Is resale value important to you?
Well, if resale value isn’t important,
then you’ve got a lot more money than me, gentle reader. In
fact, by carefully looking at resale (often called
‘residual’) value, you can actually make some money when
it is time to change vehicles. This is particularly so if you
lease a vehicle.
However, taking the case of a vehicle on
simple drip-feed, if at the end of your three year time
payment plan the car is almost worthless, then you do not have
a large deposit (or trade-in value) towards the next car, but
if the residual value is high, then you have a sizable
deposit, or trade-in, towards the new car which will either
reduce your monthly repays, or if you want to keep the same
repayment amount, it will allow you to move into a more
expensive vehicle for the same monthly outgoings.
Ferrari
F360 Modena
Sounds good? It should, because all this is
very possible, but you have to be able to know what the
residual value is going to be. This is usually expressed as a
percentage of the original (new) price. After three years you
should be able to get around 60 percent of the original price
- if you have bought wisely!
Now there are tables that will show you how
much you can expect for different cars and different mileages
(kilometerages?). In the UK these tables are in a publication
called Glass’ Guides. In Thailand there is a similar
publication put out by Automotive Data Services (Thailand),
otherwise known as The Red Book, and you should try and get
hold of one. The data is amazing.
For example, which passenger car held its
resale best? There is one that was still worth 72 percent of
its original price after three years! Unfortunately, that car
was a Ferrari F360 Modena, just slightly out of the average
guy’s price range having cost 18.2 million baht, but the
Honda Civic EK four door, originally costing B. 677,000 three
years ago is still worth 67 percent of the original price
today. That is worth real money!
In the passenger car field, the worst cars
to have bought (as far as resale is concerned) according to
the Red Book, were the SAAB 9-3 which ended up at 20 percent
of the original (ouch), or the Audi A8 at 28 percent (ouch
again), or the Volvo V40 wagon at 41 percent.
Looking at the most popular section in
Thailand - pick-ups, then the best after three years were the
Toyota Hilux at 68 percent, followed by the Nissan Frontier
(63 percent), Isuzu D-Max (62 percent) and the Ford Ranger at
60 percent. Worst was the Mitsubishi Strada 4 door Grandis at
53 percent, but that is not too bad compared to the poor
resale performers in the passenger car field.
And do you want to know the best vehicle to
have bought three years ago? It was the Toyota Commuter bus, 3
door manual which had a new price of B. 964,000 and is still
worth today 76 percent of that amount (that’s B. 732,640, so
you can put the calculator down).
So if saving money is your aim, I’ll see
you in your Toyota commuter bus next week!
Does a 10 year warranty
excite you?
Well, Mitsubishi Australia certainly hopes
so, offering a 10 year warranty program to try and stop the
dwindling sales of Mitsubishi Down-under.
Following the catastrophic fallout from a
botched warranty recall in Japan, plus some admitted cover-ups
that ended up with some top level corporate hara-kiri, Mitsu
saw its world-wide sales plunge steadily. I am also sure that
the clumsy corporate Mitsubishi ‘nose’ is even more
unpopular than BMW’s Bangle bottom, and will also have
produced buyer resistance. Some rather outdated models in the
range has not helped either - it really is time for a Lancer
replacement before they bring out an Evo 23!
Mitsubishi
Lancer
So in the face of buyer resistance,
Mitsubishi Australia look like they might have found a rabbit
to pull out of the hat. 10 year warranties!
Mitsubishi Australia president Tom Phillips
has come out fighting with the new 10-year warranty campaign.
“Not enough people are considering Mitsubishi, they don’t
have confidence that we will be staying around in Australia to
support their new car purchase,” said our Tom.
So to counteract that, they have come out
with what they have called the Best Built, Best Backed
warranty campaign, based on a five year/130,000km ‘bumper to
bumper’ warranty on all Mitsubishi cars sold from now on,
which is even transferable if the car is sold. A further five
year/30,000km drive-train warranty is available, but only if
the car is still held by the original owner.
This is actually some very smart corporate
thinking by Mitsu Oz. Since most people only hang on to a car
for three to four years, it means that the warranty will in
most cases only be for the first five years, as the cars will
be on their second or third owners by then (and no warranty
for the second five years).
Mitsubishi have put aside AUD 9 million for
a saturation advertising campaign, and if you think that is
big bucks, it isn’t really. Mitsu sold about 61,000 cars
this year in Oz, so even if they just hold station, that is
only equivalent to less than AUD 150 per car.
