A few years ago, I told you to buy them but you ignored me. Now they’ve gone up faster than your babysitter’s boy/girl/other friend when you pull into the driveway.
Yup, according to the Wall Street Journal, “the value of 10-year-old planes has jumped in recent weeks, with the price tag for the Airbus A320-200 – the backbone of the world’s short-haul fleet – having risen 10 per cent since August.
“The valuation gains for most aircraft suggest that lessors and investors are starting to bet that previous generations of planes are more insulated from the endless manufacturing problems afflicting newer ones.”So, our friends at Avibroker will sell you (normal T&Cs apply: they do not supply any aircraft for sale to Iran, Mali, North Korea, Syria at this time) a nice used 1995 Airbus A320 or a barely used Boeing 737 for less than what you paid for one of the top three selling cars of 2023.
What would you rather fly in, the 1962 Fezzer 250GT for $28m, the 1964 250GT LM for $27m, or the 1957 Jag XK SS for $20m, or the late ’90s A320 with your face painted on the wing, room for 180 of your besties and a cruise-controlled 870km/h for $18m?
Now I’m telling you to short the used car market in the Syria of the south.
Used car prices went up 50 per cent in the two years to March 2022. Since then, they’ve halved and they will keep going down until late next year. Why? New car supply is coming back, particularly from China and Korea (South).
In fact, those countries now account for over 40 per cent of new car sales here. Of course, there is still a backlog for some models of some brands but as cars come into stock, quite a few punters are changing their mind and saying no thanks. You’ll see real new car sales taper off mainly as a very sick economy bites and makers raise prices.
Bottom line is if you’re selling, do it now. If you’re buying a new car under $30k there’s no deals to be done but at higher prices. Wait for a while and you’ll pay less.
OK what about our favourite segment of the market, electric vehicles? Bottom line, the market is controlled by one Elon Reeves Musk, 52, originally of South Africa but now a citizen of three countries and father of 10 children. Elon raises and drops prices as the mood takes him, which is not all that great for used EV prices.
Taking a leaf from the Apple playbook, if you prang a Tesla you have to get it repaired by a Tesla repairer and you, and hopefully the ACCC, know what that means.
Right now, used EVs are a small part of the market but as non-Tesla makers come into the market, prices will come down. One worry used non-petrol heads have is battery life. Like the rest of us, the more charges and the more kilometres, the more life goes down. And that can be concerning with replacement batteries costing between $15k and $50k. But most EVs come with an eight-year battery warranty, so the younger the car the less your worry. Except you’re admitting defeat and buying a fake car.
Anyway, Elon cried (really) while announcing his latest results last week. Basically, sales fell and margins shrunk. That’s what happens when you cut prices and buyers still don’t buy. Over at Tesla’s major competitor, China’s BYD, sales of all battery cars are up and next quarter BYD will become No.1 globally.
There should have been crying at GM when boss Mary Barra had to tell the market the company had scrapped its EV targets. Then 5000 workers walked off the job and the share price hits its lowest since Covid – and then Mary told us the General had lost over a bill this year with its driverless car business; and then the state of California told us it had suspended the business from operating driverless vehicles and accused company officials of not telling them one of its cars had found a pedestrian (not in a good way).
Meanwhile at Toyota, whose guiding principle is to “dedicate our business to providing clean and safe products and to enhancing the quality of life everywhere through all of our activities”, there’s been a slight hiccup.
The local mob are recalling 14,480 C-HRs from 2019-2023 because a fuel leak in the engine compartment may result in an engine bay fire that could increase the risk of injury or death to vehicle occupants, other road users or bystanders. You know our advice: if you smell petrol, lean out the window to light your ciggie.
Max Verstappen, aka Mad Max, was very mad and also seemed to be crying at the Austin, Texas racecourse last Sunday but went on to win even with crook brakes.
The Hamster finished second but then got the flick for a thin bottom. Chuck Leclerc finished sixth for a minute before getting the chop for the same reason. Hamo was right on Maxie and looked like winning, but ended up two seconds behind.
Today’s question comes from JP of Perth: “As I have just got my licence, I’ve been looking at an old Datsun. The dealer tells me it’s a steal at $1.5m. What does the team think?”.
JP we all reckon if you can buy a 2021 Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign for under two big ones you’re a genius.
RM Sotheby’s in Freo tells us this is the 11th of 18 Nissan GT-R50 production cars built. The rarest, most expensive GT-R variant ever produced, it celebrates 50 years of GT-R.
The hand-assembled and signed 3.8-litre V-6 engine now puts out 550kW, 710 horsepower. It comes complete with the optional hydraulic rear wing ($100k extra) and is painted in liquid silver metallic. This GT-R50 has remained in climate-controlled storage at the factory and then a state-of-the-art storage facility. Having never been delivered to a retail customer, the car is in brand-new showroom condition and comes with just 100 clicks on the clock.
Talking of world class motorsport, our very own brown cardigan-wearing accountant, Steve Champion, took ninth in the Radical World Final in Portugal. Usual team of Garth Walden and James Winslow behind the scenes.
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