Repair-It

Price reduction to $17.997 on the 166k mile Vsport. My prediction is they'll still have to go lower to sell.

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sal ... lCode1=CTS

Yeah, that is a lot of miles for a 2014... My 09 Mazda has less than that. (135K on the Mazda)

It originally listed for $19990. It is a non-premium. One owner Florida car.

You also said (in early December) that if it was $15k, that would be more worthy of consideration. And I thought it would sell much closer to that price. So far that is proving to be true.

When I bought my 97k 5 year old CTS-V, it was selling for half of what some CTS-Vs in the 40k range were selling for (some were newer also). But....HALF. I think that validates the $15k area.

I mean a car like that isn't something most normal people are going to buy. Most people would have a car loan even at $15k. You are completely out of warranty at almost 170k. The price has to reflect that.

And the bottom line is, the non-Premium is a deal breaker I think. And in your situation, the $25k on something you want vs $15k on something you don't is still going to win out. For me, the $15k was the difference between getting a loan and not getting a loan. You're not in that situation. Plus, I really liked the car and not only wasn't compromising on my CTS-V hunt, but even got recent FG2 shocks out of it which is actually a big deal, to this day.

Yeah, I think my most likely target is going to be a 2014 Premium with 50-70k on it for $25k. This is still near the low end of the market, but it is achievable if you're patient. I would prefer not to buy an ultra high mileage example because I'm going to daily drive it and put 10-12k a year on it for 5-8 years before I sell it.

166k mile Vsport price drop to $16,996. I think they still need to go lower.

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sal ... lCode1=CTS

Well the final transaction price doesn't have to match the asking price, though they typically are pretty close for internet deals like this.

Yes, I think this one is in an odd place due to the mileage. It probably has little wear on the car due to all the mileage being highway, but 166k is a big psychological barrier for a lot of people.

So if someone buys that car and puts 35k on it, what would it cost to operate and what would it be worth at 200k? Take that number and apply it to a more expensive, lower mileage example and see how much 35k costs. I would be curious.

I’m sure it’s almost always cheaper to put miles on the higher mileage car. I guess what I would worry about personally is buying a car like this for the 5-8 year ownership horizon that I am obligated to. In reality, it would probably still cost me less than buying a 60-70k mile car for $25k and running it to 130k.

What the curve really looks like is it shifts from the highest cost and highest certainty to the lowest average cost and lowest certainty. Everyone has a different risk tolerance and what it comes down to in general is, people can budget for $300/mo for 5 years (mainly because it is forced - you don't pay and you get repossessed), but they have a much harder time voluntarily saving money to cushion non-linear cost burdens. If the car is under warranty, other than the cost of gas and consumables, the ownership cost is pretty predictable. People pay, consciously or subconsciously, for that high certainty. Just like with the stock market, the highest rewards come at the highest risk.

And with used cars, there is SOME control you have over the level of risk (inspection/test drive, repair history, model reputation and extended warranties are all ways to change the uncertain into the more certain). Some is completely unpredictable. The portion that you can control, however, is the burden of the savvy used car buyer. You can also control the consequence, as with my case (DIY repairs, with some kind of dollar-hour exchange rate).

Adding to that, the best used car buys are probably the ones where loans are higher interest or otherwise less likely, but the value of the car is still higher than most people can afford to pay cash. I think my CTS-V fell neatly into this bucket in 2010.