Has the recent tick up in dealer E51 prices trickled down into the used market?

[Importland]

I've noticed Elgrand prices for fresh imports seem to have been ticking up a bit, presumably as sourcing decent ones from Japan on an MPV which ended production (the E51) on a '10 plate must be getting harder. Either a tick up in prices, or, alternatively, the same amount of money before which got a later S3 loaded with options, now seems to fetch the same price, but with far less options on it. Not everywhere of course, just a general feeling/viewing that this is the case.

Has this filtered down into the used market? Non-fresh imports. I still see E51s on various sites which have been listed since what seems like forever, so I'/m wondering is it dealers costs are increasing/getting harder to source good ones, which is now 'passed on ' (despise that phrase) to customers, and maybe the rarity of late of dealer fresh imports has not had time to filter into the private, non fresh import market yet? Or has it?

 

[Adam1990]

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Plus over the last year or 2 it's clear to see the E51's have become very popular ( At least on the south coast ) which I guess will mean good fresh imports will fetch a premium price, I don't know for sure but have heard on a number of occasions importing a car has also become more expensive, so it is inevitable dealers will pass this on to customers bumping up the price.

As for the private sale market it's a bit of a strange one these days no matter what car you're trying to sell, they all appear to hang around a lot longer than they would have years ago. I regularly watch cars for sale on ebay, autotrader, marketplace for months before they finally disappear. We are living in a time where a vast majority of people would rather pay large amounts of money every month for a newer car they change every X amount of months/Years. So from experience every time you go to sell a car now you get far more people trying to hammer you down with low ball/insulting offers.

 

[kfgas]

For quite a while now I have thought that buying a non fresh import with perhaps 1 UK owner that was maybe imported a couple of years or so ago is the most cost effective way to go rather than paying a premium through a dealer for a fresh import.

Having said that there are still some good buys on the auctions in Japan especially if not too concerned about year and target slightly older and higher spec cars, a lot of which have low miles, good grades and a good spec and as a long term buy would probably be a far better buy than the newer S3's that it seems both the UK an Australian dealers target and are willing to pay a premium for as I suppose this is what they see as the easiest sale and what there customers want.

I personally can't see that it makes much difference whether a car is 16 or 19 years old and in many ways would be more inclined to go with the older car if it was better condition, lower miles and a better spec as well as being cheaper although I do accept that there is a difference between S2 and S3

As far as prices I think there are a number of factors which are pushing the prices of E51's up at dealers.

Main ones being

The newest E51's are now at least 16 years old and the newer S3 lower mileage and grade 4 cars that dealers prefer are a lot less common as the cars are now that much older with a lot having higher miles and lower grades meaning now that they are quite often fighting among themselves and the Australian dealers for the few that do come up which meets that criteria so have to pay more for them at auction in Japan which I think is part of the reason why even lower spec cars which they might not even have bid on in the past are now still attracting a premium price as there fixed costs on these cars are still the same so as in many cases these cars would have only been a couple of hundred cheaper or even less at auction than a higher specced car like for like so they still need to sell them for a very similar price

Only a couple years or so ago there were a far higher number of cars with a good grades, low mileage and higher spec but these cars are far less numerous now.

FOB costs in Japan and shipping have increased significantly.

UK prep and the dealers overheads have increased dramatically.

Whether this will change now that the import duty is 0% and the dealers move stock on is any ones guess.

This is why i think many long established Elgrand dealers have now pulled away from importing E51's and moved over to importing other models as I think that a number have realised that it is most likely a dying market

If I was looking to replace my E51 I think that rather than trying to source a E51 and was looking to import from the auctions now I would be inclined to go with a later 2014/15 model Alphard which still keeps it under the 10 year rule so no IVA and much more choice of the higher grades and specs and even though more expensive at auction (which as a relative cost is only a small part of the overall cost) as the fixed costs FOB and shipping, UK port fees transport prep and registration etc are the same.

As you say it does not seem to have impacted yet on the UK market as like you I have seen a number of cars taking a considerable time to sell although I also think this is true on fresh imports where going back a few months quite a few of the cars on the Vine Place website had been UK registered a year or more before where as a couple of years or so ago Elgrands were selling while still on the boat and they were still on the way here