Quote:
Originally Posted by BMW335iOn18s
Manual and THP should indeed increase resale value. Not only that, manual transmission BMWs are easier to sell than their automatic counterparts.
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I thin that is the case now because of the scarcity. I have been told that by a few salesmen. The key though is that the configuration has to match the manual transmission. For example, the manual guy will tend to prefer sportier options over luxury/comfort options. I am looking at manual cars but to often they are loaded with NAV. NAV hump and iDrive kills it for me. I don't consider that an enthusiast option though a few do as i have actually read that on here. There is a blue M3 on the forum that looks perfect but it has iDrive which kills it for me. It's ironic because the seller posts it as an enthusiast option. Maybe for someone with amnesia that doesn't know how to get home or work? Anyway, I am on the manual call list from dealers and the sales people call me when they order a manual. I run down to the dealership and they are misconfigured. They order them with all sorts of weight-increasing luxury options and extended leather, then all sorts of crap. It's like asking for Bear Grylls survival knife and they have it customized with encrusted fake Rubys, glass handle in a holster made from the testicle sack of a holy LLama raised by Tibetan monks. Then they look at you quizically and say here is your $2000 Bear Grylls survival knife....what you don't want it? They can't unserstand, they ordered the knife...they will never order a Bear Grylls knife again because they don't sell!
So properly configured manuals, in order to appeal to a larger group of enthusiasts should be configured with sportiness and lightweight in mind.
Yes, there a few that want the loaded, NAV, folding mirror, extended leather, executive package manual with self parking manual but those are few and far between.
The fact is the future is full of automatic cars, they are and will be a dime a dozen. Manuals are special and you will see more want ads for manuals in the future. Even know, you see articles in Jalopnik about how the F430 will be a classic because it was last Ferrari offered in manual. When Ferrari rolled out F1 gearboxes, they were innovative and exciting....not anymore...Boring.
Another thing is resale value buying is a joke that people don't get. I saw this over and over again when buy the 1M. People were saying they would buy fully loaded 1Ms at 56 for resale value. I told them they would only get pennies on the dollar in return. A stripper 1M with identical history is selling for basically the same price as loaded one, yet the original buyer paid 8K more! Same thing with M3s. People bought fully loaded M3s for resale value and paid 73K and a few bought stripper manual ones for $53K. Guess what, the loaded 75K M3 wis selling for about $45K and the rare stripper, if you can find one, probably $43K with low miles.
So someone spent $20K more to get potentially $2k more 4 years later! That is resale value on M cars in a nutshell.