What the heck? Boxster residuals?

[boxsterdreamin]

Why are boxster residuals so low? Checked with a dealer yesterday about residuals on a boxster, 36 mths, 15K miles per yr, 56% for base box, 54% for S model.

Holy crap! I bought a BMW M3 for $51K had it for 6 months and sold it "wholesale" to an independent dealer for $44K. If I had wanted to take the time to sell it myself I coulda got $47-49K for it!

[Davikk]

You need to compare the residuals over comparable time periods. 6 months for your M3 vs 3 years for a Boxster is not apples to apples.

You lost 14% on your M3 in 6 months, or 28% for the first year if you annualize the number. Compare that to the 44% loss on a base Boxster after 3 years, and the Boxster sounds pretty good. Also, 15K miles per year for a Porsche is A LOT of miles. I've been looking for a 2000 or 2001 Boxster S, and most of them have less than 50K miles, which is about 10K miles per year.

What's the M3 residual after 3 years? Just curious, if you know.

[boxsterdreamin]

Don't know what it is for 2006. For a 2004 it was something over 60% for 3 yrs, 15K per.

My point is you can lease an accord, civic, BMW 330 and several other cars where the residual is at least 6-10 pts higher.

[Davikk]

By "6-10 points higher," do you mean 6-10% higher than 54-56% for a Boxster? If so, I think you may want to check some actual residual values for the cars you mentioned. The Black Book shows 3 year residuals, 15K miles, in the mid 40 to mid 50% for the car brands you mentioned. For a real world data point, a colleague just leased a 330i, 3 year lease, 15K miles with a residual of 55%. The Boxster and 911 numbers, as a percentage, are pretty much in line with BMW numbers. Now, if you use absolute dollars, then there is a big difference because Porsches generally cost more.

[Brucelee]

Overall, BMW holds its value better than Porsche, esp Boxster.

This is one way that BMW cuts such nice lease deals on its new cars.

[mjw930]

A lot of those residuals are subsidized as well. When it's the car manufacturer's doing the lease they can set the residual wherever they want it to make the financing work.

If you want to talk depreciation take a look at my 2004 Volvo V70R. $44,000 MSRP, wholesale today is about $23,000, that's after 24 months. My 36 month residual is $24K Volvo's gonna take it in the a** when I turn this in a year from now, somewhere to the tune of $5K but that's not my problem.