Lotus Silverstone specified with ALL options including special paint for stock. The other was a gorgeous blue car that I haven't seen since sold. They both took around a year for Lotus Silverstone to sell, the blue one first, then my Fire Red one.  Other interesting note is that regardless of colour, ALL, 410 Sports were produced with yellow brake calipers.

[Bravo73]

5 minutes ago, C8RKH said:

the next model was the GT410 Sport that had the revised front and rear bumpers,

I imagine that is the 'post facelift' model that @R300XXXis referring to.

[jep]

@C8RKH Sport410 is the official name for the car, I asked Scott Walker to clarify. The script and marketing suggested otherwise, so in time I will lose this arguement as people will naturally look at the decals. 

CAR magazine in period used 'Evora Sport410', so Lotus must have told them this via initial PR.

Evora Sport 410 review CAR Magazine.pdf

5 minutes ago, Bravo73 said:

I imagine that is the 'post facelift' model that @R300XXXis referring to.

So not the same model, Sport410 is a particular spec, you had to option back in AC, stereo, Sparco seats, etc....

Justin

[C8RKH]

2 minutes ago, jep said:

@C8RKH Sport410 is the official name for the car

You are 100% correct, just checked my handbook supplement. Apologies for the confusion. What dumbass doesn't even know the model name of his own car lol...

[Barrykearley]

Have a look behind you - even the seats are missing.

[Mark Blanchard]

The classic car bubble must burst soon.  Things are getting ridiculous now.
 

[jep]

BT 'piper' logo that superceded the yellow branding, always looked like someone doing a yard of ale:

[TAR]

Ahh! memories  

[Escape]

I'd say the bubble is already shrinking at the upper end. I've seen several higher end cars like E-types go for surprisingly reasonable amounts on auction sites like CarandClassic.

I still have a few cars I want to sell, so I hope the lower end remains strong for a bit longer.

[ChrisJ]

To bring this up to date, I've just settled the finance on our 2019 Mazda 2 for £5.9k and sold it to WBAC for £12k - was £14k new.

[2GOOD]

Daft isn’t it? I sell Renault/Dacia. For those that don’t follow the Dacia brand, a new Sandero & it’s Stepway version were launched last April/May time. I’ve had a customer who bought an Essential SCe65 from me at launch for about £8500 new sell through Motorway for just under £10k a couple of months ago. He’s very happy & bought another higher spec Dacia from me just before it went up £1300, he’s going to run it for a year again & see what happens.

 This week I dealt with a customer who’d bought a Stepway Prestige auto with spare wheel for approx £15800 new at launch. That car new now is £18300ish & 6/7 months delivery, WBAC were suggesting to him it was worth over £16k! Customer didn’t want to deal with WBAC so he’s bought a secondhand car & had several thousand paid into his bank account. I’ve got a very nervous Head of business until I find a new home for my 16 month old Stepway Prestige auto 😁