Falling supercar prices

TOP DEPRECIATING SUPERCARS 10INVESTIGATION

The amount that some luxury cars have lost in a year is enough to make anyone weep – especially dealers. James Baggott reports.

Used luxury car values have taken a battering in the past year, with Aston Martin and McLaren particularly badly hit.

Pricing data from Brego – a new tech-based valuations company that uses AI and machine learning to calculate trends – shows the performance car market has been seriously affected by the pandemic.

Creating a list of the worst-affected supercars in 2020 for Car Dealer, Brego found that the biggest drop in terms of monetary value saw £49,000 wiped off the value of a Ferrari 812 Superfast.

The Mercedes AMG GT C was close behind, losing £48k, while the McLaren 720S lost £45k in the same 12-month period.

Simon Hunt, chief executive of Brego, said: ‘It’s evident the depreciation curve in 2020 of these cars differs slightly from previous years.

‘In general, cars held their value well early in the year, but then in spring/summer we saw a sharp decline in value.

‘This is almost certainly a direct effect of the lockdown in the UK, and would explain why in previous years we have seen a different depreciation curve.’

Hunt singles out McLaren and Aston Martin as having particularly suffered during 2020, and the insight follows reports from luxury car dealers who told us they’d seen similar drops in value.

Last summer, Auto Trader reported that searches for supercars had rocketed as sofa surfers looked for ‘car porn’.

It had seen a fall in values then with Lamborghini prices worst affected – down nine per cent in May on the same period in 2019.

Hunt says that trend continued throughout the year, with a number of models losing tens of thousands of pounds. This will affect owners and dealers that have them in stock.

He added: ‘There are some trends within the automotive industry that held true for 2020. We know that McLaren suffers from a huge amount of depreciation compared to their competitors, such as Ferrari and Lamborghini.

‘The same can be said for Aston Martin, a brand where values drop with the exception of a few models – the original DBS for example.

All of these manufacturer trends continued in 2020 but with steeper declines than predicted.’

Supercar dealer Tom Hartley told Car Dealer at the end of last year that he’d ‘taken the biggest bath in 47 years’ on some of the cars he had in stock as luxury car prices continued to fall.

He said: ‘The prices of luxury cars have dropped around 30 per cent this year, which will make for very uncomfortable reading for some dealers.

‘I have taken the biggest bath in 47 years on some cars, but we are still buying. Prices have dropped and we are replacing stock now at far better prices.

‘It is a combination of Brexit, consumer confidence and the types of people buying these cars wanting to get a good deal.’

Ferrari 812 Superfast

January 2020: £275,000 January 2021: £226,000 Value lost: £49,000 Ferrari is usually a brand that holds its value extremely well. The Ferrari 458 is one of the best cars to buy in terms of residual values, but the 812 Superfast hasn’t shared the same luxury and has instead gone down the same road as the F12 Berlinetta.

Aston Martin DB11 V8

January 2020: £160,000 January 2021: £120,000 Value lost: £40,000 The DB11 is Aston’s first true test of a Mercedes engine in its car. Although reliability is improving, the depreciation curve has remained steep for the British manufacturer.

Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

January 2020: £198,000 January 2021: £162,000 Value lost: £36,000 The DBS is Aston’s flagship product, boasting more power than the DB11 and more aggressive styling. Reviews stated that while the additional power was a welcome upgrade, the interior was largely the same, which could explain the large drop in value.

Bentley Continental GT W12

January 2020: £158,000 January 2021: £129,000 Value lost: £29,000 Bentleys generally hold their value well. However, this year has been unusual for the GT. The number of older models for sale means prices generally depreciate a bit more, but £29,000 is still a fair amount and probably driven more by Covid-19 than Bentley’s natural depreciation rate.

McLaren GT

January 2020: £163,000 January 2021: £122,000 Value lost: £41,000 McLaren announced the GT as an ‘against-the-rules’ grand tourer car – a vehicle capable of 200mph while being comfortable and practical. The reviews of the GT are testament to that, but the practicality side is still that of a supercar and the Bentley Continental GT still holds the honours for the most comfortable GT car. As a result, the McLaren has depreciated more than anyone could have anticipated and lost more than 25 per cent of its value in one year.

Lamborghini Urus

January 2020: £203,000 January 2021: £179,000 Value lost: £24,000 The Urus was Lamborghini’s first SUV, and while there was some debate as to whether or not supercar manufacturers should build SUVs, it was one of the most commercially successful Lambos ever. However, it has still dropped by around the price of a Ford Focus in a year.

Rolls-Royce Dawn

January 2020: £284,000 January 2021: £240,000 Value lost: £44,000 The Dawn is Rolls-Royce’s soft-top convertible made with luxury in mind. Every inch is covered with fine materials, but the Ghost and Phantom make it a less attractive Rolls-Royce for buyers. The depreciation could be down to the type of buyer in the Rolls-Royce market.

Mercedes AMG GT C

January 2020: £138,000 January 2021: £90,000 Value lost: £48,000 The Mercedes AMG GT is a V8-powered supercar but, possibly due to the production numbers, we saw a large level of price drop within the first few years. All Mercedes typically depreciate fairly rapidly; the GT unfortunately shared the same trait.

Lamborghini Huracán Performante

January 2020: £198,000 January 2021: £178,000 Value lost: £20,000 Lamborghini is known for its loud, exotic, poster-worthy cars. The Performante came out as an extreme version of the standard Huracán, and while it has the lowest depreciation figure on this list, £20,000 is still a large amount for a car that would have probably sat in the garage for most of the year.

McLaren 720s

January 2020: £215,000 January 2021: £170,000 Value lost: £45,000 The 720s is McLaren’s flagship car. Replacing the 650s, the 720s is objectively one of the prettiest McLarens out there. McLaren as a brand suffers deeply from heavy depreciation, though, with nearly all of its cars losing tens of thousands in the first year alone.