Top ten nothing american
Bottom ten , nothing foriegn

http://autos.msn.com/advice/CRArt.as...tentid=4024366

 

Since consumers are fickle, the relative "goodness" or "badness" of a car often doesn't equate to depreciation.

In other words, you may find that a car you like has terrible depreciation. Which, in my mind, makes for some great used-car values.

 

Seems to me the list of top ten most depreciating cars is also the list of the top ten best used car buys. Replace the batteries on your Prius yet $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

 

When I sold cars, the mid size were terrible, like the taurus or intrepid, they were worth 22,000 when new, the next day they were worth 10,000. And they were good cars, but you sure could make out better buying a used one compared to buying new. I worked for a dodge dealer, we had new 04 intrepids for 22,000 and we had 04 intrepid used (demo's) for 12,995 with under 5,000 miles and you could deal them down to 10,500 or so.

 

Who takes Consumer Reports seriously?

 

If you're buying new, buy from the first list and if you're buying used, buy from the second. The best buys are in the second list.

 

It's almost stupid that they had the sibiling versions also listed in the list. The Crown Victoria and the Grand Marquis, Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country. It's almost like saying the Mazda B-4000 is a better buy than a Ford Ranger.

 

No VW TDI? I've seen 2 year old models go for close to sticker on more than one occasion when supply is short. Only reason I haven't bought another one.

 

found out about those taurus's after we bought one, was a lease return, something like 20 000, bought it from the dealer, brought it back like a week later, joked around about trading for a Ranger, the salesman that sold it to us and said it was a "super, just great car" said they'd give half of what we paid for it...........

thos vw's definetly hold their value, id really like a jetta, no luck for a newer rasonable priced one. especially the same with Rangers around here. and just athc anything pre 08 with diesel the next few years

 

I passed it of as being too specific in the model line-ups at first. Then I saw the M3 on there...

 

Supply and demand, what is so complicated about that? The typical used car buyer is younger than the typical new car buyer, so sporty models are in higher demand. Also, minivans have had a good run but are over as a trend, while hybrids are the current trend. On the supply side, large fleet sales (Ford's Panther platform, for example) are death for resale value, while very few hybrids were made three years ago, so there are almost none avaliable used.

Someone here at work picked up a four year old Towncar for $18,000. I cant understand how a new Towncar is worth anywhere near double the price of a Grand Marquis in the first place.

Jim

 

I bought my Towncar 2 years ago. It was 6 years old and I paid $6,500 from a private owner I found on e-bay($41,000+ window sticker in the glovebox). Towncar owners generally keep them perfect as was the case with mine. It has a bunch of options not available on the lesser Ford products and I love it. I paid $2,000 less for it than I could have bought the same year V6 Camry and the fuel mileage rating was only 2 MPG less. Used luxury American cars are the best value in cars (except for the Cadillac with the Northstar engine).

 

I think it proves that domestic auto makers need to dispense with the re-badging. Few people are willing to pay the premium on both the new and used markets that the "premium" brands want to command. In most cases, the only difference between the "premium" brand and the "standard" brand (take Chevy and Buick, for instance) was some chrome here and there. Nothing that couldn't be added as a package to the "standard" brand and cut out all the additional vehicles that have to be distributed to more dealers to sell the same car at two different dealerships. Not to mention the additional tooling and parts inventories that have to be maintained to make the slightly different trim. Kinda stupid in this day and age if you ask me. The consumers have spoken on this issue yet GM and Ford in particular don't seem to be listening.

 

Re-badging is going to always be around and I think the Asian manufacturers are worse than Ford and GM. The higher end Toyotas and lower line Lexus are siblings under the skin as are Nissan and Infiniti as well as Honda and Acura. Hyundai and Kia are corporate twins with most of their models the same or very similar underneath. But also, with the assistance of GM, I'm sure Saab fanatics were deeply hurt when a Subaru was rebadged as a Saab.

 

Being built on the same chassis and rebadging the SAME vehicle are two different things entirely.

Most people buying a Lexus understand they're built on the same chassis as a Toyota. However, a Lexus looks almost nothing like a Camry.

Now, take a Crown Vic and Grand Marquis and compare them one to another. They use about 95% of the same parts. The only difference is a little fancier grill up front and more chrome or fake wood trim inside.

At one time Mercury actually offered its own line of vehicles. Apart from the new Cougar and the small Capri (not the Mustang clone) Mercury hasn't had an original design since the late 60s to early 70s. The only reason why the name sticks around is because of the Mercury/Lincoln dealer network and probably like what has happened with GM and the Oldsmobile dealers, there will be lawsuits galore if Ford tried severing the franchise agreements.