You might struggle to resell your car if they keep rolling out discounts

[Kenny Wallace]

Already happening with BYD.

With their on-going discounts, the car's value might as well go down with it. While competitive pricing may seem attractive initially, in the long run it would cause significant financial disadvantage to the car owners. There's already been discounts up to 10k in Thailand, which causes quite a stir. The price when you try to resell the car would suffer greatly, plus the depreciation rate ... Then this scenarios doesn't sound much like a good investment.

How do you weigh the potential long-term financial loss? What options do owners have with a car that may have low resale value?

 

[insightman]

Already happening with BYD.

With their on-going discounts, the car's value might as well go down with it. While competitive pricing may seem attractive initially, in the long run it would cause significant financial disadvantage to the car owners. There's already been discounts up to 10k in Thailand, which causes quite a stir. The price when you try to resell the car would suffer greatly, plus the depreciation rate ... Then this scenarios doesn't sound much like a good investment.

How do you weigh the potential long-term financial loss? What options do owners have with a car that may have low resale value?

I buy what I want as soon as I can get it, never worrying about the resale value because I drive my cars for a long time.

I drove my $22,000, 2006 Honda Insight for 13 years and feel it was worth every penny. Before selling it, I upgraded many parts (including the exhaust system and a new battery), which reduced my resale "profit" to about $1,200. However, on the plus side, I just sold a $36 pair of unused spare OEM floor mats on eBay for $340.

I doubt I'd feel the same desire for any BYD as I did for my Honda Insights or the follow-on MINI Cooper SE. I don't want one of the new Chinese MINI Electrics, so I'm giving VW a few years to figure things out and bring to the US a great new e-Golf GTI that's both quicker and lighter than my MINI (respectively, 0-60 in 6.2 seconds and 3,150 lbs).

VW, are you listening? An early-adopter here, with cash in hand. Not everyone over here wants an SUV or a pickup truck.

 

[bwilson4web]

My 2019 Tesla still works fine. With 138,000 mi, I expect to get at least 300-500,000 mi.

Bob Wilson

 

[marshall]

Already happening with BYD.

With their on-going discounts, the car's value might as well go down with it. While competitive pricing may seem attractive initially, in the long run it would cause significant financial disadvantage to the car owners. There's already been discounts up to 10k in Thailand, which causes quite a stir. The price when you try to resell the car would suffer greatly, plus the depreciation rate ... Then this scenarios doesn't sound much like a good investment.

How do you weigh the potential long-term financial loss? What options do owners have with a car that may have low resale value?

Cars are pretty much never a good investment. With the exception of a few collectible ones, they depreciate.

Buying a used one makes the most sense financially unless you plan to drive the vehicle until the wheels fall off.