Dont forget, BMW dealerships are simply franchises, not owned by BMW themselves.
If they were selling them as new for more than MSRP, like the US dealers did with Cooper S's for the last few years in certain states, then yes, I'd say that was beyond fair.
However, as these are for all intensive purposes second hand cars, then the law of the free market stands, that is supply and demand setting true value of the car.
Currently, there are people that want to buy the car. Since it got such rave reviews in the press, more people have come forward as potential owners. Whilst this trend continues, the value of the car will remain very strong. The dealer knows he can charge over list, so he will. The flip side of this is, as a seller, you know you can probably achieve 100% value on sale, even to a dealer. So those that bought in the first place probably dont lose any money.
Simple law in this country, and most other capitalist countries, if you own, or can supply something that many people want, but few examples exist, you can charge pretty much what you want.....
Personally, I'm surprised the market would be so strong for a car thats very soon going to wear the not so nice badge of previous model'.... if you have one of these cars now, and are pretty sure your not keeping it long term, best advice would be to sell it as soon as you can. Three months time, a potential £1-2k profit on a 3 month old car will probably be a £4-6k loss - which is a big swing.
Put it this way - how many of these current 'potential buyers' will still be in the market for a USED GP when they just announced the New gen Works has 240bhp, and all those lovely improvements that the new car has......(this is conjecture, not fact, dont go demanding more facts just yet)
Long term residuals of the Works GP will always be good. However, once it starts to fall, it usually falls quickly - and it'll be 12-15 years before a GP is worth more than list price again. Look at the Aston Martin V8 Vantage - people have been driving them for 6-9 months basically free of charge - and selling them at list or above. Bottom just fell out of that market though, and residuals are crashing..... |