Out with the old, in with the new...

[Valiant5]

Fittingly, for the start of the New Year, it was out with the old and in with the new as we returned to the excellent Luscombes MG in Leeds where we bought our 5 Excite four years ago.... and traded it in towards the cosmic silver 5 SE facelift we picked up on January 4.

We've been very pleased with the Excite, never missed a beat in four years, had to replace only the front and rear tyres, no bulbs or wiper blades. It was one of only 70 MG 5s sold in the UK in 2020, the first year they entered the market here, and now the 5 will no longer be sold in this country, ours will be one of the very last registered.

At the price they were reduced to it was too good an opportunity to miss and now with grandchildren in Cardiff and near Edinburgh, the extra range, plus a new seven years warranty will be real bonuses.

Luscombes gave us a very fair part exchange on the Excite and I had no hesitation in dealing with them again despite living almost 50 miles away in Derbyshire. There was no hard sell, just all the information I needed to make a decision. I've also renewed the service contract with them.

Just need some better weather now to make the most of the new car, pictured in the background with the Excite at Luscombes on handover day.

 

[salty]

Excellent! Nice to hear a good story, about the Car and the Dealer. New Car looks great. Enjoy!

 

[Muffler]

Fittingly, for the start of the New Year, it was out with the old and in with the new as we returned to the excellent Luscombes MG in Leeds where we bought our 5 Excite four years ago.... and traded it in towards the cosmic silver 5 SE facelift we picked up on January 4.

We've been very pleased with the Excite, never missed a beat in four years, had to replace only the front and rear tyres, no bulbs or wiper blades. It was one of only 70 MG 5s sold in the UK in 2020, the first year they entered the market here, and now the 5 will no longer be sold in this country, ours will be one of the very last registered.

At the price they were reduced to it was too good an opportunity to miss and now with grandchildren in Cardiff and near Edinburgh, the extra range, plus a new seven years warranty will be real bonuses.

Luscombes gave us a very fair part exchange on the Excite and I had no hesitation in dealing with them again despite living almost 50 miles away in Derbyshire. There was no hard sell, just all the information I needed to make a decision. I've also renewed the service contract with them.

Just need some better weather now to make the most of the new car, pictured in the background with the Excite at Luscombes on handover day.

View attachment 33801

Nice one! Hope they did the software updates?

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Nice story with a happy customer at the end of it. Lets hope that the confidence you have in MG can be replicated by us all in the future?
One in the eye for all those newspapers and Youtubers who are saying EV owners are going back to ICE.

 

[Everest]

Great to hear about the upgrade.

As someone looking to buy an MG EV soon, would be interested to know how much depreciation was over 4 years?

 

[Silver estate]

Great to hear about the upgrade.

As someone looking to buy an MG EV soon, would be interested to know how much depreciation was over 4 years?

My 2022 excite with 11300 miles PX value was £11500
New was £31k
So about £20 k in 2 year ,

 

[Everest]

Oh...
My...
God...

No way! That wipes out all EV savings for like 10 years, and then some.

 

[kevin ellard]

Great to hear about the upgrade.

As someone looking to buy an MG EV soon, would be interested to know how much depreciation was over 4 years?

There is no useful history for EVs that are getting cheaper all the time. Basing a decision on what someone had to pay for a car 4 years ago, when all the electronic chip production was going into games consoles because of covid, seems odd. My guess is that if you buy a new EV now it will depreciate a lot but it may depreciate less than if you bought a new ICE car.

 

[Everest]

My guess is that if you buy a new EV now it will depreciate a lot but it may depreciate less than if you bought a new ICE car.

I'll buy second hand, but would like to be reasonably confident depreciation will be no worse than £1000 to £2000 pa - which I have achieved for the last 30+ years.

 

[Valiant5]

Certainly for MGs, it can't have helped that prices were slashed by £10-13,000 to clear out the remaining stock of facelift 5s before sales here ceased. There must be people who paid £33/34,000 for a Trophy in the summer who would be lucky to get £19,000 for it now.

Obviously the discount helped me massively or I wouldn't have been able to afford a new facelift at the prices back then. Instead, of just over £20,000 now. My own Excite pre facelift got me close to half that price, so depreciation of around 14% pa.

 

[kevin ellard]

I'll buy second hand, but would like to be reasonably confident depreciation will be no worse than £1000 to £2000 pa - which I have achieved for the last 30+ years.

Its hard to be confident about depreciation of something that is getting cheaper to produce every year. There is very little intrinsic reason for EVs to be more expensive than ICE cars. They have a lot less parts than need putting together and the main expense is the battery which are coming down in price rapidly.
I very much doubt that the next 30 years will be like the last 30 years.

 

[Paulie68]

My 2022 excite with 11300 miles PX value was £11500
New was £31k
So about £20 k in 2 year ,

I wonder how mine will fare in comparison, new was only £21k due to the very heavy discounting. Not that I'm bothered and I'd sell it privately anyway, but trade in would be about £7750 after 2 years if depreciation matched yours!

