Folklore decrees that if you keep something for long enough it could eventually become valuable. Problem is, some things can’t just be pushed to the back of the sideboard and forgotten for decades. Cars are among them.
Almost any new car will drop 25 to 30 per cent in value the moment it is registered and continue to decline over several years, sometimes decades.
High priced, prestige models have a reputation for gobbling up owners’ money at prodigious rates, but people who buy them new seem not to care.
For a while there wasn’t a significant problem because high-end models produced during the 1960s and ’70s did hold value and today can be worth many times their original cost. During the 1990s,as car prices soared and average incomes didn’t, that dynamic changed.
The cars you see here all would have cost around the same when new as a decent house in a good metropolitan suburb. When comparing the Ferrari, its real-estate equivalent would be a mini mansion with triple garage and pool.
If depreciation during the 1990s looked bad, then the next downturn was appreciably worse. This was the one that went by the name of Global Financial Crisis or GFC.
Auction barns during 2008-09 began filling with cars that just days earlier had occupied spots in executive car parks. Now they would be battling for slots in prestige dealer yards at prices a fraction of the finance contracts they had left unpaid.
Declining prices during the past decade still haven’t boosted used market demand and a lot of older prestige models remain hard to sell.
Which factors might exert pressure on prestige values into the future is anyone’s guess. The best strategy for now is to pick a car that suits your means and lifestyle and revel in an experience you could not have contemplated when the car was new.
ASTON MARTIN DB7 COUPE
CLOSELY RELATED in size and design to the XK8 Jaguar, Aston Martin’s DB7 came initially with a supercharged Jaguar engine, then a V12 that had been cobbled together from a pair of V6 Ford engines. Nobody seemed to mind all of this parts bin engineering and platform sharing as it was helping keep two iconic British brands – Aston Martin and Jaguar – alive while under the haphazard ownership of FoMoCo. The first new-style Astons available to Australia were DB7 coupes, priced initially at almost a quarter of a million dollars. They arrived towards the end of 1995, but it took time to re-establish the Aston Martin brand in Australia.
Sales during 1998 finally reached double digits, comprising 10 coupes and three Volante convertibles. The soft-top DB7 had been launched a year earlier at almost $280,000 and it came as no surprise that few found local owners. These are still classy cars though, with exclusivity on their side. Available cars are more likely to have been sold new in other countries but these are (or should be) less expensive than local deliveries. Fear of the unknown is a major factor in the restrained values of later model Aston Martins.
Service support, even in major Australian cities, isn’t easy to find and parts are relatively expensive for a car that continues to decline in value.
PR ICE NEW 1996: $249,445. PRICE NOW CONDITION 1: $62,000
FERRARI 456GTA
YACHTING, SO they say, is akin to standing under a cold shower tearing up money. Owning a front-engined Ferrari – a modern one anyway – must feel somewhat similar.
Ferrari had been doing well for several years with its array of mid-engined models, having deleted the slow selling 400iAV12 in 1985. In 1992 though, it announced a new front-engined, V12-powered 456GT which was released to Australia in 1994 and followed in 1996 by an automatic GTA version.
With Australia still hauling itself painfully out of recession, half million-dollar Ferraris weren’t on the shopping list for even wealthy car buffs and hardly any 456s sold here. A decade later though, that situation had changed.
The 456s that had been sold new in other right-hand drive markets were arriving locally as personal or dealer imports.
No longer a $500,000 indulgence, these cars were landing at $140,000-180,000 and being offered by retailers at $200,000.
Fast-forward 20 years and excellent examples of the 456GTA will struggle to make $150,000. Doesn’t matter that these are a very practical Ferrari with more power than a Testarossa plus some actual space inside. When buying a Ferrari, style is everything.
PRICE NEW IN 1996: $493,863. PRICE NOW CONDITION 1: $135,000
JAGUAR XKR 4.2S COUPE
TWO-DOOR Jaguars from the 1960s and ’70s have finally achieved parity with their new-car prices and, at last report, XJS convertibles from the late 1980s are also getting back on to equal terms. Nobody, however, is rushing to spend $200,000 on an XK8 or XKR.
Struggling under the yoke of Ford ownership, these Jaguars sacrificed character for durability, but even that didn’t work once reports began to surface of V8 engine failures.
No such problems were experienced in 2003 when the new 4.2-litre supercharged V8 with 298kW appeared. Despite significant improvements, the revamped coupe had also barely moved in price; the 4.0-litre XK8 in 1998 costing $203,000 with the 4.2S in 2003 at $209,000.
What didn’t change either was the pace at which depreciation cut into the V8 Jags’ retained value. By 2011, a 4.2-litre supercharged XKR coupe had plunged to less than $70,000. Five years later, the price of these cars in excellent condition had dipped below $60,000 and that is where the majority have stayed.
Later XKRs suffer no endemic problems, but the need for maintenance is ongoing and costly. Then again, if you spend $30,000 on a mechanically neglected car and invest another $30,000 in repairs, the result will be a sound, reliable and relatively cheap Jaguar.
PRICE NEW IN 2003: $209,00. PRICE NOW CONDITION 1: $52,000
MASERATI Coupe GT
MASERATI FOR many years stood in the shadow of Ferrari and Porsche before finding its niche. Maseratis built during recent years have found owners amongst people who like owning an exotic car but not to the extent of strapping on a helmet and fronting every other month at the club track day. Maserati’s GT Coupe, which arrived early in 2003, used a 4.2-litre V8 just like the XKR Jaguar but made its287kW without help from a supercharger.
GTs were a plush device, with everything visible inside being leather trimmed, front seats that were comfy but not clingy, and room for two more in the back. Standard as well were power windows, seats and mirrors, plus air-conditioning and a concert-hall music system.
Maserati clearly weren’t worried by weight, which hit 1690kg.
The new model obviously appealed to Maserati’s Australian ownership base, helping boost sales from 60 cars during 2003 to 107 by 2006. None of the above helped curb Maserati’s problems with value retention, which over a five-year finance term would struggle to achieve 30 per cent. By 2011, the wholesale value of a 2005 model had slumped to $70,000 and from there drifted slowly downward.
Most Maserati GTs in the market won’t have seen much use and
20-year-old cars now typically show 45,000-60,000km while priced a $45,000-55,000.
PRICE NEW IN 2004: $207,500, PRICE NOW CONDITION 1: $48,000
PORSCHE 928GTS
PORSCHE IS regarded as a brand that does a good job of protecting its devotees’ investment from rampant depreciation. Sadly, that doesn’t extend to the ones who bought a 928.
The shark-nosed, front-engined coupe was by 1992 running a 257kW 5.4-litre V8 and its price had hit $230,000. Three years later when the 928 experiment was finally terminated, the cost of a new one had risen by another $11,000 and just 19 cars would be sold locally during that final year.
Surviving 928GTS Porsches accordingly aren’t easy to find in the used market, but rewarding if you do. These are a properly luxurious GT, packed with gear that was lacking from early versions.
The GTS isn’t a cheap car to keep either, as the owner filling one from a 98 Premium pump can attest. The tank takes 86 litres and just 500 kilometres of spirited driving will see it needing to be filled again.
As an automotive experience though, the 928GTS has few rivals, especially in the region of $100,000. Unlike some in this group, low kilometre examples are scarce, so be wary of high-priced cars that could soon need considerable sums spent on maintenance.
PRICE NEW IN 1995: $241,711, PRICE NOW CONDITION 1: $105,000