Used Car Price Crash - Bad news for my Porsche or an opportunity for us all ? 

Car prices, in my opinion, are still excessively high. Reductions from previously inflated prices, like £200k for a used GT3, don’t necessarily equate to good deals. It merely indicates a shift from their once exorbitant prices. Even now, they’re more expensive than they were before the pandemic. A genuinely good deal would be something like a 2017 Audi R8, priced at its pre-pandemic rate, plus the normal depreciation rate over the past 3-4 years, and an extra discount for the current high interest rates. Regarding new cars, it’s crucial to note that significant discounts were the norm in the past, barring the last few years. The return to such discounting isn’t extraordinary, particularly as these discounts aren’t much higher than pre-pandemic levels. What’s often missed is the excessive increase in new car prices over recent years, which appears to be more about exploiting consumer spending power than anything else. As a result, many cars are still priced much higher than their 2020 list prices or those of their predecessors, even after accounting for discounts. I’m certainly pleased to see car prices beginning to fall, but I’d hesitate to call them bargains. The economic reality is that most people aren’t financially better off than pre-pandemic, especially considering the current recession, inflation, and high interest rates. For car prices to be truly attractive or indicative of a market crash, they’d need to drop well below pre-pandemic levels. Furthermore, I suggest potential buyers wait a bit longer before making a purchase. A decrease in demand will inevitably lead to lower prices. It’s the basic principle of supply and demand that dictates pricing, not the actual value of the car. High-end models like Porsches, despite their premium price tags, are not overly costly to produce and are assembled relatively quickly. The market prices are still inflated, reflecting what consumers once were willing to pay monthly rather than the actual „worth“. With patience and strategic purchasing decisions, we might see more reasonable and affordable prices in the car market soon that might be real dealzz

It's basically prices recorecting...The whole PCP model was built on ultra low interest rates, the bubble has burst.

When I collected my GTS 4.0 in feb 2022, my salesman in Stuttgart said that I could sell it right now for way more than I paid. ( I got a 6% discount back in 2020 ) After driving it through swiss and Italy it was so much fun that I didn't care about the figures. The depreciation fact flew out of the roof, if there is any. You can't beat smiles per miles 👍

I bought a demo (new) Focus ST in august 2023. Got a 21.5% discount on the car. Got it for about £29000. The car I traded in was Focus ST-line X estate 182ps almost fully loaded bought may 2022 new. It was originally priced just sniff under £30000 (todays currency), after discount I payed about £27500 for it. At the trade I had driven it 17200km. I got a fantastic price for it, £25950. The dealer put it for sale at about £28200.. Nothing happened for al most two months. Then in november they started to cut the price. First to £27000, then after just a week to the amount they payed me. Two more weeks and they made a huge cut to £22900. I was shocked.. What the hell where they doing! This wasn’t the end. Late december they cut the price yet again to £20600. Incredible! Now a week ago they removed the car. I was certain it had been sold. But the car has not changed owner. The market is just bonkers! I got my deal just at right time.

It would be really interesting to compare used car prices with the pre-Covid prices. And surely the correct benchmark for prices would be to use pre-Covid prices less 4 years of normal depreciation. That might be an indicator of how much the current prices still need to fall to be realistic.

Since 99% of cars are bought on borrowed money, as soon as interest rates go up the price must come down.

New cars have just got ridiculously expensive but it all seems to have got to the point of how much per month someone can afford on pcp rather than the total cost. I get it, but for someone like me, I like to own my cars so call me old fashioned. Hopefully the prices will stabilise.

It’s good to see a correction in the market. Flippers took the mick for so long it’s about time they took the hit 👍🏼

Dealers must be panicking, their stock is depreciating at an alarming rate.

To be fair though, it’s always been the case that you get around a 20-30% depreciation hit as soon as you drive a new car off the forecourt. I do feel that there’s certainly been a resetting of the car market however, from the crazy prices we saw a year or two ago.

My 911 turbo S cost 127k in 2019. Was 18 months old. In covid, it was worth 120k. Needed to sell last November 2023. Got 77k for it. Absolutely gutted. Will never purchase an expensive car again. Had sports cars since I was 18 years old. Finally, I learnt my lesson at 45 years of age

When new cars were almost impossible to get people turned to used and sadly greed pushed all the prices of used cars through the roof and now the bubble has burst.

Used buyers are the real judge of what a car is really worth - which can go either way. When manufacturers overprice a car, the used market isn’t pretty. Don’t forget Pete the online for sale prices you’re seeing are retail prices, so the actual loss to the car owner selling is much higher, as they will only be getting the trade value from the dealer - save for the instances where the dealer bought the car a long time ago, and is now making a loss. In a falling market their margins will be even larger to hedge against falling prices. For your estimated value of your car you mention, you probably need to knock off another chunk if you were to sell to a dealer.

