California Depreciation

[2haw]

Interesting article

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/volkswagen-california-camper-depreciation-proof

 

[Max-Felix]

It's often be said - not depreciation proof but alongside supercars it does seem to fair better than virtually anything else.

It's the only thing that makes the frankly eye wateringly crazy prices that VW get away with charging for a basic van with a bit of tent on top, a self destructing roof and a few interior bits developed nearly twenty years ago and pretty much unchanged and unimproved, workable as a rational purchase.

But most of this is due to the way (again) VW get away with hiking the new prices every few months. Hence a Cali that cost maybe £38 - £40k not so many years ago is now pushing £60k.

New prices go up and up so used values go up and up.

As an example of lack of further depreciation the Beach I sold three years ago is now worth pretty much the same now.

 

[2haw]

Does anybody know the list price of the Beach when they were first released?

I suspect it was £29,995. What would be the cheapest Beach be worth now? 24/25k?

 

[Max-Felix]

Not that cheap for sure. More like £35k list. But there were some good deals available back then especially on ex demos.

Cheapest Beach I can remember seeing used is a high mileage one circa 90k for £26k or something.

 

[motacyclist]

The particular version they are talking about in the article is the 5 door Beach. Now these are particularly rare (even rarer than the 4 door one where the door changes sides in that other thread); hence the low depreciation.

 

[2haw]

Not that cheap for sure. More like £35k list. But there were some good deals available back then especially on ex demos.

Cheapest Beach I can remember seeing used is a high mileage one circa 90k for £26k or something.

I'm sure they started at 38k (102hp) in 2016 so surely they would of at least been low 30's when they were first released, when was it, back in 2012?

Intrigued to know for some reason.

 

[2haw]

1 owner, 2012, 80k mile Beach on Autotrader now for 24 grand. Seems a good price

 

[GrannyJen]

Probably the only thing in my life that I don't bother about the history of is the price I pay for my Cali.

It's what it is, not what rationally or otherwise many would say what it's really worth.

What it is is what I evaluate my purchase on. List price of Alfie before haggle-value was £75k. 90 nights later, nights when mostly I would have had to stop in a hotel, had to eat out, paid exorbitantly for parking or had to use public transport, the depreciation that I would suffer if I sold it today would likely be less than what I saved in those costs.

There is no comparison. MB do not offer a 4WD version of the MP and even if they did I feel the cards would still fall for the California. Conversions really are no cheaper once all has been loaded in and although I enjoyed my Jaguars and Range Rovers they really did not match the Cali for sleeping and cooking in

 

[soulstyledevon]

I bought an ex demo Beach in 2012. List price was £38k. Hi paid £33.5k.
Sold this year for £25k at 6 years old to a specialist van dealer. They have it on the forecourt for £32k, which is bonkers. It’s well looked after, but not worth that price.

They also have credit options on it too, which would bring the vehicle price to nearly £40k...

In 2012 a new Ocean was about £50k. Today they are around £65k-£70k.
I’m struggling getting my head around these latest numbers. Yes it’s a great vehicle, but £70k great...???

 

[scottk]

The drop in the pound would explain quite a lot. 1.27 in 2012 and 1.13 now. In euros using your values it would be 63.5 in 2012 and 73 in 2018.
Do you think the Grand California will have an affect on used values?

 

[soulstyledevon]

Do you think the Grand California will have an affect on used values?

None.
It’s a complete different beast.

 

[Max-Felix]

This is the July 2012 UK Cali brochure with prices sans options. After this they stopped putting prices in the actual sales brochure as they put them up so often they were out of date as soon as it was printed...

 

[Max-Felix]

This is 2014:

 

[scottk]

My wife thought I was joking when i said that I was going to order one but the slow depreciation is one of the factors. Need to see a couple in the flesh first and get her to drive it as she is convinced it's too big although I told her it was no bigger than my A6.

 

[2haw]

This is the July 2012 UK Cali brochure with prices sans options. After this they stopped putting prices in the actual sales brochure as they put them up so often they were out of date as soon as it was printed...

View attachment 38868

Cheers Max-Felix. Interesting! Did you have these at home or found on the web?!

It seems that since 2012 the Beach has increased by about 8.5k when you consider it's now about 46k including DSG.

The Ocean 150 dsg has increased by approx 10 grand.

 

[2haw]

The current price list has been about since 23rd April 2018, that's got to be a record and must be due for an increase soon!

 

[Max-Felix]

I've got about a dozen Cali brochures from various years incl the pre launch October 2005 UK and German ones - been interested in Cali's for a loooonnngg time! Most don't have prices listed but IIRC when launched the 174 SE in 2006 was high £30k's...? I'll try and dig something out on that...

 

[Max-Felix]

Firstly to add to 2012 and 2014 price lists I have just found the April 2016 price list:

 

[Max-Felix]

And here one of the first UK magazine tests from March 2006, starting at £34k.

 

[soulstyledevon]

So it’s pretty much doubled in price since 2006...?
To be fair, it’s twice as complicated thanks to Euro 6.

 

[soulstyledevon]

Cheers Max-Felix. Interesting! Did you have these at home or found on the web?!

It seems that since 2012 the Beach has increased by about 8.5k when you consider it's now about 46k including DSG.

The Ocean 150 dsg has increased by approx 10 grand.

It’s a lot more than that when you start speccing options that the Ocean has as standard.
That was another catalyst for me changing from Beach to Ocean

 

[2haw]

It’s a lot more than that when you start speccing options that the Ocean has as standard.
That was another catalyst for me changing from Beach to Ocean

I'm sure that both vehicles have more standard spec than they did 6 years ago, but I'm just looking at the base price.

But as has been said many times, comparing the base Beach to the Base Ocean, the Ocean always seems better value.

 

[Max-Felix]

So it’s pretty much doubled in price since 2006...?
To be fair, it’s twice as complicated thanks to Euro 6.

Well, not quite that bad as the base price was £36k so high £30's for the 174 Tiptronic.

But the whole thing to remember is say a £40k 2008 Cali is still worth around £26,500.

That's effectively 2/3 of it's value or just 33% depreciation in ten years. That is the whole point and really remarkable when most regular vehicles are near scrapping time after ten and drop 33% in two or three years.

 

[andrew bazeley]

10 years ago I bought a 175 DSG with all the trimmings (leather seats, tinted glasses, lots of shiny bits etc) for £33000. Apparently some VW Sales Director had ordered it and changed his mind. I reckon I could get that back easily now!

 

[Ian789]

In 2006 we bought an 6 month old Cali that was ex-vw employee's company car ( that had never been camped in) from Carr's of Exeter (one of the 4/5 authorised Cali dealers at that time) for 33k. Sold it in 2014 for 25k. Lost double that in a similar 8 year period on a VW Eos bought at 6 months old in 2010. As a percentage it's 24 percent for the Cali compared to 76 percent for the Eos. The low depreciation is a significant factor for many buyers in justifying the initial outlay. If the Cali replaces a car and is used for a decent amount of camping I reckon that what little depreciation there is is probably offset anyway. Finding the money to buy it in the first place is another matter obviously!