Oh...
My...
God...

No way! That wipes out all EV savings for like 10 years, and then some.

Indeed, an argument for keeping cars a more sensible amount of time. They can now last decades reliably, have warranties for 7 years and don't rust for ages, yet most people keep a new car for 2 or 3 years. If we really gave a s**t about sustainability, we'd be keeping them far longer.

Motor trade is mainly to blame trapping people with the PCP offer, that gets everyone in a car they can't really afford at all or buy out at the end of the 2/3 year rental period.

Certainly for MGs, it can't have helped that prices were slashed by £10-13,000 to clear out the remaining stock of facelift 5s before sales here ceased. There must be people who paid £33/34,000 for a Trophy in the summer who would be lucky to get £19,000 for it now.

Obviously the discount helped me massively or I wouldn't have been able to afford a new facelift at the prices back then. Instead, of just over £20,000 now. My own Excite pre facelift got me close to half that price, so depreciation of around 14% pa.

No one is getting close to £19k for a 6 month old Trophy, not at trade in anyway, when new are £21k!

Anyway, this will put MG depreciation in context and make you all feel slightly less bad about it.

My previous car, a Tesla Model S, depreciated by £27k in 9 months.

 

[salty]

I wonder how mine will fare in comparison, new was only £21k due to the very heavy discounting. Not that I'm bothered and I'd sell it privately anyway, but trade in would be about £7750 after 2 years if depreciation matched yours!

And there's Naff all you can do about it. So don't know why some folk get so hung up about it. Just enjoy your chosen car. At
least if you get a heavily discounted new car, the kick in the knackers, isn't quite as bad, come sale time.

 

[Everest]

Indeed, an argument for keeping cars a more sensible amount of time.

we bought my current car (small diesel BMW) when it was one year old, and that was 12 years ago. Even if it is worth nothing now, depreciation will only be £900 per annum

And there's Naff all you can do about it.

You say that, but... I think if you buy wisely second hand and keep it a bit longer (as @Paulie68 said), then you can minimise the inevitable depreciation losses. There's a 13 month old, generation 2, MG4 Trophy with 7000 miles on the clock advertised for £18,500. Assuming one could haggle that down to £18,000 and keep it for 5 years.... Then I wonder how much you could sell that for in 5 years time (i.e. with a year of warranty left and 32,000 miles on the clock)?

Guess it all depends on how much new ones drop to by 2029 and how much technology has progressed. Maybe by then Ford and VW will only exist to produce specialist vehicles, 90% of new cars will be Chinese costing £15,000 each which will have 1000 mile ranges and recharging speeds of 2000mph. And maybe, just maybe, SAIC will have found a solution to the XPower's vibration hum?

 

[salty]

we bought my current car (small diesel BMW) when it was one year old, and that was 12 years ago. Even if it is worth nothing now, depreciation will only be £900 per annum

That's certainly the way to do it.

You say that, but... I think if you buy wisely second hand and keep it a bit longer (as @Paulie68 said), then you can minimise the inevitable depreciation losses. There's a 13 month old, generation 2, MG4 Trophy with 7000 miles on the clock advertised for £18,500. Assuming one could haggle that down to £18,000 and keep it for 5 years.... Then I wonder how much you could sell that for in 5 years time (i.e. with a year of warranty left and 32,000 miles on the clock)?

Guess it all depends on how much new ones drop to by 2029 and how much technology has progressed. Maybe by then Ford and VW will only exist to produce specialist vehicles, 90% of new cars will be Chinese costing £15,000 each which will have 1000 mile ranges and recharging speeds of 2000mph. And maybe, just maybe, SAIC will have found a solution to the XPower's vibration hum?

Yep, if you buy second hand or nearly new, and keep it a long time, like you have. It does ease the pain a bit. But I'm more talking about brand new. And keeping it 2 or 3 years, which some do. The depreciation will be high. But they must have known that, going into the deal. So why start chirping about it.
Have to admit, a new motor is nice. Your the first owner, delivery miles only on the clock, feels good. Personally I've never, worried about how much it will be worth, in 3 years or whenever. I just enjoy it.

 

[Avro]

I have nearly always purchased second hand vehicles (the MG5 has been an exception) at around 3 years old. Back in 2003 I purchased a Peugeot 406 (top spec) at 3 years old for £6,500 from a dealer. The list price when new was £20K it was a high miles ex lease and I doubt the lease company paid £20K but still a big drop in 3 years (it did a further pretty much trouble free 200K miles). More recently (2018) a 3 year old Skoda Fabia estate 30,000 miles (again high spec) £10,000 from a main dealer. List price when new £19,000. I paid 25K for the MG5 3 years ago which was a fair price at the time. Probably get about £12K for it now at it current milage ....but I am not selling, I am hoping it lasts another 7 years or so
My point? Well buying new has pretty much always been a mugs game .....just call me a mug!
But in reality I think people are more aware of the depreciation on EVs because if you wanted one a few years back you needed to buy new and at near list price. Added to that, recent big discounts backed up with the general anti EV rhetoric has depressed the market.
Its a good time to buy a second hand EV and in my opinion currently a second hand MG5 has got to be the bargain of the century. I am almost tempted to buy a spare!

