Value of a 05 Avensis 1.8?

madaboutcars

Parents are or more like *were* thinking of changing their 1.8 Avensis Luna for the new one next year.

Today they were at the Toyota dealer because the car needed a service so naturally they made enquiries about the new model and how much their car is worth.

Understandably they were shocked, (though insulted is perhaps more accurate) when they were told that it was now worth €7,000 to €8,000.

The car is a standard 05 1.8 Luna, with 124,000 km, full main dealer service history and metallic paint.

Any ideas how much this car would actually be worth(as a private sale), considering that the said dealer thought the same car was worth €18,000 back in February? I see some 05s going for less than the €7k quoted above on carzone, and others(including one very close in spec to our one) going for as much as €18k. Clearly €18k is in dreamland, but surely this car is worth more than €7k - €8k? I always thought low depreciation was meant to be a reason to buy Toyota.

Thanks in advance.

crosstownk

Toyota delayed the launch of the new Avensis due to the volume of current models that are still in stock. I'd imagine that the price of a current new Avensis has been reduced in order to clear stock before the new one is launched. This will obviously affect the price of all used Avensis.

No matter what price your parents have been offered, it won't get any better with time, unfortunately.

bazz26

The second hand market is in freefall, used cars are depreciating rapidly by the day, Toyota, VW, BMWs, etc which always had decent resale values are not impervious to the current situation.

Also take into account that the 1.8 Avensis is not an Irish 1.6 special so it has limited appeal to a buyer, 124k km also is above average mileage for the age so again the Irish mentality is to run away. BTW I had a 03 1.8 Avensis with higher mileage and simply put dealers didn't want it as people are afraid they will simply implode when they hit 100k miles. I ended up giving it to the father and buying my current car for cash. He still has it and it had 170k miles and still flying it. It is depreciation proof through the current slump as it was worth feck all to begin with and it owes neither of us anything now.

Saying all that I think the trade-in value you got is very low, shop around and see if you can get a better deal. But to be honest dealers are full of used cars at the moment so they probably don't want another one.

They might be better off trying to sell privately and then haggle a better cash discount off the new model. One thing is for sure dealers don't want trade-ins so new cars sales will be practically non existant in 2009 imo so anyone buying with cash will be in a great bargining position.

madaboutcars

crosstownk wrote: »

Toyota delayed the launch of the new Avensis due to the volume of current models that are still in stock. I'd imagine that the price of a current new Avensis has been reduced in order to clear stock before the new one is launched. This will obviously affect the price of all used Avensis.

No matter what price your parents have been offered, it won't get any better with time, unfortunately.

Thanks for you help.

To answer your question about the prices of the old model going down, they said they would sell the diesel Luna for €23k. They were something like €28k. That's €5k, which is a lot of money, though clearly they've taken €5k off the trade in values too, so you're not really saving anything at all.

We got a letter from Toyota Ireland fairly recently telling us about how we could buy a 09 current model Avensis and that there were substantial dealer discounts available, as well as a year's free road tax. I remember reading that letter and thinking that that was only for the petrol models, because I remember the ads earlier on in the year telling us how much you could save if you bought a 1.6 Avensis before July.

Wouldn't like to be the person who bought a new diesel Luna at the start of this year for €32k though, they've lost a small fortune obviously.

bazz26

Toyota Ireland have a large quantity of current model 1.6 Avensis unsold. They actually went up in price last July along with the road tax. There are lots of 08 Avensis sitting unsold at dealerships too, dealers are offering large discounts on them to try and shift them, this is pushing down the price of older ones even further.

It looks like supply of the diesel models are being kept to a minimum and dealers are trying push sales of petrol models which they have lots of. I would put money on Toyota pushing back the launch date of the new model until they shift the remaining old models. Honda did a similar thing here with then new Accord.

Terrontress

If I were your parents, I'd let the friendly local Toyota dealer know that you will take your money elsewhere.

madaboutcars

bazz26 wrote: »

Toyota Ireland have a large quantity of current model 1.6 Avensis unsold. They actually went up in price last July along with the road tax. There are lots of 08 Avensis sitting unsold at dealerships too, dealers are offering large discounts on them to try and shift them, this is pushing down the price of older ones even further.

It looks like supply of the diesel models are being kept to a minimum and dealers are trying push sales of petrol models which they have lots of. I would put money on Toyota pushing back the launch date of the new model until they shift the remaining old models. Honda did a similar thing here with then new Accord.

Thing is though, they didn't even try to push a sale of the petrol model at all. And they were giving thousands off the diesel model. That surprised me a lot to be honest. I would have thought that these cars(noth petrol and diesel) would still be selling quite well because it's a Toyota and Toyotas are everywhere in this country.

Surely it will cost Toyota money in the long run, when there's a brand new Opel Insignia just launched and there is the new model too?

They can't hide the fact that there is a new model on the way forever, can they? Won't it result in people just choosing another brand?

Terrontress wrote: »

If I were your parents, I'd let the friendly local Toyota dealer know that you will take your money elsewhere.

+1. They really were amazed, they've been going to that dealer for 20 odd years and will be looking at others for sure now.

crosstownk

Terrontress wrote: »

If I were your parents, I'd let the friendly local Toyota dealer know that you will take your money elsewhere.

Sure, why not. But I'd say you'll find a similar offer in another Toyota dealer. Despite the 20 years loyalty shown by the OPs parents, the fact of the matter is that value of used vehicles is dropping rapidly. The dealer is not prepared to loose money because of loyalty and rightly so, he has a business to run. Try another dealer but the cost to change will be similar.