Just to give you an idea here in the Midwest, downtown Chicago to be exact I bought my 2003 auto with 18's, bose, and spoiler with 18 thousand miles for 28,900. Not a scratch on it and it looks brand new. I bought it at Fletcher Jones. I shopped around for about 6 months since I was in no hurry and waitng for winter to end since I was trading in my Dodge QC Hemi.

 

Autotrader and Cars.com are more realistic sources to look at for pricing. Obviously you can't track whether they sold through those sources, but you can get a better sense for the market asking price.

 

I sold my 2004.5 6MT on eBay less than a month ago for $34,000. It had 11K and was immaculate. The guy even drove up from Georgia to pick it up.

 

Couldn't he have bought a brand new car for that price?

 

Thats exactly what I was thinking..

 

It all depends on the area of the country you are in, but...

You should start to see prices dropping a bit this summer.
I am starting to see more rolling thru the dealer auctions.

Due to several factors:

The novelty of the NEW G35 Coupe has worn off...
Cars will be comming off lease as they reach 2-3 yrs old....
Some cars will be nearing warranty mileage limits and get traded in....
You should be able to find a clean 03 for under $26K

 

Interesting,

There were two 2003 G35 Coupes up here in MI, both for around 29K. The dealer postings were a bit vague, but one was a TB Coupe AT with Prem / Performance Tire & Wheel Package (I think, dealer did not state tranny), with about 20k miles on it.

The other was a 2003 DG coupe AT with prem (& navi, I think), at around the same mileage.
Again, both were arund $28-29k each. Since there is only one Infiniti dealership in the area, and this is BIG3 country, Infinitis are rare. The coupes especially so. A lot of people change cars every 2-3 years, because like half of Detroit gets a discount on one maker or another (if not multiple).

There in cars.com, if you're interested.

Also, that whole 60% of car value after 2-3 years is not entirely true. If varies wildly based on the maker and car. A general rule is that the more fleet sales and incentives a car has, the faster its residual value will drop.
This is one of the many reasons the big3 are in rough shape. They have ruined their brand image with all of their rental car sales, along with all of their heavy incentives.

As well, this is one of the reason that Hondas are worth so much. They almost NEVER do fleet sales. I used to work with Honda, and a "big" fleet sale to them was 200 Odysseys for a taxi cab company. Even then, they maybe only do something like this once a year. Also, incentives on Hondas are almost unheard of. Combine that with a greatly built vehicle and a good public perception of quality, and you get a high residual value.

 

I'm looking forward to prices dropping on coupes, hopefully just in time for me to purchase one at the end of this year.

 

I hope whatever part of the country your in the prices stay high.

But here in Mississippi I hope they drop like a rock. I don't switch cars very often so resale is of no concern for me, only quality. Good resale is an excelent indicator of quality but most people get nervous when the odometer hits 80K or so no matter how good the car is.

I've been driving for 15 years and I've only owned two cars. Sorta never owned anything other than a Nissan if you count Datsun as Nissan.

 

Just some figures from a Kiplinger Magazine where they had a car buying guide. According to their research:

Resale Value
G35 4 dr 3 years-59% 5 years-42%
G35 AWD 4 dr 3 years-58% 5 years-41%
G35 2 dr 3 years-60% 5 years-43%

They drew their numbers from Automotive Lease Guide, a Santa Barbara Pub., supposedly a respected one. www.alg.com
The coupe's numbers are better with a 330 Ci's numbers 55/39.

 

That's in line with what I've read in other threads about the residuals everyone has on their leases. I find it hard to believe, based on current prices, that coups will be selling for 21K in 2006.

Of course, as someone pointed out, all those 3 year lease cars will get dumped on the market sometime in 2006 which I would imagine should bring the actual asking prices more in line with the numbers above. I bet there weren't that many two year leases so the impact didn't make much of a dent.

I wonder if this cycle happens with all new car model releases? The lack of a realistic used market until the three year mark when enough used volume is avaliable.

 

I paid 27g's flat after tax for my 03G Coupe Navi/Sport Suspension/Auto/Fully loaded with 28k miles from a private seller. Keep looking and act fast when you see a pontential one, these cars dont sit in lots long espescially with summer coming.

 

I looked at used ones before I got mine. Wanted the 04 version with Brembo, but the used prices were ridiculously high. Ended up with a brand new 05 Model for the same price as the used one. 34k.
Yeah, I would wait till the new 06 G comes out in June, and see if the prices drop for 04/05 models.