Monthly Update for October 2017 - 2017 Ford Escape

Edmunds.com

Monthly Update for October 2017 - 2017 Ford Escape

As we approach the end of our time with our long-term 2017 Ford Escape, we find we still have mixed feelings about the little orange SUV.

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kirkhilles1

So... you just make the close the books on this without any sort of analysis? You couldn't spend a few minutes and say "we bought it for $29,646 and sold it for $18,000 meaning we had $11,646 in depreciation in 12 months indicating a depreciation cost of 52 cents per mile.".

Insane. For instance, when we went looking for our Pilot, they had 3 YEAR OLD Pilots with twice that mileage selling for just a few thousand below cost of new. Nearly 40% depreciation in a year? Ouch! The new Civic retains 65%+ of its value after 3 years. Clearly, people don't want to spend top dollar on a smaller-size SUV.

cameronr

kirkhilles1 said:

So... you just make the close the books on this without any sort of analysis? You couldn't spend a few minutes and say "we bought it for $29,646 and sold it for $18,000 meaning we had $11,646 in depreciation in 12 months indicating a depreciation cost of 52 cents per mile.".

Insane. For instance, when we went looking for our Pilot, they had 3 YEAR OLD Pilots with twice that mileage selling for just a few thousand below cost of new. Nearly 40% depreciation in a year? Ouch! The new Civic retains 65%+ of its value after 3 years. Clearly, people don't want to spend top dollar on a smaller-size SUV.

This is the final monthly update. A wrap-up detailing our experiences with the Escape during its tenure will be written and published soon. It will include the financial information you described.

majordude

So when is the wrap up happening, its been 3 or 4 weeks?

majordude

Still waiting for the update, now its been like 6 or 7 weeks. When is soon?

afcgeo04

There's a BIG difference between the price you sell the vehicle to a dealer for and the price that it sells for in retail. When you sell a car to a dealer, it is most likely going to go to an auction, where it will fetch a wholesale price. That wholesale price must still be higher than the price you sold it for for the dealer to make money on it. When it is purchased wholesale, the receiving dealer then has to make any repairs and clean it up and then price it even higher to make a profit. That means a dealer will likely purchase your almost new SUV for about $3k-$4 below what it will eventually be sold for on the lot, so that everyone makes money.

That said, CarMax is notorious for low-balling. They're fast and that's what Edmunds is concerned with. They're not in the business of holding on to cars just to squeeze a few extra grand out of the sale. They write off the losses on their taxes at the end of the year anyway. Had this car been sold in a private sale, it would have easily been done so above $25k. Had it gone to a Ford dealer, probably around $22k.