Audi S3 value and depreciation.

jdas03

jdas03

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Hi,

I wondered if you guys could help me.
I am not going to sell my car but having owned the car for around a year i like to see if all my efforts to look after it are keeping the price up and also where the general price of S3's are at, are they depreciating or staying around the same?

Car is as follows:

Black S3 facelift
51 Plate
80k Miles
Cam Belt, Water Pump etc done recently.
Standard engine, no remaps or anything (good or bad for value?)
Body work in great condition, except front bumper (few stone chips, repaired soon)
New discs and pads all round
New front tyres
The 80k Major service just done at audi dealer.
all the normal stuff, cream recarros, Bose, 6 disc stacker, standard audi casette HU, Climate Control, Elec Seats etc
Genuine old RS4 wheels (just refurbed)

Sorry for probably the over the top detail above, wasnt sure what was standard and what was an option.

Bought the car for around 5800 a year ago off a friend wondered how much i have lost in the year, and what i can do to raise the value or prevent future depreciation if thats the way the S3 is headed?

Thanks in advance for any help :)
 
I think £4k is the bottom line for a half decent 8L S3, anything less is interstellar mileage or a dog of a car. Facelift is obviously more desireable and slightly better for residuals, I would happily pay £5.5k to own your car if I was looking, but that's not to say it's not worth more.
 
Yeah i doubt you've lost anything on your car if you came to sell.

Having or not having a remap is not to important, you'll get some peolpe looking for a standard engine and others that may see a remap as a bonus, something they may not have to fork out for, it wont effect the price at all in my opinion...
 
Thanks for the advice guys! seems like i got a good buy there then!
How is the price of S3s going? I am led to believe in the UK they are reasonably rare due to the original list price and sort after too?
What can i do to keep the value of the S3 high, any bits to recommend adding or things to concentrate on?
 
Dont tinker about with it or mod it - i.e. keep it totally stock. That, a good body, low mileage(not that this is always an option) and good service history (first party even better!) will ensure high resale values.

The S3 has held it's value insanely well. Its still looks great, comes with a nice amount of kit as standard, and generally has excellent built quality for the most part, so whereas you might think twice about something like an alfa gta with 100k on the clock (or other car in the same category), an S3 will still be a fairly safe purchase.
 
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with what the S3 has lost in the past 2 years.....it aint gonna be losing much soon regardless..... not unless petrol becomes much more expensive than it already is...thats gonna be the killer for S3's

regards increasing value...your not gonna be able to do that, you can only increase its appeal, cost of which if you add any other options you will probably lose what you paid for the option! best bet is leave it alone and look after it, thats always gonna be the biggest appeal
 
jojo said:
I think £4k is the bottom line for a half decent 8L S3, anything less is interstellar mileage or a dog of a car. Facelift is obviously more desireable and slightly better for residuals, I would happily pay £5.5k to own your car if I was looking, but that's not to say it's not worth more.
Click to expand...

So what is your 99 S3 worth then?:p
 
yeh you could still get 5800 for it now, that was a bargain. I paid that for mine with 90k with similar spec about 4 months ago.

I wouldnt be too worried about depreciation, it is what it is, and there is nothing you can do. If they release a newer shape A3 or simlar you will find that would have an effect on the value of 8l's. Id be happy if I owned mine for 2 years, and it was worth 4500
 
IMHO I believe the 8L S3 will turn into a little classic.... Looking on petrol heads and autotrader recently it would appear that prices for 8L S3's are a bit of a lottery and you can put it up for as much as you like...

Running costs will factor in this but I believe it will serve to restrict the market to true enthusiasts (no bad thing) and a well maintained example regardless of age will still fetch decent money... IMO of course :)

<tuffty/>
 
I got my s3 3 weeks ago, sounds very similar to yours, 5000 miles less for £6300 and after looking for quite a while that was a very good price, most others (on Autotrader) were £500-£1000 more on a like for like basis. So I dont think it would be particularly unreasonable to expect to make your money back if you were to sell it.
 
When I was looking to buy my S3 I wasn't fussed about milage. At the end of the day some of these cars have blown engines and turbos at 30K and some are still running standard turbos/clutches at well over 100K (like mine).

I looked for one in the colour I wanted with the options I wanted. I then made sure that the service book was imaculate and I had a mechanic check the car over to enure everthing was sound.