New cars on the way here
One of the biggest news items in the
automotive world involves Germany and Malaysia, where VW and
Proton have formed an association so that Malaysia’s number
1 car maker will assemble VW’s to be exported to ASEAN.
Suzuki
Vitara
VW say that they expect to generate more
than 15,000 sales in the region in 2006, after the first
VW’s come off the Proton assembly lines at the end of 2005.
Another company that is looking to market
new cars here is Suzuki. Currently the Japanese manufacturer
only produces the Caribean ‘jeepette’ here and imports the
Vitara assembled in Indonesia. The word is that Suzuki want to
build a small hatch-back here, which may be powered by a 1.3
litre diesel engine. In keeping with the concept of petrol
misers, there is also talk of bringing in the Indian assembled
800 cc Suzuki Alto, to be part of the Thailand government
sponsored ‘Eco Car’ movement. In 2006, the Vitara
replacement will be on sale, but this vehicle will continue to
be built in Indonesia.
BMW
1 series
Mazda will continue to bring in the Mazda3
(reviewed a couple of weeks back - a great car), which is
manufactured in the Philippines, and the Ford Focus, which is
also made in the same plant, will be imported. The Focus uses
the same platform as the Mazda3, so should have similar
dynamics. Mazda Sales Thailand are predicting sales of 10,000
Mazda3’s in Thailand in 2005.
BMW will also be trying to expand its market penetration
with the new 1 series, which may be assembled in Malaysia if
there is enough demand. With the 120i on sale here at 2.8
million baht, I cannot see there being a strong order book
from Thailand, considering that you can buy a 323 for about
2.5 million baht.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week, I mentioned that a heavy
industry company began making Model-A passenger vehicles in
1917. The company is still in business today. It is not Ford
Motor Company. I asked who is it? The answer was Mitsubishi.
So to this week. Amphibian cars have been
produced for many decades. Some with greater success than
others. Two that I know of were built by the same pair of
optimistic enthusiasts in Cuba. The first was a 1951 flat-bed
Chev truck with 55 gallon drums lashed to the sides to keep
the truck above water. They floated this one to America, but
were intercepted by the US coastguards, who had real boats!
The aptly named ‘Cuba 1’ was shot and sunk by the
Americans and the Cubans sent back to where they came from. I
did say that they were nothing short of optimistic - they
immediately began to build ‘Cuba 2’. This was based on a
1959 Buick and they packed 11 people into it and set sail for
the USA. Once again they were intercepted by the coastguards
and Cuba 2 was also sunk! So what I want to know this week is
nothing to do with Marcel Basante and Luis Gras, the
enterprising Cubans, but when was the first amphibian vehicle
built?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
Pencils out - here’s the
2005 Formula 1 calendar
The FIA have now released the calendar for
next year, and it is a bumper year for Eff Wun buffs. 19 races
in all, with the British GP and the French GP’s both on
(after certain financial arrangements were made with a certain
Mr. Ecclestone), if one believes everything one reads.
Bernie
Ecclestone
Here is the 2005 F1 Calendar
06 Mar: Australia Albert Park Melbourne
20 Mar: Malaysia Sepang
03 Apr: Bahrain Sakhir
24 Apr: San Marino Imola
08 May: Spain Barcelona
22 May: Monaco Monte Carlo
29 May: Europe Nurburgring
12 June: Canada Montreal
19 June: United States Indianapolis
03 July: France Magny-Cours
10 July: Great Britain Silverstone
24 July: Germany Hockenheim
31 July: Hungary Hungaroring
21 Aug: Turkey Istanbul
04 Sept: Italy Monza
11 Sept: Belgium Spa
25 Sept: Brazil Interlagos
09 Oct: Japan Suzuka
16 Oct: China Shanghai
The British GP has been moved from the
original date so that it does not clash with the Wimbledon
tennis, which is obviously a television reason, as I do not
know many F1 fans that are such strong tennis enthusiasts that
they would sit there all day watching the grunt-thump of
championship tennis.
The newest GP is Turkey (Istanbul not
Constantinople) as Bernie pushes onwards towards the countries
that will still allow cigarette advertising.
The best news is that Spa is still on the
calendar. This is one of the best circuits in the world and
the one that separates the real drivers from the ‘bought
my’ drivers.
The bad news is that Monaco and Hungary are
still on the calendar. Both of these venues can almost give
gold plated guarantees that the race will be a procession.
They go on about how important Monaco is to the history of F1
racing, but they were ready to give Silverstone the old
heave-ho, the circuit that hosted the very first F1 Grand Prix
in world history. What sort of dummies do they think we are?
(Don’t answer that!)
