It Will Be An Interesting Market This Fall For the R8 in the US! (Long)

[z356]

Autotrader is listing used R8's at a pace that I have never seen before...and I have been following this market for months. I get multiple 'new listing' alerts from them each day. Must be a combination of lease returns and trade-in's for the new Spyder. Also, anxious v8 owners that are afraid of the next depreciation wave are selling now, ahead of MY2011.

What I find particularly interesting is the number of used v10 coupes with under 3K miles listed in both Autotrader and Cars.com. All appear to be hovering at, or near, the original MSRP, but are competing (at a great disadvantage, I may add) with unsold/brand new v10 coupes at dealers and also, just in the past few days, with the (literally) boatload of v10 Spyders which have arrived & seem to be available at list with no mark-up at dealers all across the country. Apparently, these particular v10 owners were still thinking of years past when you could drive the newly introduced R8 for a year and sell it at a profit or break even after a few thousand miles of use. Those times are gone and these folks will be looking at a loss in order to sell. How much?...we will see soon enough.

I think the newly introduced v10 Spyder (it is quite flashy & attractive) will impact v10 coupe sales (new and used) for the worse, considering the delta is not that great between coupe & spyder. One of the hardest R8 to sell will continue to be the remaining MY2010 v8's in dealer inventory (as expensive as a slightly used v10). Perhaps Audi might consider an incentive program for these (a first for the R8 in the US, so they may be hesitant to put that plan into effect). And there also appears to be still a few left-over (brand new/never titled) MY2009 v8's in stock at some dealers, which is incredible when you think that the improved (more hp) MY2011 v8 coupe is going into production probably as we speak and the MY2011 v8 Spyder is also on its way in first quarter of 2011.

On the used front, low mileage MY2008 and MY2009 v8's are advertised for sale at prices all over the map on the internet, but are probably realistically selling just at, or under, the $100K mark. Vehicles with some mileage (over 15K) are currently listed at well under $100K, some in the $70K/80K. Months ago, R8Talk forum members here were reporting that dealers were offering them low/mid 90's in trade for their low mileage, well maintained '08/'09 R8's. It is probably lower now. I don't have the latest Manheim figures but they should be telling.

Back to 'new' market. Audi, because of production delays (bumpers, etc), failed to get the v10 Spyder here in time for the prime summer selling season. That was costly. Now, we are going quickly into the only two good sales months of Autumn (Sept and Oct), before inclement weather (cold, rains, snow) over most of the country (and the Thanksgiving/Christmas Holidays) douses the appetite of the buying public for expensive & dedicated 'sport' cars. For Audi, it must be a concern that many MY2010 v10 coupes remain unsold, even as newer MY2011 v10 coupes and Spyders are coming as 'spec' (unsold to end-use customers) into their dealers' costly floor plans (bank financed inventory). And then there is that 900 pound 'gorilla' on the other side of the room - the horrible economy (recession or worse?).

Thus, in my opinion, it is going to be an interesting (and telling) market this Fall in the US for the R8 (v8's and v10's), both used and new! And not just for Audi, but other luxury sport marques as well. Right now Porsche dealers are sitting on an unprecedented number of unsold MY2010/2011 gt3 RS, the greatly improved .2 version of that amazing uber 911 model. Incredible times for the (few) buying public! z356

[AnOutsider]

I'll admit, I skimmed the post because without proper formatting it was hard as all heck to read.

Posts like this confuse me though... Are you buying the car to enjoy or as an investment/speculatory move? Personally, I don't care how many people list theirs, it doesn't change how much i love the car. I have no plans on selling any time soon, and with the help of people like VF, Heffner, OEMPlus and Europrice, my car stays ahead of the curve of new tech toys and power Audi throws into each model (with the exception of making it a spyder of course).

[kthacher]

You may want to investigate the exciting new world of paragraphs. They are all the rage on many message boards.

[z356]

Thank you AnOutsider & kthacher for your formatting suggestions. Hope it is now clearer to read by spacing apart my paragraphs. AnOutsider, don't be confused. Anyone buying an R8 for speculation today is 'certifiable'. That time has passed. If I, or anyone else, buys an R8 now it is truly for the 'love' and to 'enjoy', to use your words. Still, a market does exist and I thought some would find a discussion on the subject worthwhile. z356

[KfabR8]

You may want to investigate the exciting new world of paragraphs. They are all the rage on many message boards.

[SDR8]

z356,
Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. I do agree that it is an interesting market. There will be some pretty good deals to be had. The current economy and the supply of cars has definitely driven the selling prices down. It will be interesting to see how well the dealerships will sell their older coupes.

PS: Thanks for editing your original post. It is much easier to read now. I read the original block and was tempted to just skim or stop reading.

[lightninhopkins]

I'm one of the sellers on cars.com. First I listed at $109K, then at $105K. I got tons of calls, for solicitors and annoying sales people. Not one call from a buyer.

Seems that the ebay bids reach very close to $100K, but don't hit the reserve prices.

As far an investment goes, people like me who spent $15K over when the car just came out kinda got what they paid for. An original car which nobody in your neighborhood has. There's always a fee for that.

I've just been tempted to keep the car for another year. Even in the next year, I highly doubt that it will drop to below $90K. So I just look at it this way, I'm spending another $10K (depreciation) for another year to drive the greatest car around.

[R84ME]

I'm one of the sellers on cars.com. First I listed at $109K, then at $105K. I got tons of calls, for solicitors and annoying sales people. Not one call from a buyer.

Seems that the ebay bids reach very close to $100K, but don't hit the reserve prices.

As far an investment goes, people like me who spent $15K over when the car just came out kinda got what they paid for. An original car which nobody in your neighborhood has. There's always a fee for that.

I've just been tempted to keep the car for another year. Even in the next year, I highly doubt that it will drop to below $90K. So I just look at it this way, I'm spending another $10K (depreciation) for another year to drive the greatest car around.

I hear ya' bro. I had the same experience you're reporting on the usual venues. I got $100K out of mine in July. It's a tough market out there if you need to sell - and getting tougher!

[CPBRI]

I've just been tempted to keep the car for another year

Sounds like the best course of action to me!

[the_buch]

Invest in the stock market. Drive your R8.