Good video Pete👍 remember the prices you looked at for the Boxster mostly retail, realistically your car will be late £40’s as a trade in they need a good margin to warrant car etc. Even if you get £48k, £14k depreciation in 2 years is good at this level. See how many 911 Turbo S are at main dealers and for how long! They have much further to come down to shift them. So many more S than non S turbos for sale, over supply.

Brilliant video Peter and many thanks for adding the link to view the fluctuations! Will make AutoTrader even more addictive! Keep up the great work, love all of your content. Drive safe!

Great video as always Pete. However, I’m not sure I accept the premise that these cars are dropping in value…. It’s clear that none of the cars featured sold at the price they were originally offered at by “optimistic” dealers and owners who imagined they would find buyers willing to pay over the odds for their vehicles. The fact is if they had been price realistically in the first place they would no longer be on the market. The first thing you learn in business is that a product is only ever worth what someone is willing to pay!

As I work for a German car main dealer I have seen this first hand with the price drop and also certain models being sold for over list. Be interesting to know what the prices are for a hot hatch or a sensible daily rather than a dream world super car.

I think another issue affecting the prices is the very big margin car dealers are making between the p/ex price and sale price

Someone just showed us this video... that £90k drop on the Ferrari is a bloody good find! But there are even bigger drops to be found ;-) Great vid.

I really enjoyed this video, thank you. Also I didn't realise this price tracker existed - very handy!

Hi Petrol ped, thank you. I've been looking for a channel that would review nearly new cars. I had a mini clubman cost me silly money as you no. when I had to change due to an accident at work I made a massive loss to me around 10.000 nearly new 6000 miles don't get me wrong my Kia Stonic is pretty much fully loaded better than mini but it was a big loss in a bad time for me but I had to change no choice. So it's nice to see you willing to do more affordable cars your channel keeps me going.

The prices were artificially high owing to the factors you mentioned and really are only returning to where they should be. Interest rates are causing savers to hang onto their capital and borrowers to not bother….both are impacting the car market massively

Another great video. Very interesting. Nearly new certainly is the way forward. Just got a 72 plate ex demo civic sport trim ehev. Lots of extras too and saved loads of money over brand new. Love the car. Still hoping you’ll do a review soon as would be interested in your thoughts. Your review of the older sport plus actually helped me decide to buy one of those back in 2021. But this was too good a deal to turn down.

So new Audi RS3's seem to be depreciating slower than BMW M2's which suprises me.

Probably your best video ever. Incredible. I've been looking at an I Pace, OMG circa £38k for a year old HSE with new cost circa £80+. Keep them coming.

Auto trader , I love it , I’m like a kid in a sweet shop on there , can’t afford a lot of them but it’s great fun looking. Keeps me occupied for hours.

Tbf this price correction is happening across the complete board & not just Porsches …. Tbh it was coming & about time too . Paying for overs was ludicrous especially on a deprecating asset

I still think that there is further to drop, as nobody has confidence in the market at the moment and things are only worth what people think they are worth. The prices were so over inflated by the waiting lists and the lockdown cash people had burning a hole in their banks. As a lot had worked from home and had nothing to spend money on, coupled with historically low interest rates a bubble began to grow. Now rates have gone up along with cost of basic utilities, coupled with the fact that nobody has any money lying around there is a long way to fall. Certain models such as the Porsche GT products have been produced in much greater numbers than previously so there are loads of cars about to ensure supply while demand falls.

Good to see that used prices are steadily coming down from the convid inflation prices. Plus as said above, cars bought on the tick. Interest rates will hit hard.

I got a straight swap on my top of the range CRV a year after I bought it! Mine was a special order colour which a customer of the dealers really wanted but didn’t want to wait 8 months for! I got a brand new model with 5 years free servicing thrown in as a sweetener! Bonus!👍😄

Every possession is drooping in value

Thanks for AT Price tracker extension advise.

It's winter. Cars like these always lose value. Wait for the spring/summer and see what happens

Good video. Supports what I have seen myself. However, in the case of GT3s, I would like to point out that while used prices have indeed come down A LOT, all of those cars you showed still have asking prices above their original MSRPs, even taking options into account.

Its an amazing plug-in and interesting to see the price changes, thank you 🤟 - I was looking at V8 F Types 2022 and one dealer has been wildly changing prices - starting at 82k Aug 2023, then down to 69k back up to 90k down to 69k and now up at 72k...🤯

A few months ago, my jaw nearly hit the floor when I was walking past a main dealer and seeing £25k for a Fiesta, not a special one, it actually had rear drum brakes.