 

[Paulie68]

I have nearly always purchased second hand vehicles (the MG5 has been an exception) at around 3 years old. Back in 2003 I purchased a Peugeot 406 (top spec) at 3 years old for £6,500 from a dealer. The list price when new was £20K it was a high miles ex lease and I doubt the lease company paid £20K but still a big drop in 3 years (it did a further pretty much trouble free 200K miles). More recently (2018) a 3 year old Skoda Fabia estate 30,000 miles (again high spec) £10,000 from a main dealer. List price when new £19,000. I paid 25K for the MG5 3 years ago which was a fair price at the time. Probably get about £12K for it now at it current milage ....but I am not selling, I am hoping it lasts another 7 years or so
My point? Well buying new has pretty much always been a mugs game .....just call me a mug!
But in reality I think people are more aware of the depreciation on EVs because if you wanted one a few years back you needed to buy new and at near list price. Added to that, recent big discounts backed up with the general anti EV rhetoric has depressed the market.
Its a good time to buy a second hand EV and in my opinion currently a second hand MG5 has got to be the bargain of the century. I am almost tempted to buy a spare!

Cars eh? I've wasted vast amounts on depreciation over the last few years, I don't care at this point, as I'm lucky enough to be pretty wealthy now I'm an old git, but a few years back I always bought used.

The real sweet spot is to buy a 3 to 4 year old, low mileage car for cash money, one that's been enthusiast looked after and is still pristine, they usually cost a little more than similar run of the mill, hacked around cars, but the difference is still trivial as we're talking about the 3 to 4 year depreciated price here. Cars like that are almost indistinguishable from brand new. Then keep it a good few years.

The absolutely worst thing you can ever do is to keep buying a new car via PCP every 3 years, starting from a young age, when you don't have a lot of money. £300pm for a brand new car seems so affordable compared to getting together a lump sum for an older used car doesn't it? and you never imagined you'd be able to afford a car of such a great specification either. But the Devil's got you now in that Faustian bargain! Off you go, dragging that damned payment along behind you forever, like a second mortgage (or maybe even instead of a first!!) with it increasing just a little bit every time you rejig it every 3 years and before you know it, it's £500-£600pm. But you have no lump sum saved beyond the value of that 3 year old car once it's time to hand back or buy out the other 50% of it...

OK, maybe I'm being dramatic, but you can probably tell I really hate the PCP model of car sourcing.

 

[salty]

I have nearly always purchased second hand vehicles (the MG5 has been an exception) at around 3 years old. Back in 2003 I purchased a Peugeot 406 (top spec) at 3 years old for £6,500 from a dealer. The list price when new was £20K it was a high miles ex lease and I doubt the lease company paid £20K but still a big drop in 3 years (it did a further pretty much trouble free 200K miles). More recently (2018) a 3 year old Skoda Fabia estate 30,000 miles (again high spec) £10,000 from a main dealer. List price when new £19,000. I paid 25K for the MG5 3 years ago which was a fair price at the time. Probably get about £12K for it now at it current milage ....but I am not selling, I am hoping it lasts another 7 years or so
My point? Well buying new has pretty much always been a mugs game .....just call me a mug!
But in reality I think people are more aware of the depreciation on EVs because if you wanted one a few years back you needed to buy new and at near list price. Added to that, recent big discounts backed up with the general anti EV rhetoric has depressed the market.
Its a good time to buy a second hand EV and in my opinion currently a second hand MG5 has got to be the bargain of the century. I am almost tempted to buy a spare!

Why is buying new a Mugs game? If you pay full retail, then yes, might agree with you, but who does these days. If you want a Brand new car, then that's it. It's up to you. Simple's. Doesn't make you a Mug.

 

[Paulie68]

Why is buying new a Mugs game? If you pay full retail, then yes, might agree with you, but who does these days. If you want a Brand new car, then that's it. It's up to you. Simple's. Doesn't make you a Mug.

A nice heavy discount, cash purchase, low rate loan for that if needed, yep, not a mug.

Watch out for that work of the devil PCP trap though, or you could be!

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Ours is our first ever brand new car, I never wanted to buy new , but after researching every option , new /secondhand, electric ,diesel, petrol for a similar sized car not even considering its automatic and the performance and its insurance bracket , the MG4 SE/LR was the second cheapest option , the base model was 4000 euros cheaper, which was tempting as I could have got it for 17500euros.
That was the price for 2-3 year old secondhand " normal " cars, add on auto and a dollop of performance and you are up to mid 20,s for a high mileage example.