I remember when I had an Audi RS 6.
My lad, 19 at the time, looked at me when I got it and was told, don’t even ask
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I’m not in a position to be car proud (yet) so happy to run a tank. Almost no insurance difference between the Volvo and a shitty little box. Cheap to buy and should stand up well to the inevitable first accident.
i heard its becuase electric cars not taking off as well as they thought plus no one wants to buy a 2nd hand electric car due to cost of the batteries if they stop working
A lot of that was due to Covid disruptions of the supply chain. There was such a backlog of the widgets required for the computerized elements, most of which came from China, that new car production slowed down to a near halt. The cost of second hand cars then shot up with them being the only option for most buyers, with some manufacturers even buying them to scrap for access to the computerized parts.
Those constraints should now be mostly relieved, but these sorts of externally enforced changes in price often stay in place even when the conditions have normalized
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Covid supply chain issues have had a significant impact as has the war in Ukraine. Apparently a lot of the supply of cars or parts came from there I think.
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Not sure about that, I read that EV sales are doing well.
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From what I have seen, the battery life isn’t an issue as they are likely to outlast the engine on an ICE vehicle. It’s a fair question to ask, though, because when I went for the Golf I did ponder whether to get an all electric car.
At the time, there were few electric cars available second hand and I tend to go for 1-year-old ex-rentals as they are usually the best value. If I had gone for a new car there was a long waiting list. The economics at the time meant that it would be unlikely to ever pay off financially by getting an electric car.
I suspect the main reason for the increase in second hand prices are purely down to supply and demand as mentioned by the other posters. However, once significant numbers of electric cars come through to the second hand market it will push the cost of ICE vehicles back down.
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I think the concerns about battery life are over stated by laypeople, but I think the difference in the maintenance cycle and the way it needs to be paid for can and probably should impact the second hand market. For EVs year on year maintenance cost is lower, but once you hit that point where the battery fails, even if its after 12-15 years, the cost to replace is more expensive that cost of most used cars. Unless EVs depreciate really aggressively (balanced by the reduced cost of maintenance over the first 10 years) you could see the second hand market for EVs being shit.
I doubt that has any impact on the greater second half market though as despite their recent growth there still isnt enough of them relatively speaking I’d imagine for that to affect the larger market.
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I just had a look at how much a replacement car battery costs. I saw a price of £5,046 for a VW ID3. I checked the replacement cost for the engine on my wife’s car (Golf Plus with a 1,2 petrol engine) the other week and it came in at around £2,500. Neither of these include fitting. My wife’s car is 12 years old and it would have made economic sense to replace the engine if needed (as it was, it just needed a sensor replacing which was much cheaper). However, it would almost certainly make economic sense to replace the batteries. It’s possibly just the model that we use to amortise the values of the vehicles that needs to change.
Sorry - this is going wildly off topic again. Do we have a dedicate car thread?
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Electric definitely the way to go.
This is my new one.
https://www.powakaddy.com/portfolio/ct8-gps-electric-trolley/
When. Like any device, batteries in cars become less efficient as they get older. A battery almost always wants to charge slowly. Sticking 300KW into your Tesla every day will literally kill the cells.
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If you are buying a car now, how long before you need a new battery? And how long is usual for replacements not to be covered by warranty?
It is quite possible that the cost for batteries starts to fall going forwards as scale builds and technology improves?
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Insurance is a con.
Last November I was driving my wifes car and someone rear ended me. Her car was written off, we bought it back, fixed her up etc and happy with that as wifey’s had the car since new and it’s never let her down.
The third party took the full blame - and their insurance (Direct Line - bunch of cunts!!!) eventually paid out after fucking us around an awful lot. Eventually we got a bit of compensation (£100) but we still got screwed out of around £300ish (in my opinion).
Now, the renewals have come up for car insurance, and our current insurer (Admiral) have sent us the new quotes from next year.
Last year (for both our cars), we paid £485.
This year I’ve been quoted (for both cars), a whopping £765 - an increase of nearly £300.
Of course, when you speak to the insurers you never get a straight answer. Been shopping around, and unfortunately it’s not much better elsewhere.
I assume, even without making claims, people are seeing their costs go up?
Coupled with our mortgage going up a big chunk per month, and out electricity/gas fixed rate ending it’s rather grim.
Moan over.
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Yes, and it would seem to be unrelated to your claim:
Nah - if I remove the claim the price drops back down (not all the way though so inflation playing its part) - but need to keep the claim on as “those be the rules”.
Same with wifes car - she’s had a shop around and when she adds me as a named driver it hikes it all up.
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You might need to mention the car is/was a damaged repairable if another insurance company has classed it as a write-off… I think it gets put on a national register - For if you need to make another claim on the same vehicle, they may say your cover is null and void for non declaration…! Maybe 
Yep, it’s a Cat-N (non-structural), and insurer’s are aware. It only needed a new rear bumper, a dent removing from the bootlid, and new reverse sensors (which I didn’t bother with). They were saying it was £3000 worth of damage to put right, hence “total loss”. I got it back on the road for £500.
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Trying to get away with paying his fine - He is lucky they not prosecuting him for his mullet :0)
I tried to use medieval laws to get out of a speeding fine… it DIDN’T work (msn.com)
The man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client.