I have just cancelled my targa order after waiting two years for a build slot and got my deposit back so will probably wait and see and buy a second hand nearly new one the wait is not worth it and perhaps some dealers can get new build slots quicker than others

Thx for the information Pete, super interesting !!👍🏻🇨🇦

An interesting video, I am also doing my research using the AT extension and in general seen a 10 - 20% rebalancing. Interesting to note the point about your observation about EV owners trading IN and opting for petrol or diesel this does seems to be a trend, with the ramping down of EVs, it would seem the BIK, and salary sacrifice schemes being the only Prop holding up a declining sector. I was the waiting for you to feature the Mercedes’ EQC, readily available at 26k, the only car I can think of with similar depreciation was the Citroen XM

The astonishing thing to me is that the asking price for some of the cars you are looking at seem to have been higher than new list price for a 3 year old car, and even with the price drop, it still looks higher than it should be. The used car market post covid was just ludicrous, looks like it is finally starting to correct again, which should also impact new prices if there is more competition. I think the change in the market is nothing more than correcting what was just gouging consumers through covid.

Great content as always Pete. The cars haven't lost the money you mention, but the asking prices have reduced by those amounts. Some of those asking prices were always unrealistic. It's also interesting to see how long some of the cars have been on the market. If you can get £50K+ on your car still and only paid £62K(?), I think you've done extremely well. The fact that in the meantime you've loved owning it is very important too. Now is a good time to trade if you're going up the price spectrum, but you'll lock in a higher APR if you finance the car. I've got a Panamera hybrid, but looking at how cheap the Taycan has become has got me thinking of buying one again as they're fantastic cars for the prices they're now selling for.

We bought a Mini Cooper sport ex demo from one mini dealer , 14 months later sold it to a different mini dealer for 3k more than we paid for it against a brand new cooper sport factory order with very high spec , and it cost us only a few pounds more on a new pcp , only went in for a service ,

'You can't go far wrong in my view buying a Tesla model Y for thirty five grand'. None of us has a crystal ball but I'd happily put a fiver on it that by the middle of the year you would look back and reflect that you were optimistic. Just my view. We'll see. But, do enjoy your videos, knowledge and opinions hugely. Thanks for another great episode.

Most of those cars have dropped about as much as i would pay for a car!

Market forces and all that you mentioned undoubtedly have had an effect here, but I believe these premium brands have always had it good. They’ve very nicely created a demand, and people will pay whatever price is asked within reason. I think most of the brands you mention here had over inflated prices in the first place. The bigger they are the harder they fall after all!! I think what would be interesting is to see the actual profit margins (probably impossible) that would either prove or disprove my theory 👍🏻

Really interesting vid.Thanks.Used prices are dropping fast.As a matter of interest I priced my car on We buy any car and in the last year the difference in what they are offering me is over £5000.Crazy difference.

The interesting thing if you could find it out, is how much the dealer has it on their books for? Are the dealers losing money, or were they just over priced in the first place? And are they now back to the correct price. Great video.

Got it thank you; very useful..

When a C63 with a 2litre engine is more than a £100k you know the world has gone mad. Buy a car and keep it for 10 years min is my motto. PS , shmee's Senna has reduced by £65k and still no takers. It is tainted history wise though.

I’m in the happy camp tbf I’ve been after a 997 gts and they’re starting to come into a decent price bracket now that the market is starting to stabilise!

When you do Autotrader searches at the bottom you can choose to exclude CAT S/C/D/N cars from the results so you won’t see them

Really interesting pod 🎉awesome yet again 👍👏

Would be interested to do similar with older classics, ie 911 3.2 or Merc 190 or Jag X350 … looking at auctions prices seem to be holding up as people dump complexity for older analogue …?

Thank you for this as so relevant to me. I am in an almost identical situation to you - 718 Cayman 2019 plate - have loved it for for just over 2 years - would love a 911 next. Plan to keep it for another 6 months and reassess. Love your channel.

Fascinating, No question new cars were getting too expensive and the financing costs that apply today have hit the affordability and depreciation calculations very hard. Good news for used car buyers. How low will some of these lovely cars drop? My opinion is that they will go lower before hitting their real values.

The reduction of values is eye watering but remember the dealers are still making a profit at these lower prices (smaller than they had hoped of course) so bear in mind that the real value of these vehicles is even lower😳😳

It’s great to see that the market is correcting for the greedy price gouging prices manufacturers have slapped on new cars over the last 2-3 years.

