986 prices are going up?!

[KevinH1990]

There is usually about a 10% gap between asking and selling prices, so asking prices may not provide good data upon which to draw conclusions.

I’ve checked the pricing guides for my car (2000 base bought for $21,250 in March 2006 with 30k miles) and all of them have shown a decline. Here is the data on my car when I purchased it:

MSRP - $ 48,516.00

Price Service Trade-In / Private / Dealer
Edmunds $19,218.00 / $21,545.00 / $24,112.00
Kelley $20,150.00 / $23,835.00 / $27,635.00
NADA $22,575.00 / $24,200.00 / $25,825.00
Consumer Reports $22,850.00 / $24,500.00 / $26,150.00
Average - $21,198.25 / $23,520.00 / $25,930.50


Since I paid pretty close to the Edmunds private party cost for the car, let’s use that price for a comparison. The Edmunds Private Party price is now $19,753. (It would be even less if I factored in the 7000 miles I’ve driven it.) So, I imagine my car could be purchased for about $2000 less than what I paid for it last March. I wouldn’t sell it for that amount, but someone else might sell a similar 986 for that price.

The point is that there are so many Boxsters for sale that the prices will keep declining. I think the rate of decline will slow, but it probably won’t stop going down until the cars sell in the $10-12k range.

A used Boxster is an outstanding value for a buyer. If you buy a new Boxster, you need to be prepared to absorb the depreciation.