Ridiculously overpriced used cars

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05XR8
Two years ago.
bringatrailer.com

18k-Mile 1989 Ford Mustang LX Hatchback 5.0

Bid for the chance to own a 18k-Mile 1989 Ford Mustang LX Hatchback 5.0 at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #97,452.
bringatrailer.com bringatrailer.com
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If it didn't have the aftermarket engine and exhaust parts, I'd be willing to go sticker price on it. Just finding a foxbody with the body panels and OEM wheels in good condition anymore is getting difficult, especially since most of the 5.0 models have long since been ripped apart and turned into ratty looking drag cars.
 
Darla Starch
www.grahamrahalperformance.com

2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 PTS | Graham Rahal Performance

Graham Rahal Performance in Zionsville, IN, featuring new and used autos for sale, service, and parts near Louisville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and LaFayette
www.grahamrahalperformance.com www.grahamrahalperformance.com

Now I love this GT3RS as much as the next person, and yes some have touched a million, but $2.7 million is :lol:
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4.0, PTS optioned, under 400 miles, plus it's being sold by GRP who aren't shy to throw a premium on top of the most mint condition cars.

There's been a few sub-1,000 mile 4.0s in the last year, and they've barely even touched $1,000,000, so I'm inclined to agree $2.7 million is incredibly optimistic. Esp. when there's a Porsche-recommissioned Carrera GT for $1.7 million in their inventory. That's more than enough to go out & buy another "standard" 4.0.
 
Have you got a million euro burning a hole in your pocket? Come to Ireland and buy a Lamborghini Revuelto!

Screenshot, because sellers on Donedeal love to take down their ads every 3-5 business days just to put up another ad for the same car.
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They also love using fake prices, so that their ad will show up when you sort results by lowest price and forgot to exclude anything below €1235.
 
[QUOTE="
1997 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S for $179,993[/B]
https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/detail/677750110/overview/
I know the Porsche 993 commands ridiculous prices nowadays, but seriously, $180K for a non-turbo, non-RS 993 is ludicrously overpriced even by air-cooled Porsche standards.
[/QUOTE]

993 is the pinnacle of 911. Hand built, analog... last of the genuine 911.

In my opinion these are the two best looking sports cars ever made. I can never afford either one but I can drive them both on AC. :D

gMA2V3O.jpeg
 
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And that not even a really expensive 993.... less than 200K. This is.

(sorry for the double post but it didn't allow me to attach another photo)

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Apocalypse211
And that not even a really expensive 993.... less than 200K. This is.

(sorry for the double post but it didn't allow me to attach another photo)

A54ZFol.jpeg
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That makes a bit more sense, it’s the most exclusive and highest performing 993. I believe there’s less than 200 of those in existence and it’s a motorsports homologation special that rivalled the Ferrari F40, Dodge Viper and McLaren F1.
 
@SPhilli911 would know better than me, but I don't think the 993 GT2 was ever available in the US (it has Show & Display approval) as well, so they've gone for crazy money stateside.
 
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McLaren
@SPhilli911 would know better than me, but I don't think the 993 GT2 was ever available in the US (it has Show & Display approval) as well, so they've gone for crazy money stateside.
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One of the rarest and most desirable 911s ever made, though I can't really explain the pricetag other than high demand for the very few that come up for sale. Air-cooled 911 prices in general are seemingly always climbing, not surprised that the rarest versions are snapped up for stupid prices.

They were never sold in the U.S. as you said but they can be imported and registered now, even the later 1998 models. They've been selling for crazy money outside the U.S. as well, if I recall a Rivera Blue example sold back in 2016 for $2.4 million to an Australian buyer.

Wonder if that white one above is the same as one I saw at Lime Rock back in 2016/7. It was not U.S. legal at that time, so maybe it was under Show and Display. But of course it has the sketchy Montana plate thing too.

2016-12-31_10-42-17.jpg
 
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SPhilli911
One of the rarest and most desirable 911s ever made, though I can't really explain the pricetag other than high demand for the very few that come up for sale. Air-cooled 911 prices in general are seemingly always climbing, not surprised that the rarest versions are snapped up for stupid prices.

They were never sold in the U.S. as you said but they can be imported and registered now, even the later 1998 models. They've been selling for crazy money outside the U.S. as well, if I recall a Rivera Blue example sold back in 2016 for $2.4 million to an Australian buyer.

Wonder if that white one above is the same as one I saw at Lime Rock back in 2016/7. It was not U.S. legal at that time, so maybe it was under Show and Display. But of course it has the sketchy Montana plate thing too.

View attachment 1468183
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According to ECR, your example resides in New York (if that's your photo btw, they specifically use it as the thumbnail), & the Sotheby car began residing in Houston in 2015 after coming from Italy. They also note your example is Grand Prix White & the other car is Glacier White.
 
964 RS Leichtbau and Turbo 3.6 go for crazy money as well. Ironically 964 RS America was the cheapest 911 available at that time. It was the same for 968 Club Sport. All comfort options were disabled. Now Porsche charges more for those cars. :)

They only produced about 130.000 964's and 993's COMBINED. And when those cars were on sale much bigger percentage were cabrios, targas and a lot of tiptronics were sold in the Europe. There are only about 60K 964 and 993 manual coupes produced... combined. And even fewer 964 C2's. That's also the reason why the asking prices are what they are.

