I bought my E60 from my local BMW dealer in late 2004. He reassured me that these cars are great value and as it was a 6-month old demonstrator, it had already lost around ?6K of its value so wouldn't lose money at the same rate as these cars don't depreciate too much. A couple of weeks ago I asked for a buy-back price just out of interest and he gave me a price that amounted to almost ?1000 per month depreciation over two years!

The car is two years old and is worth less than 50% of its cost price (according to the same dealer that I purchased it from). The depreciation on these cars is horrendous. Obviously selling privately I can get far more for it.

Why do you want to sell it? if i may ask... obviously you wud get a better price if sold in private and also depends in which country... :think:

I want to buy a Porsche Cayman S as the E60 is too big for me and I never use any of its practicality! It's below average mileage and it's a great car but I want to go back to a sports car (I had a Boxster before).

From used car sites here, I can see that depreciation around Chicago is about what I expected.

But I love the Cayman! I'm not a big fan of convertibles. The roofline on that car is fantastic. Have fun.

The other day I noticed that my dealer is asking within several $k of what I paid for my 545i in June 05 for a used car essentially like mine. Of course, they shouldn't be able to get this much, but, still, the attempt is interesting.

All cars deprecitate fast, especially new cars. Given, E60 will depreciate slower than others, since it a bimmer 5 series, but still.... in couple of years you will be able to get 04-05 530i for $25K - that is what 01-02 5ers cost right now. But you buy the car not to sell - but to enjoy!

Ah, the classic stealer approach... One story when you buy it and another when you trade it in... :geek:

I guess that spec was about ?36k new and you purchased for about ?30k? And now they're offering about ?12k???

I agree. I pick up my 530i next week and I know as soon as I drive off the dealer drive, I will have "lost" approx ?10K but I'm buying new again because you can't beat the pleasure of being the first to drive your machine and also being able to spec it just the way you want.

Markets arround the world are obviously different; here in the US, BMW calculate your lease price for 36 months based on a residual of about 60%, rise from the fact that BMW is not here to lose money - the numbers are correct and even conservative, your definitely not going to lose 50% in a 2 year period over here.

One thing everyone forgets is that 17.5% on a new car is Tax in the UK, and then the dealer gets around 12% margin. So You can expect to loose 30% in the first 6 months on any new car as this is what the dealer can buy a new one for.

UK cars usually depriciate like this...


6 months old -30%
12 months old -40%
24 months old -47%
36 months old -52%

If you work on that and that your car should have been around ?36/37k then I would guess you were offered around ?15/16k with them selling it on for around ?18/19k??

I bought my 535d touring just over 6 months old and saved 28% on invoice price, I could have got a car a couple of months newer with less than 2000 miles on it for a grand less (mine had 20k on it) but the options made this the better buy imho, this one had everything you expect and then Panoramic roof, heated seats and the heads up display, plus it had already been remapped by DMS.

All cars depriciate, and I bet the Cayman S will be just as bad. The art is to buy them 12 months old privately and run it for a year, sell it again with full warranty for a year and take the 5% hit.
I have bought and sold 8 cars since Jan 04 doing it that way, and this 5 series is the only one I know I am going to loose loads on, but I want to keep it for a while so I don't care.
Also, you bought the petrol, and they are never going to hold their value like the diesel will.