Because so many people are so hung up on milage I managed to pick up a bargain and now that i'm only doing 6000 miles a year I'd like to think that most of the other S3s out there will soon start to catch mine up :eyebrows:

These cars will definitely become a classic and a well maintained one will be desirable to the right person
 
Westle said:
...These cars will definitely become a classic and a well maintained one will be desirable to the right person
Click to expand...

I reckon so mate... I know mine has been modded a bit but I have tried to keep the mods as std looking as poss and the car drives like a std S3 off load... I can still drive in 5th at 30mph with cruise control on and there is no hesitation... Good nick, looks std, drives std, bit of a monster... winna!! LOL

<tuffty/>
 
would be intresting to see a comparitive of how many a3s were told compared to S3's. S3s will become collectable definately, Although my particular car wont be a collectors item when Iv finished owning it
 
sportstractor said:
would be intresting to see a comparitive of how many a3s were told compared to S3's. S3s will become collectable definately, Although my particular car wont be a collectors item when Iv finished owning it
Click to expand...

lol what you plan on doing?
 
That's interesting! Defintely continue to look after it then! I have always wondered how many S3's there actually are around?! I hear people mention them being rare and a classic one day, which I really hope they will be! I don't want to sell as I have said, its just reassuring to know I spent the money on the right car compared to a clio or other hot hatch! I will only be doing a couple of thousand miles at most in the next year as well so looking forward to having not lost much more in a years time! Hopefully petrol won't be the ruining factor, though for what it is I think my car is pretty good on fuel!
 
jojo said:
Can't help thinking they are not as rare as we'd like, I see quite a few around here.
Click to expand...

True but then there were a lot of Mk2 Golf GTi's and we all know what happened there... ok, maybe the 8L S3 is not in the same arena as the Mk2 Golf but it doesn't mean it couldn't happen....

<tuffty/>
 
tufftybloke said:
True but then there were a lot of Mk2 Golf GTi's and we all know what happened there... ok, maybe the 8L S3 is not in the same arena as the Mk2 Golf but it doesn't mean it couldn't happen....

<tuffty/>
Click to expand...

If the comparison is made against the Mk2, then the well looked after ones with low mileages will hold their value best in the long run :)
 
i saw 2 on the way home tonight...... i think you'll be waiting decades before the price lifts significantly if at all..... still lovely unique cars though, bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing and still gives the hot hatches of more recent times...trouble

im happy with my 8 year old pride and joy :) although im keeping mine till i can afford a new house (with double garage)and new shape S3 with LED's...unless sumat else comes along in the mean time :)
 
They way I see it is that it's not about who has the most upto date things anymore.

I'm gutted I sold my mint 1.6 mk1 golf gti a few years back.

And it's why I will be gutted when the VR6 Corrado has to find a new home!

It's sometimes nice to have a rare mint car that not just anybody can go out and buy
 
@drfeelgood. Yeah searching for the right car does take time. I was relatively lucky that i found mine in around 6 weeks. Had to go a bit over 7k though unfortunatley!! Just keep scouring the net, Ebay, Pistonheads, Autotrader were favourites of mine. And Negaro blue is the best colour :p Good luck!
 
I wanted a Noggy blue one originally but gave up searching. Most of the ones I saw in adverts were in Scotland and they were all at least £1500 more than another colour in the same condition.
 
Interesting that you guys see so many. I've seen one since I bought mine and that was in Birmingham Joe lol!
 
Sod that two, forgot about the one that's now parked up in my own ****** car park!
 
Wouldnt call them a rare car yet, annoys me when you see that in an advert, theres plenty of S3 for sale so to say its rare is nonsense.
 
Now those certainly aren't few and far between near me. There are hundreds! A5s, S5s, softops, sportbacks, loads of them!
 
Silly question... If you had 2 identical s3's... both 2001.
One being a Y reg... the other 51 reg. Would they be worth the same?
 
depends how clued up the buyer is :)

personally id pay more for the 51 plate (and i did) assuming the Y plate is a transition model - though pricing in glasses/CAP would assume not, other than the usual year issues :)
 
i thought that was for cars registered before 1st March 2001? although ive resigned myself to paying full wack so havent paid as much notice :)

hopefully the budget next week will get rid of that entity
 
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