Just compare that to 996 which sold 1.5 times more than 964 and 993 combined. It was actually a great success story for Porsche as the production costs were greatly reduced with the new production line. They didn't have to deal with expensive and slow hand manufacturing anymore. Sure it was based on the cheaper Boxter but 996 was the model that saved Porsche from bankrupcy. 964 and 993 were way too expensive to produce.

Production numbers.

G 1974-1986:
196,000

964:
63,762

993:
68.029

996:
175,164

997:
212,964

991:
233,540

996 and newer 911's are completely different cars. Not saying they're better or worse but 993 was the last one which was actually based on the original 911.

This was actually pretty good video.



And as mentioned before those air cooled special models were actually special. Production numbers just hundreds or low thousands.
 
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993 GT2's have commanded astronomical prices from new. Being genuine homologation vehicles they've always been on collectors radars, as far as i remember seing GT2's advertised.

A 993 C4S though...
 
McLaren
According to ECR, your example resides in New York (if that's your photo btw, they specifically use it as the thumbnail), & the Sotheby car began residing in Houston in 2015 after coming from Italy. They also note your example is Grand Prix White & the other car is Glacier White.
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Interesting because that is indeed my picture used on ECR. 🤔

The shades of white do look different now that I look again. And the other car posted above is part of the infamous White Collection of (you guessed it) all white 911s.
 
Apocalypse211
964 RS Leichtbau and Turbo 3.6 go for crazy money as well.
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One of the rarest of the 964s is the 3.3 Turbo S Leichtbau with 86 units, more rare than the 993 GT2. And yet it still "only" hovers around the $1 million mark.

Edit: sorry for double post
 
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Apocalypse211
There are only about 60K 964 and 993 manual coupes produced... combined.
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As an owner of a manual 993 Coupe I just want to add that they may be expensive but holy smokes what a car that is!

It could probably work as a ”one-car-solution” for me:
I can fit my entire family in it and some luggage, it is fast and can easily go on track-days but at the same time go grocery-shopping, it feels modern and reliable enough to go on a cross continental journey with but at the same time got that old-ish car feel to it, I can perform basic maintanance work on it by myself, the build quality is outstanding and most importantly it makes me smile every time I turn the key and I get warm inside when I see it! Probably the best car I have ever owned, with all aspects considered.

They might be expensive or overpriced to some degree when compared to newer 911s or other sportscars, but their awesome build quality, (relatively) rarity and old-school feeling makes up for it in my opinion.

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My car was written off recently when someone went into the back of it (2021 Skoda Octavia), and armed with some money to replace it I’m absolutely shocked at the prices for used cars. £12k for a six or seven year old, bog standard family car? I honestly thought, with the budget I’ve got that I could find something really decent (or at least directly equivalent to what I had) but prices must have soared because it’s 18, 19 plate cars with 40,000 miles all the way, unless you want a Dacia, which I don’t.

I’ve tried to research as best as I can too and there are so many catches with just about every brand. Don’t get a wet-belt engined car, so that’s all Peugeots, Citroens and Fords in my price range out. Don’t get a new model VAG (Skoda, SEAT, VW etc) car because they’re considered to have really fault-ridden infotainment systems. Don’t touch Nissan Jukes, don’t look at MG’s because they’re not really MG’s, they’re cheap Chinese cars with a bad reliability rep…. Filter all that out and what am I actually left with? Ooh, that BMW 1-series looks quite nice, except it’s actually 400 miles away even though I deliberately filtered ‘within 25 miles’ on Autotrader…..aaargh.

Not enjoying this process much.
 
I live in Finland and here in Scandinavia we have a lot of diesels.

Volvo V70 diesels can reach absolutely astronomical mileages. 2.4D/D5 is the GOAT. My mechanic had V70 2.4D in service that had 1.1 million kilometers. Those old Volvos are pretty much bullet proof cars. Toyota Avensis/Corolla is other option if you want a reliable car that lasts a long time with reasonable maintenance.Sure they are very boring cars but very reasonable too.

They recently published inspection stats from Finland. We have almost 50.000 Volvos on the road that have over 300.000 kilometers on the clock (mostly diesels). V70 diesel is easily one of the most reliable cars you can buy. I always laugh at North American/UK stats because there aren't many diesels in those countries and they never mention Volvos. Always just Toyota/Lexus.

And also consider that we use a lot of road salt in winters in Sweden and Finland. Stats don't lie.

RJ4eR4Q.jpeg
 
Thanks- I did look seriously at a Volvo S60 but the insurance was absolutely sky high and the economy not great. I really liked the look of it though. Similarly test drove a V40 but decided it was just that bit too old (2016, 50k miles) to be worth a 10k investment. Volvos are high on my list mainly for their safety record.

I'm erring towards another Octavia at the moment simply because I loved mine and it did everything I wanted a car to do. Must be either the 1.5tsi or the 2.0TDI, estate or hatchback either will do. Just playing the waiting game.
 
