Golf - Poor resale values

[cs2009]

Just had a quote for trading in my Golf for an A3 this June, when my car will be 2 years old. Not good - just £12k. A drop of £10k from the new price.

When I traded in my previous (similarly spec'd) A3 for the Golf, I got £16k after 2 years. Maybe secondhand car prices have dropped due to the recession (?), but the difference seems quite a lot.

[david25]

Can you afford the hassle of selling private? Or even comparing the quote with We Buy Any Car?

[cs2009]

Can you afford the hassle of selling private? Or even comparing the quote with We Buy Any Car?

I'd rather not sell privately.
'We buy any car' quoted £13k, but that was for today, so I expect their valuation to be closer to the trade-in figure by June.

But the real surprise is the big difference between VW and Audi depreciation - £10k vs £6k for essentially the same car with the same initial purchase price of £22k.

[Bob_S]

Have you tried other dealers to see what they will offer?

[percymon]

I think you'll find that if you'd bought an A3 two years ago, you'd be seeing similar depreciation when buying a Golf now.

Change of brands never helps, and used prices have plummetted, although changing cars within 3 years always sees the worst of the depreciation curve.