This to me is a very poor example. This is an owner replacement issue versus reliability or design defect. $300 over the life of the car is really nothing.

 

Perhaps I wasn't clear. Haha Jill you're always busting my chops.

It's a perfectly good example in the context of added costs that weren't there before, which is exactly my point. It's not a reliability thing or a design defect (in some makes it is - the whole immobilizer system needs replacing which can be 4 figures).

Back to keys, it's a cost that can happen more than once over the lifetime of your vehicle. It's a cost you pay each time you lose (or wet, drop too many times) your keys, which happens more than you may think. My colleague just went thru this twice, on a 2015 ES.

When before, it was a non-issue. There's plenty more examples, I just chose that one.

I'm not here preaching new cars are bad. I like new cars, been thru a few myself. Just saying the direction things are going is unnerving and for some, there's liberty in the good old fashioned stuff where costs are more in line with reality.

Which is where Aron's truck comes in, and partly why the resale is so high. They cost nothing to run and keep alive. There's massive value in this.

The same can't be said about a 15 year old car built in Europe, which is one minor failure away from being scrapped.

 

I don't know off the top of my head what the older Audi RS4s ran brand new, but one of my customers recently bought a 28k mile, mostly all original 2007 Audi RS4 for around or a little over $40k.

That's pretty damn impressive resale value on a 10 year old vehicle. That car brand new could not have cost more than $65-$70k (I'd be shocked if it was).

Granted it's a rare car and the one he found was probably the lowest mileage car in the country, but still very impressive as Audis usually have horrible resale value.

Edit, obviously Supra MKIV TT have ridiculos resale value that is still climbing every day. The few low mileage all original 6spd cars are selling at near double what a brand new one would have cost you back in the day.

 

1992 NSX, bought 40K, and now being offered at 55K.

 

LX's hold their value. Or so it seems. I've been researching the 1st gen LX lately as a potential purchase down the road, and I'm amazed that a 12-15 year old vehicle with sometimes north of 250K on it will still fetch 9-10,000 dollars.

Seems to be true for many trucks/SUV's on the market.

 

Interesting examples brought up here. The RS4 is obviously an anomaly, being that's it's very low miles and a special edition car. Even so, NADA only lists that car at 26-32k, which is still pretty high. The low miles helps a lot, as that same car with 100k would be much less attractive. It seems your guy may have paid more due to the rarity and condition which sellers will surely try to cash in on.

And I don't blame him! Naturally aspirated 4.2L V8 *and* and manual transmission? Good luck ever finding that sweet combo ever again. He picked up a sweet ride.

Unfortunately should anything happen to that car (theft/accident), the insurance will only cough up the blue book numbers. Unless he has collector car insurance, where he and the insurance set an "agreed" value they will pay. I have that on my SC, and it's great piece of mind I'm covered for a number I'm more comfortable with. I'd recommend that to him to protect his investment if it's not his daily driver. It's also less than half what regular insurance costs.

The Supra, needs no mention. We all know what's happening there. The NSX falls into the same category albeit not to that extreme.

The "resale" value Aron brings up is more just regular mass market cars that still hold well. LC/LX as mentioned. Cars like that.

I've been Tundra shopping for the last few months and let me tell you... Those are hanging on pretty tight as well. When gas is cheap, Tundras are not. Back when gas was around 4 bucks a gallon, Tundra values were on the floor. I remember checking back then, seeing the prices of the 07's and being amazed how low they were. Even today with low gas prices, the same 07's are priced higher then way back then! Crazy.

 

Jeep Wrangler's are also notoriously strong on resale values. Was helping a friend look and a new 2016 Unlimited (4dr) runs about $28k. For $20k you could get a 2012 Unlimited with 90k miles...for $25k you'd find a 2014 with 40k miles...nuts!

 

I was going to start a thread about this a couple of months ago:

This is quite the value

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/d...6888/overview/

On the other complete side of the spectrum, there's the range rover

 

Probably in another lease with a new warranty and 4 years50k worth of free service.

Its a matter of priorities rather then whose the best at reliability. The reason the resale market is strong is cause theirs a persons whose priority is different then the person who buys a used s600 with all the money lights on. Tbh, I think the statement that Toyota prides reliability is kind of a hit or miss. Its more relative more then anything, since even Toyotas have dropped the ball pretty hard; ie how many vehicles have you heard about needing complete frame replacements like some of the old tacos and tundras.

 

Well, everyone can make mistakes, that's for sure. Like I stated before, no automaker is perfect.

However!

1. Those frames were made by Dana, an American company that makes frames and axles for lots of companies.
2. Toyota replaced the frames for free.

Toyota is pretty good at making things right from what I've seen. (Free dash replacements and such) And the numbers don't lie, of all the car makers, theirs are the least problem-prone.

 

Any air-cooled Porsche 911 will command a high price.

 

Man, you ain't kidding. It seems people almost can't give a 2000-2004 Discovery away!!

 

This is all small potatoes. Below is a link from a guy on this forum who bought a VW Golf diesel for $27K, drove it for 40,000 miles, and VW is buying it back for $25K! What a deal! And he said it was a great car to boot.

Try that, Porsche.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/car...ml#post9714903

 

Heh. My neighbor did the same with a Passat TDI. He quite happily sold back the car to VW with what they were offering. Made out like a bandit.

 

Bought my 2012 Tacoma DCLB TRD Sport Prerunner V6 in 11/6/2012 for $25,000. The last 2012 they have on the lot and being 2WD in Nebraska is hard to sell. I drove it until 8/31/16 (almost 46 months) with about 68000 miles. I got hit TWICE (in parking lot and at stop sign - None is my fault) and received about $5100 from insurance. I kept the money and did not fix it.....I traded it in for a '16 Tundra CM Limited 4x4 for $21464. With 7.25% sales tax in Nebraska, that 21464 becomes $23020, meaning I lost about $2000 after 4 years of owning it. With the insurance $$$$ I actually PROFIT from owning the truck.

The dealer put the "certified" sticker on it, listed $26,900 and sold it in 1 week. I felt bad for the guy who bought it since he might pay for about $23k-$25k which is a lot for a 4 years old 2WD truck...who happens to live the the area I drive by everyday and saw him at least 5 times. I fell out of love with the Tundra in less than 4 months and traded it in for a Lexus NX200t FSport...I lost some $$$ on the Tundra though. Bought it for $40465 (MSRP $45665), traded it in for $38000 + $1000 Rebate on the NX + $1000 Lexus Certificate from the Sales Manage that gave me.My Dealer is Lexus Plus so No Negotiation...So, overall I considered it is a small penalty to get rid of the Tundra.