Used BMW values in the UK seem to be heading south fast. I wanted to get an idea of what my car would be worth as a trade in when its around 18 months old. I plan to change the car then and do a rejig of our family car base at the same time (wife wants an X5 and I will probably go with a Mercedes SL - sorry - or BMW 6 series)

Spec is -

Nov 05 registered
530i M Sport
Automatic
Silver Grey with black dakota leather
Media pack
Visibility pack
Logic 7
19" stlye 172 Rims
Sun protection glass
High gloss shadowline
Tracker

Retail price was over ?43,000 when I bought it.

I don't do much mileage in it - say 10000 miles when 18 months are up.

Take a guess please. I promise I won't be gutted !!

Here's just a guess. :)

?43,000 / 2 = ?21500

I'd say the residual value will be around 65-70%.

:'( only thing i can say is that with the increase in prices of peanuts recently at tescos ,
you might not be able to buy more than 3 packets when you sell your car

If it was only 50% ie ?21,500, that would be painful.

65% ie ?27,950 wouldnt be too bad.

I would say take 65-70% of the basic price for the model, then add 50% of the total cost of extras you payed for.

I'm not sure what figure that would give you.

The Whatcar depreciation index predicts this: (Base model)

New : ?35,495 (Retail)
Year 1 : ?25,552
Year 2 : ?22,723
Year 3 : ?20,004
Year 4 : ?17,396

As you can see the first year is worst! ?10k hit - then About ?2-3k per year after... As expected - best time to buy is at about 1 year old... But of course we all do that... :whistle:

So after 18 months I reckon about ?23.5k (66%) - then the options... Now these prices are what a dealer would charge on their forecourt, trade-in prices would obviously be less. If you're selling the car yourself you usually have to go a bit lower than the dealer.

Out of the options the following would be worth extra (50% retail):
Automatic (Almost a must)
Silver Grey with black dakota leather (Probably a must)
Media pack (Apparently desirable)

These unfortunately wouldn't (IMHO) be worth a lot (25% retail) but help big-time with the desirability/ease of selling:
Visibility pack
Logic 7
19" stlye 172 Rims (May actually be seen as a negative because of the expensive rubber!)
Sun protection glass
High gloss shadowline
Tracker (Helps with insurance...)

So I reckon it would be on a forecourt at around ?27.5k and sell at about ?26.5k min. Sell privately at ?25k. Trade-in will depend on a number of factors but ?25k may be achieved...

Hi, I had a quick go of the BMW UK used car search tool, although the M wasn't available last year, 18 month old top spec. 530 seem to go for around ?25,000 from main dealer. The M will be worth a bit more on forecourt, they have to make a profit, so I would guess that 23-24K would be a reasonable expectation from dealer. That would give them a 2K profit when they sell it on. Thats my theory, but it may be flawed!

The 'M Sport' isn't really any different to the 'Sport' so it's a very good indication...

You may be able to achieve maximum value for the E60 by combining the purchases of the X5 and the 6 series. Such a large transaction would undoubtedly sharpen the salesman's pencil somewhat.
More power to your wallet :D