Christ they have dropped,bottoms dropping out off the market. Very well put together video Pete. Keep them coming in 2024

would be a good move to feature more affordable cars Pete and I'm sure your subscription numbers will increase

Very interesting Pedro.. Will have to wait and see how the market changes as we move into the year. General Election, global economy, interest rate changes, cost of living crisis etc etc etc.... Thanks for this one, really enjoyed it.

Interesting video. The problem is that interest rates have significantly increased. So buying these expensive sports cars on finance is a lot more expensive So you have a situation where there are lots of sellers in the market and a shortage of buyers. End result is all second hand cars are falling Also a lot of buyers a couple of years could buy one of these sports cars and thiought they could keep for a year then sell it on with no financial loss. This is no longer the case 😢

It really depends on where you live. You can’t find a used 2020-2024 Cayman S or GTS within 25 miles of NYC. Here all 911 and Cayman Boxster hold their value like crazy right now with no drop in sight.

A friend of mine is a car transport driver he travels all over the UK. He has told me at Bruntingthorpe there are so many Porsche Taycans lieing in a field youd struggle to count them all.

Local BMW dealer had to eventually knock £9k off a 2019 M5 to sell it at £40k, two months after listing it. I looked at it but 13.9% killed it immediately. Bottom line, something is only worth what the market is prepared to pay for it. That’s the reason why BMW in particular have always struggled with anything over £100k new.

Another great video Pete the M2 looks a good bet in exchange for your Porsche.

This is really going to hit those that change their cars mid term. This crash was called two years ago, many short investors called it ages ago.

Interesting I have been doing the same. As yours my car has deprecated and I need to wait a little time. GT3 GT4s and Spyders look appealing. Thanks I learnt about the price plug and that’s very useful. You can filter Cat S etc at the bottom of Autotrader.

Interesting and thoughtful (and thought-provoking) piece PP, thanks. The magic letters that have "allowed" (aka encouraged) prices to rocket, I give you: PCP. Nobody looks at or cares what the retail price is any more. The only thing that matters is, "Can I afford the monthly payment?" (or rental, as it should really be termed.). Something over 92% of new cars are acquired on a PCP. If PCPs didn't exist and people had to actually pay the full asking price (whether financed or cash), then the market as it stands price-wise would be plunging even further. The other thing is those prices you quote are mostly dealer retail prices. For a more accurate estimate of real depreciation on your Boxster, pop in to your local Porsche dealer and ask him what he'd actually give for you for it, both in P/X and as an outright purchase! One last little thing Pete. Please, please, don't adopt that irritating telly habit of switching from head-on view of you talking to camera to one of your side-view. If I'm speaking to someone face to face, I'm not interested in their ears!😁

Interesting information thanks for sharing 👍

It can be a bitter pill to swallow. I paid £30,000 for my two year old Kona Electric 18 months ago and a year later a two year old Kona Electric was £15,000. I took some solace in the fact that I got a slightly higher trade in value for my previous car and my finance rates were low, but I'm still left in a negative equity position, which would not be great if, for any reason, I needed to sell the car. I have an annoying habit of arranging finance over 5 years, then getting bored with the car after 2-3 and changing it at that point, but that's unlikely to be an option this time. I've always preferred to buy cars, rather than leasing, with the view that I will have some value from the old car to contribute to the next, but leasing is beginning to look like a less risky option, especially when wanting to change my car more frequently.

EV Man's channel has recently shown that the market is just going back to some kind of normality after a period of unsustainable second-hand values. Additionally, when Onto went bust, they offloaded a mountain of nearly-new EVs, which has resulted in over-supply. As a driver of a small electric car, I am glad to see this as it opens up ownership to a much wider audience.

Great video Pete !

sounds like the times are suggesting hanging onto that 718 Boxster GTS for a while longer.

The grey M2 at Targa Florio belonged to one of my Petrolhead Tours mates.....he chopped it in against a 992 2S cab...

Looking at the price of the M2 and the last versions that came out they’re still more money to drop out of them. If you ask me. I would definitely have to a 992 GT3 for me. What a car.👍

I think your forgetting it’s winter and convertibles always drop some money. I have actually just been looking at 2.5 GTS due to your ownership. However I have just actually swapped my Z4 M40i for a brand new M240i. I got a substantial amount off list price and the finance was much lower a month than even a year old one.

When you look at what your car is worth you have to reduce the Auto Trader garage retail price by 10-15% if PX or 5-10% if you are selling privately. The gap to that next car is always much higher because of this.

