-1/01/2007

Querying your values for my Mercedes

I had an on-line valuation done for the same car on 23/01/2007 and again today. The mileage difference is 4,000 miles. The car is a Mercedes C200 Elegance Auto...

...with optional extras of leather seating, electrically heated front seats, metallic paint, Blaupunkt radio/cassette and leather steering wheel.

The respective values have changed DRAMATICALLY and I would like to question their accuracy: 23/01/07 values, Dealer 1 to 3 = £4,130 to £3,160, Dealer Retail = £6,680 and Private = £5,300.

04/12/07 values, Dealer 1 to 3 = £2,651 to £2,030, Dealer Retail = £4,690 and Private = £3,661. I find the change over a 10 month period very difficult to believe. Please advise.

Hi Vincent,

Your January values used January 2007 data, and today's values use December 2007 data, so essentially we are looking at a year's worth of depreciation.

Values have come back by about 3% a month this year, call it between 30 and 35%, which is roughly what you have seen. Losing £1500 for excellent trade-in in a year on an executive petrol automatic saloon is not too bad. To be honest, there are people who have lost as much as 50% this year on some used cars, depending on supply and demand.

A search for 'C200 Elegance' in the C-Class section on Autotrader shows 238 cars nationwide, so they are not in short supply, and how many buyers are out there looking for them now petrol has topped £1 a litre? I have recently seen 99V C250TD facelifts with average miles going for as little as £2200 at auction. These are stronger-selling turbodiesels with the same spec as your car, so will a dealer pay as much as £2600 to buy yours? Very hard to say in a slow month like December.

When we say "cars have never been cheaper" we really do mean it, and it is not good news for everyone.

Regards

John Glynn
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