Tuesday, August 26, 2008

HOA from hell - The Lincoln Mark LT vs. the Ford F150

A HOA (home owners association) in Texas recently told one of its residents that he wasn't allowed to park his new Ford F-150 pickup truck in his driveway. Apparently, the HOA doesn't allow pickup trucks to be parked in owners' driveways. However, Escalades, Ridgelines and even Hummers have been exceptions to the rule. When the owner asked why a Lincoln Mark LT was allowed under the HOA rules and his Ford F150 was not, this was the response from the HOA:

"It's our belief that Lincoln markets to a different class of people."

This story has been well documented AutoBlog.

I wanted to quickly compare the actual sales prices for the Lincoln Mark LT and the Ford F150. While we don't have a huge amount of data for the Lincoln Mark LT, a 2007 model with 11K miles sold for about $34K. The average actual selling price for a Ford F150 was about $22.5K.
I guess $11K and a Lincoln badge are all you need to live like 'the other half'...

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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Resale value: Jeep Grand Cherokee vs. Porsche 911

With all of the data the PriceHub community has been contributing to the site, I wanted to use this data to showcase some of the differences between the resale values of a notoriously bad resale car (Jeep Grand Cherokee) and a historically good resale car (Porsche 911).

Instead of putting numbers and calculations here, I have pasted graphs of the average, actual sales prices for each car for the past several years. Here is the graph for the Jeep Grand Cherokee - note the steep decline from 2008. The average selling price drops quite significantly as the car gets older. According to the graph, if you buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee and sell it after a year or two, you can expect to recoup a fraction of what you paid for it.












Now take a look at the average, actual sale prices for the Porsche 911. While the average selling price does drop initially, you can see that the 911 has a floor price somewhere around $22K, regardless of year. For the Grand Cherokee, the actual values continue to drop with no end in sight.












While my analysis isn't scientific by any stretch, it is interesting to compare the average actual price charts for different cars. I'll admit that it may not be completely fair for me to compare an iconic sports car to a poorly made American SUV.

I doubt that this data will stop you from buying a poor resale car - but it may help to set your expectations properly when you goto sell your car in the future.

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