Why do PTs Depreciate so FAST?!?

[Ctown]

Why are used PTs price so low now? I remember they were selling around $22k+ when they 1st come out. I still remember reading Motortrend and seeing this car and saying to myself these are the kind of car for people know have $ to waste.

Now these things are selling for under 10K and they're in pretty good condition. Compare to other car this one drop the fastest and they still haven't change the styling yet.

There are 2 other car that I can think of that depreciate this fast is the Beetle due to the mini and Saab 9-3 cause they cause the styling. Many car like Accord althougght completely changed for the better the old ones still selling over 10K with hi miles

The quality of the PT I think is better than most Domestic car though it still feels cheap in many places(so are Japs and some Euros) The only reason is people who used to get these car have the $ to waste and expect too much and too many people got them and now all of them is letting them go at the same time.

[PTGT_Boy]

PT's are like tickle-me-almo dolls, its hot when it came out, now people looking for the next best car out there. Great value buys out there for used PT's at least .

People view japanese cars as realiable, in turn, they retain their values very well. The big 3 auto makers are still hurting from the 80's when their cars were just plain unreliable, and it's still kicking them in the rear.

My mother complains about her 2002 Chrysler 300M (24k Miles), because it's gone through (all under warranty): 1 replaced squeeky A/C unit, bad cam shaft sensor, and a loosley connected starter. My mother likes her old 1993 Lexus GS 300 (152k Miles), although it has gone through(Warranty ran out): 3 starters, 2 water pumps, 2 timing belts, a fuel pump, and an alternator. Reliability is perception and value goes hand to hand. Although the Lexus has received more repairs, it's my mother's perception that she believes that Japenese cars are reliable and American cars are um.....

I doubt alot of people overpaid for the people when it first came out. There are a few out there, but I'm sure most people bought them at MSRP rather than the market hyped price. It's been good for most automakers the past few years, as people are changing up their cars for newer cars. The PT has been around for a bit, and people want a new car and more power. Majority of the used PT's I see are base, limited, and touring editions and have to frankly agree that they lack alot of power to excite someone. Hense, a flood of the underpowered models in the market as people move on to the next big thing or 200+ HP auto. Some of the first buyers of the PT actually moved into the GT models and traded in there older models, thus not necessarly getting rid of a PT, but rather upgrading to the newer and faster PT's.

I use to think that PT's are going to be extinct like a dinosaur after the 2004 model year, but I took one day and observed (actually, I had some custom work scheduled for that day) California Cruisers (custom shop for PT's) and counted how many customers walked in the shop requesting custom work to buying simple accesories, and concluded that the PT be around for another few years. The sales of the PT maybe droping, but they are still selling 100,000+ units every year since the PT was introduced.

Personally, I'm still waiting for the Chrysler SRT-4 version of the PT. However, the GT works fine for me atm.

[Sci-Fi]

Domestic car makers have a bad habit of over promoting short term leasing and supply too many cars to rental companies. When those cars are turned in and/or enter the used car market, your resale value goes to pot as they keep lowering the prices to sell/move them quickly. Also, you have all those big rebates and discounts to sell new cars, which the imports never match and only offer modest rebates on certain models, but still sell their cars to eager buyers. It's another factor that lowers the resale value of your car.

The imports have built a reputation of being very reliable and solid cars. That's important to many people that just want to turn the key and go somewhere and get home without worries. Plus any performance goodies don't void your warranty and are often sold and installed at the dealerships and have their own warranty or is covered under the basic new car warranty. That's something the domestics have never matched or understood. The import dealerships want all the business they can get (esp any impulse buying) and to generate constant traffic to their showrooms and parts dept, whether its selling performance or appearance items or having a customer buying/installing parts check out the latest models while they are waiting. Only seen the Dodge Viper have a performance/appearance/clothing/accessories corner at a dealership where customers can see goodies (in stock too) they can buy and have installed on themselves and their cars.

[quicksilverdon]

Check out some of the deals you can get on a new car, and you'll understand why used prices are low. It isn't just the PT.

[PTGT Redman]

Crappy American marketing.
Oddly, a lot of Japanese cars are built in the U.S. now by Americans.
Wonder if that will affect reliability.

[fritz_t_coyote]

quote:Originally posted by PTGT Redman

a lot of Japanese cars are built in the U.S. now by Americans.
Wonder if that will affect reliability.

So far, it hasn't. Quality (or lack thereof) is a management issue, not a labor issue.

A commitment to quality requires everyone to be involved in noticing and fixing little problems before they become big ones. And often the people best in place to notice the potential problems are the people doing the assembly work. Ford, for example, made great strides a few years ago, but failed to maintain them because they thought 'Quality is Job One' was a quick-fix,

If workers are told to shup-up-and-do-as-they-are-told quality (among other things) will suffer.

[Ctown]

How do I check to see if my car still have warranty and if there's any recalls that wasn't fixed? mileage is around 59000

[Dalite]

quote:Originally posted by quicksilverdon

Check out some of the deals you can get on a new car, and you'll understand why used prices are low. It isn't just the PT.

This is the best short answer to general depreciation.

When the annual inflation percentage is higher than what the bank is paying you to keep money on deposit, a phenomenon known as "deflation" occurs.

The Fed cuts rates to jumpstart the economy.

Unfortunately 9/11/2001 took over 4 trillion dollars of "projected wealth" out of the economy via the stock market. Even worse, much of that "projected wealth" had already been spent into the economy.

This caused a severe shock wave in the economy. The Fed responded by continuing to cut rates until the fed rate was below the annual inflation rate.

Now (and for a while to come) we are playing "Catch-Up" on the money supply.

Money has to be loaned into existence.

The fed can print it up 24/7, but, by the book, a loan has to be created before the money is "spent" into the economy.

Whenever the fed pumps money (liquidity) into the economy, interest bearing bonds are sold to back the money, and the national debt increases by the amount of bonds sold/money spent into the economy.

Our children, and their children's children's children will be forever paying the compound interest on said debt.

The relaxing of credit, low interest rates, 0% financing, and other smoke and mirror tactics have all been employed to try to return motion to a money supply/economic condition that has already had the wheels driven off of it's chassis. I not sure if we can stay out of the way of the snowball, and am sure that we will never be able to push the snowball back uphill.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, car sales since 9/11/2001 have been stronger than ever, due to the relaxed credit and low interest rates. This, in turn, has flooded the market with trade-ins; used cars that were often traded in to take advantage of the cheaper financing. In many cases, money was actually saved by trading into a lower interest rate.

With new cars requiring zero or extremely low interest on the loans, the used car market became a venue for those who could afford to pay cash, or couldn't get credit. This severely limited the customer base for uised cars. Due to the excess supply, used cars are now valued at what they will bring at the auction. In most cases, this is under the wholesale value, and well below trade-in value. Retail value of used cars is a paradoxial phrase.

With this in mind, cars purchased after the drop of interest rates, as long as rates remain low and money is plentiful, are almost disposable.

With the second 7 year cycle of flooding the market with unsecured debt by the fed (anti-counterfeiting measures that require paper money change it's appearance every 7 years), It will be some time to come before the money supply is allowed to contract enough for the dollar to have enough buying power to raise interest rates and lower inflation.

Short answer, cars are overpriced, dollar value is low, and credit is loose - Spend all you want; we'll print more.