Are Luxury Cars Worth the Price?

Luxury brands, such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus, not only offer the allure of refinement and comfort, but their names have become synonymous with class and performance. Firmly cemented as leaders in the luxury car marketplace, these cars offer prestige to everyone who drives one – resulting in elevated social status levels and looks of envy on the faces of the other motorists on the roadways.

The question then becomes whether these cars are demanding their premium price tags based on their high-end features and premium performance engines? Or, whether car buyers are simply willing to pay more because of the status the brand names carry?

Luxury Cars Really Do Offer More

When compared to the average car on the market, luxury vehicles generally offer more in terms of power, driving experience, high-tech features and advanced trim options. Even while affordably priced economy cars, like the Ford Focus, are offering high-tech features such as park assist and touchscreen console controls, luxury cars are taking this sophistication to the next level – seemingly blending interior comfort features with performance to create a driving experience that stands head and shoulders above all the rest. 

But You Pay More (And not Just on the Sticker Price)

The initial sticker price tag is not the only place where these vehicles cost more. When it comes time to shop for insurance, luxury car buyers often have to pay more. This is especially true for high-end performance cars, where a higher liability risk corresponds to higher insurance premiums.

Maintenance costs are also another major consideration when buying a luxury car. Not only can repair parts be expensive and hard to find, but it can also be hard to locate a mechanic capable of repairing one of their sophisticated engines. The end-result being that you end up paying a premium on repair bills.

Luxury Cars Hold Their Value

While value will depend on the specific vehicle and the current state of the used car market, luxury cars often hold their value better than other vehicles. This is especially true when buying used. After its first three years, a luxury car will have already incurred its greatest losses in terms of value. So if you really want a premium car, but at an affordable price, a later model used luxury car is an ideal choice.

The bottom line is that a luxury car is worth its price – especially when you buy it used. When purchasing a luxury car that is two to three years old, you are still receiving a high-end driving experience, just for thousands of dollars less than you would if you had bought it new.

Transforming a Chrysler Sebring into a Bentley Continental?

For most of us, owning a Bentley Continental is out of our price range. In fact, a quick search using the tools provided to me by prominent used car search engine, UsedCars.com, reveals that the average two to three year old Bentley is selling for well over $100,000.

Unfortunately, for most us this would mean choosing between a house payment or car payment – and I am going to guess that 99% of the time the house payment is going to win out over the Bentley.

But don’t despair – For the dreamer in all of us, there is a much more affordable option: It’s called a replica body kit.

Just look at what this Bentley Continental GTC Super Sports Body kit did for a Chrysler Sebring Convertible.

By the way, you read that right. The car pictured here used to be a Chrysler Sebring. Well, to be honest, it still is a Chrysler Sebring. You just would never know it from the outside.

Designed to look eerily similar to the real thing, this once practically designed, nothing-special-about-it 2003 Sebring has been transformed into an eye-popping, head turning 2012 Bentley Continental – at least from the outside. But let’s be honest, most of the people you are probably trying to impress will never set foot inside your car.

What’s more impressive is that this transformation is pretty complete. With working headlights, taillights and exhaust tips, you can go racing down the road in your very own-elite supercar, with no else being the wiser.  

Sandy Brings Storm of Rising Used Car Prices: How Should You Prepare?

In the wake of late October's devastating hurricane, industry experts are now telling us to  prepare for another storm, albeit one of a different variety. While as predicted, hurricane Sandy brought with it rain, wind, floods and power outages, it also brought with it something that was a little more unexpected – Rising used car prices.

The reasons for this seems simple enough: As hurricane victims begin their search for replacement cars, they will do so by turning to the local dealerships in the Northeast, an area which accounts for almost twenty percent of all new and used car sales in the United States. Unfortunately, those local dealerships were hit just as hard, and their inventories are already at record lows.  

So what is going to happen when consumers come knocking and those dealers have only limited options? Yep, you guessed it: prices are going to rise. In fact, in an interview with Auto Remarketing, Edmunds.com director of analysis Ray Zhou predicted that "Used vehicle prices will increase $700 to $1,000 in the impacted area"

Unfortunately, while the immediate impact will be on the Northeast, car buyers across the country should begin to prepare for a rising price storm. Because those local dealerships are going to cast a wide net to meet demand, pulling in cars from all over the country, used car prices everywhere will be affected throughout the upcoming months.

Prepare yourself for the rising price storm.

The question then becomes:  If you are one of the thousands of consumers in need of a car during the next several months, how do you avoid paying those higher prices?

Well I sought out the advice of the used car buying experts over at UsedCars.com. As the prominent online used car search engine, they were able to shed a little light on a few money saving tips:

·         Buy now:  While this may seem like a contradiction in terms, you should not wait for prices to go down – especially if you anticipate needing a car within the next several months. Right now, the hurricane has interrupted car sales in October and early November, and we have yet to see the prices jump.  This means that if you have the opportunity to buy a car within the next week or two, it’s almost imperative that you strike while the iron is hot.

·         Think Compact: The compact car industry was best prepared for the increased demand. New and used inventories for compact cars were in surplus before the storm, which means that there may be enough supply to meet this demand.

·         Avoid Luxury: According to Edmunds.com, New York, Philadelphia and D.C. account for 25% of all luxury cars sold in the United States. This means that now may not be the best time to think about buying a luxury car.

·         Shop Online: The dealerships in the Northeast are turning to the internet to replace their inventories, and truthfully, there is no reason you cannot do the same.  Car buying search engines have made it easy for car buyers to shop for deals all over the county. You simply enter in the make or model you are interested in, and the search site returns a list of dozens of cars that meet your criteria.

One final piece of advice shared, is the potential for flood damaged cars infiltrating the market. Car buyers over the next several months need to be on the lookout for cars that were damaged during the massive flooding that accompanied the storm. 

Used Car Online Sales Up Following Hurricane Sandy

An unexpected, but certainly not surprising, outcome following the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is the storm’s potential effect on used car inventory.

With a widespread reach that encompassed a majority of the northeastern part of the nation, the hurricane spread destruction on just about everything that stood in its way – tossing cars and trucks as easily as a toddler does a Tonka Truck. And with used car demand already on the rise over recent months, early industry estimates indicate that this level of storm damage could result in the depletion of dealership inventories, as car buyers scramble to replace their damaged vehicles. 

In an interview with Auto Remarketing, Ricky Beggs, senior analyst at Black Book, was cited as saying, “There is going to be a quick influx of demand for additional used cars, especially all the way up the East Coast, and will reach up to New England and down South.” Adding, “People are going to need to replace damaged vehicles.”

Beggs also predicted that as local dealership inventory becomes depleted, you will “see more activity online.” And in just a few hours following the storm, Beggs predictions already seem to becoming a reality. In fact, early reports from the prominent online used car search engine, UsedCars.com, indicate an upsurge in traffic.

“Within the last 24 hours, we’ve experienced an incredible spike in the number of shoppers visiting us online,” the website reports. “And maybe not surprisingly, the pages experiencing the biggest spikes are those geographically focused on the Northeast. Our New York City Used Car Page, for example, is experiencing some record numbers.”

While a lot of this is still speculation, and it may be several months until we really understand the level of effect the hurricane had on the industry, it may be wise for car buyers to prepare for slightly higher used car prices. Car dealerships across the country are going to be fighting to replenish their inventory, leading to fewer options for the car buyer and possibly higher sticker prices.