I traded my BMW 230xi to a Model 3 two years ago and I don't really regret it. Best daily driver I've ever owned especially since I drive 40,000km/year but there are times during summer weekends when I wish I was in a sportscar. Was considering a Miata as a 2nd car but by heart's been desiring for a Porsche.; even just the most basic 718. Apparently, there's this stigma that most BMW owners tend to desire a Porsche. At this rate, I might be able to eventually attain one 🙏

What you have to remember is that some sellers do put the cars up for ridiculous prices to start off with so the market adjusts to compensate people will only pay what they personally feel is a good around price

Great video, the Auto Trader Price Tracker is a great extension. I'm never going to get off Auto Trader now 😂😂

Great video, thank you. Very jealous of your Lego 911

Hi Peter, a really well put together vlog, as usual. But what really caught my eye was your AMG office chair, is it a one off specially made for you or as I hope is it available to buy. Any info would be very much appreciated.

Very worrying, I shudder to think how much value I’ve lost on my 10 year old MX5, cost me £8k only a year ago I guess it’s value now would have me in tears! On the plus side I’m not looking at selling so probably best not to worry too much.

Great video thanks

great channel and insights bmw i8 dropping too maybe because the batteries are due to be changed

For most makes and models, motor cars are depreciating assets, and not investments. Even the likes of Ferraris cost a lot in maintenance.

I will also add that among the cars I am monitoring, some of the the price drops have been reversed at least somewhat, possibly indicating market correction and stabilization. Also, in the case of some older cars, like 997 Porsches, AFAICS prices haven't dropped and some have actually increased, and the usual seasonal drop in prices for 997 Cabriolets has also not happened.

Its interesting to me personally as im looking at F-Type's atm, post 2018 facelift V6 low mieage examples are already dropping into the high to mid 30k, il hold on a while longer 😮

Spyder all day long! LOVE mine. Shout if you want a drive!

These cars are just kept mainly in a garage it seems, have they been run in properly or have just done small mileages of starting and stopping, never good for any engine

Great news if your not px but like most cases when buying a car and trading one in is the price to change cost. And that is what you have to negotiate with your car dealer. Great video Ped. but had to laugh because in the start of the video you talked about affordable cars and £50k is a lot of money to pay, which it is and then migrated onto cars costing well in excess of £140k. Love it

My 15 year old Mercedes E Class and 19 year old Mazda MX5, both working perfectly and both in good condition, should do me until i pop off, i think ?

Loved watching you video this evening pete.. very interesting….like you think l will keep my Audi a bit longer…I would like the New M2 but interest rates are way too high.

Hi peter Great information as always 👏 My neighbour is a car trader for last 35 plus years And he’s told me if you buy a used car now for say 100k, The price will drop by 15/20% by Dec 2024 He made a cash offer on Porsche for sale in nov 2023 at a Porsche dealership Asking price was 110k, He offered 100k Offer rejected He got a call yday from the salesman and they offered it to him for 100k

Great to see normality returning! This has all happened before. It will come to the luxury Watch Market and others. The Taycan the standout for me. Stunned by them since launch and going from supercar out of reach to a real possibility. Love these sort of real world videos

Yep been using that plug in for a little while now, I "play" fantasy garage price drop with a colleague, recent spots: for daily; 4-5y old I-pace now £15-20k, weekend; early 540c/570s £65-70k

Watching Macan prices closely for a potential 2024 purchase. Portsmouth and Guildford are my local centres.

excellent. How does one get the autorader price history?

I wonder if this will have an effect throughout the industry. I feel that in the last couple of years particularly, car prices have gone crazy. Not just second hand, but new cars in particular. As you say, "cheap" family cars are now £40k+. I feel it is a result of the big increases in prices during covid, and manufacturers seeing what people were willing to pay at this time, and so have crept up the prices since. Now we are at the point where you can easily spend £100k on a BMW 3 series (albeit an M3 touring) that should really probably be a good £20k less than that. I was just trying to compare prices to something I bought 10 years ago. When I bought my brand new BMW 530d Touring M-Sport Plus. Now the 30d engine is no longer available, so I guess the modern "equivalent" to this would be the 30e. A similar level of spec to my old car, which cost me a little over £40k new, is now listing at £66,850. That seem like an incredible increase over 10 years. And puts that car probably closer to out of reach now for me, despite having a significantly higher salary now than I had then. It's getting a bit crazy

Hi Ped, great piece, it was inevitable that prices had to drop, but they are some tasty numbers in there. I bet the car dealerships FD’s are doing some overtime to balance the books😂 For me it would be either a Porsche 911 turbo or a Taycan. Love your man cave👍😎