@m355y

I had a 65 plate 1.6 Octy Estate on 145k miles. Was only £20 to tax, could’ve done with a 6th gear and yes it was slow but you could do 60 maybe even 70mpg. Only reason I got rid of it was the air con need a new condenser and It wasn’t worth it.
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I bought this manual V60 D3 last year, 68 plate and now on 112k miles and feels like new. Nearly as good on fuel as the Octy but more comfortable and faster. More cab space but boot a bit smaller. It was £10K and a one owner car. I got it in 91K miles.

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I’d recommend either (or a Superb Estate) but don’t be afraid of higher-mileage cars if they have bee look after and done mainly motorway miles. You’ll get more for your money.


Not much experience about DSG/Auto reliability in either of the cars.

I got manual Octy as I wasn’t sure about it. The DSG cars drive nice though.

The Aisin auto ‘boxes in the Chinese cars are so slow and cumbersome. Not sure about the reliability but I love the manual in my V60.
 
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Thanks - I'll look into an S60/V60 some more because I really liked the look of it. The one I found was a 67 reg, 40k miles, 2.0T4 - it was only just over 9k which looked like a bargain until I researched the running costs. But a diesel might well fit the bill better (although I'd imagine might cost a bit more to buy!)

I dont need a rocketship - my wife has a Skoda Scala and that's only a 115bhp 1.0 and it's surprisingly comfortable on the motorway. But being powerful enough on the motorway is important as is long term reliability. I've been programmed all my life to look for super low mileage and am just starting to realise that it's not the be all and end all. A well maintained, one owner car with full history etc and a lot of motorway miles, and you get a fantastic deal.
 
My V60 is 150bhp 2.0 litre diesel. It all you need. I did Birmingham to Inverness earlier this year and did both 63mpg. I reckon you could get over 750 miles to a tank on a properly long cross/country run.
 
I've gone for another Octavia, but upgrading from the 1.0tsi to a 1.5 with the DSG automatic gearbox. I test drove and the difference was massive from old one. Decent deal I think for an approved used 20 reg. Look forward to getting it.
 
m355y
My car was written off recently when someone went into the back of it (2021 Skoda Octavia), and armed with some money to replace it I’m absolutely shocked at the prices for used cars. £12k for a six or seven year old, bog standard family car? I honestly thought, with the budget I’ve got that I could find something really decent (or at least directly equivalent to what I had) but prices must have soared because it’s 18, 19 plate cars with 40,000 miles all the way, unless you want a Dacia, which I don’t.

I’ve tried to research as best as I can too and there are so many catches with just about every brand. Don’t get a wet-belt engined car, so that’s all Peugeots, Citroens and Fords in my price range out. Don’t get a new model VAG (Skoda, SEAT, VW etc) car because they’re considered to have really fault-ridden infotainment systems. Don’t touch Nissan Jukes, don’t look at MG’s because they’re not really MG’s, they’re cheap Chinese cars with a bad reliability rep…. Filter all that out and what am I actually left with? Ooh, that BMW 1-series looks quite nice, except it’s actually 400 miles away even though I deliberately filtered ‘within 25 miles’ on Autotrader…..aaargh.

Not enjoying this process much.
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I bought my vehicle with jussst over 200,000kms for $6000. Of If I look them up now, they’re going for over $10,000 with 350,000kms.

Always makes me think I should sell, only problem is mine is lower kms and in better shape. I literally couldn’t replace it with something better. It’s so bizarre how used car prices are so high. Gonna blame new car prices. The higher those get the higher used prices get. Can’t afford a $50,000 vehicle with 15,000kms? Maybe this $12,000 one with 289,000kms floats your boat?

I do miss the days where you could spend $500, get a beater (in decent shape) and drive it for 5-7 years requiring minimal maintenance.

Beaters these days are $4000.
 
I was 7 thinking we were going to have flying cars in 20256 and it turns out we've got people out there asking $7,800 for 1997 Hondas (stolen Tweet, but you get the gist :lol:)

I was so frustrated that I couldn't find a decent CRX last year (in no universe should a shell that's missing everything be worth 2-3 grand) that I caved in and bought a Wagovan for $3k for my project instead (which still feels overpriced in my books, but at least it runs and isn't missing anything).
 
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Lowest in the states I've bought a car for was my '86 Jetta 2 door back in '97(?). $650 at a gas station. The radiator busted as I got one tire off the curb. Once that was fixed by their mechanic, never had a problem. Sold it to my brother a couple years later and he sold it to one of his highway patrol partners.
Bought an '88 Festiva after that Jetta for around $800 and then an '88 16V Jetta($2500) a little bit after in '98.

Here, in Australia, forget it. I did pay $1000AUD for my old '83 Corona S back around 2010. No chance getting the same car for that price. People wanting upwards of $4000AUD in beat up condition. Mine was straight except for minor corner rust in the bottom of the boot.
 
If it was a tenth of that mileage then maybe.
Otherwise screams either "I really don't wanna sell but I'm being told to" or delulu "I kNoW wHaT i'Ve GoT, nO tiRe KiCkErS"
 
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