Another of my boring questions

Zephyr

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Aug 10, 2022
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Sorry for posting this, I think I have asked again but I am really confused.

Yesterday I saw a guy at youtube (AutoAlex) who bought an Alfa Romeo Brera for 999£ and he intends to travel to Scotland.
its a V6 Q4 (not the busso engine, just a GM V6 with 230hp) and looks very rough.
i understand that rust is an issue in UK, but, checking local (Greece) and Italian prices this is a 4.000€ parts car.
Leather seats, front and rear bumper, engine, wheels, glass, springs, struts and carpets are at least 4k.
what is the deal with the prices over there? Is this “story” a clickbait or you can really find cars so cheap over there?
I understand that ULEZ and road tax maybe diminish the value of specific models but still, searching the interweb, Ive seen some pretty decent examples that could be exported as parts (their engines at least, since the steering wheel is on the opposite side).
Even new models, three to five years old, sell for 40% less than what the rest of Europe has as a base price.
 

Pond

Zorg Guru (III)
British Zeds
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Dec 26, 2016
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144
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Spaldingski, Lincs
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Z3 project and E89 Z4
Having bought and sold seven cars in the last three years and spending far too much time looking at cars for sale in general, I would say that used prices of cars in the UK have been the highest EVER in percentage terms since 2020.
I always used to go by the rule of thumb of 50% depreciation in three years, then 50% of that in year six and so on.
That simple formula has gone out of the window in the last three years. Prices are starting to fall in the UK now but nowhere near the levels of pre-covid.

One thing I have always noticed, though, is that in the UK we generally drive fairly new cars so the market for 'old', high mileage cars has always been low. There are obviously exceptions.

As an example (fairly typical IME), I sold a 2019 Honda Civic very recently for £29,800. It's RRP list price when new was £34,000 so lost on average £1,000 a year. That is partly due to the new model of the same car now being £54,000! Honda increased the RRP by £20,000 overnight and restricted supply. Crafty lot!
 

the Nefyn cat

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Actually in Nefyn. My, that took a while.
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2.2i Sport
It was a bit click-baity in as much as Taylor turned away from a tidier looking car in favour of something much rougher. And the intention was to find the most unreliable car for a thousand. We'll have to see what Alex can dig his way down to. It ain't meant to be real, after all, just some light-hearted joshing on the interweb.
:popcorn:
 
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