Resale of Prado 150 V6 Petrol

[Dex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dex]

G'day guys,

First post on this forum. I'm Dex, Sydney-based and I'm hopefully about to buy my first 4WD. You guessed it: it's going to be a Prado!

I'm after some advice, especially from forum members who have experience with buying and selling a Prado 150 V6 Petrol.

I've done a lot of research, been reading all the threads about Petrol vs Diesel and done a couple of test drives. My conclusion is that I want a Petrol - it just suits my needs for what I have in mind with the vehicle.

Unfortunately, I'm in a bit of a limbo situation at the moment - both professionally and privately. This means I may have to sell the vehicle on short notice within a year or so if things turn sour.

This is where my concern comes in. I've done a bit of research and I've noticed that there is a grand total of 9 (nine!) late-model GXL petrols on carsales Australia-wide - as opposed to 500+ Diesels.

Am I making a big mistake by getting a Petrol considering I may not be able to sell it anymore? Normally I would say everything finds a buyer at the right price, but the ratios are just so skewed it looks like the Petrol is such an exotic choice that no one is looking for it period.

Do any forum members have experience selling a late-model (2013+) Prado V6 Petrol? How long did it take to sell? How much did you lose in depreciation?

[BiLLz0r Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close BiLLz0r]

There's only 9 as a) not that many get sold as most bought diesels and b) of those that bought them, not many want to sell them as they're just awesome.
There should be some resale history figures online you could look up to see how they go.

[Dex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dex]

Thanks for your reply, mate.

There's only 9 as a) not that many get sold as most bought diesels

That's exactly my fear. If people don't buy them new, they probably don't want them used either.

There should be some resale history figures online you could look up to see how they go.

Not exactly sure where to look for that. I checked on Redbook, and the annual depreciation for a GXL Petrol averages about $2,600. I also did a quick analysis of the cars on carsales.com.au (limited as that may be), and the average depreciation on asking prices is $2,500-3,000 per one year at ~15,000 km per year. So it's in line with the Redbook estimate.

Having said that, I'm not too worried about depreciation. That's just another cost of owning the vehicle, and I am prepared to realise more depreciation as opposed to a Diesel.

My main worry is not being able to move the car when it is time to sell, due to people not looking for petrols in the first place.

I would still appreciate any first-hand experience with this.

Cheers,

Dex

[cuda Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close cuda]

I sold my 2009 approximately 10 months ago. When I went to ask for a trade in price I was given a value 15% less than what I sold it for privately. So if your happy to accept a trade in you will be able to move onto a new vehicle without hassle.

Thanks
Doug

Thanks for your reply, mate.




That's exactly my fear. If people don't buy them new, they probably don't want them used either.




Not exactly sure where to look for that. I checked on Redbook, and the annual depreciation for a GXL Petrol averages about $2,600. I also did a quick analysis of the cars on carsales.com.au (limited as that may be), and the average depreciation on asking prices is $2,500-3,000 per one year at ~15,000 km per year. So it's in line with the Redbook estimate.

Having said that, I'm not too worried about depreciation. That's just another cost of owning the vehicle, and I am prepared to realise more depreciation as opposed to a Diesel.

My main worry is not being able to move the car when it is time to sell, due to people not looking for petrols in the first place.

I would still appreciate any first-hand experience with this.

Cheers,

Dex

[Dex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dex]

I sold my 2009 approximately 10 months ago. When I went to ask for a trade in price I was given a value 15% less than what I sold it for privately. So if your happy to accept a trade in you will be able to move onto a new vehicle without hassle.

Thanks
Doug

Thanks for your response, Doug.

I know trading in is always an option, however I'm more concerned with freeing up my funds if I have to (and not moving on to a new vehicle).

I guess I could also try to sell it to a dealer directly without buying another car, but I'm assuming that their cash-prices are even lower than the trade-in prices because they need to make money from the deal as a standalone transaction.

How long did it take to sell yours privately?

[pradosteve97 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pradosteve97]

why put yourself in that situation at the end of the day its only a car buy something you can afford.
Buy a petrol 90 series you'll get 1 for $5 or $6k and you'll never stress about paying it off. Driving the latest model car has kept some of my friends broke and living in rented houses for the past 20 years they don't own anything but ride everywhere in the latest model car.

[cuda Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close cuda]

Not long 3 weeks.

Doug

Thanks for your response, Doug.

I know trading in is always an option, however I'm more concerned with freeing up my funds if I have to (and not moving on to a new vehicle).

I guess I could also try to sell it to a dealer directly without buying another car, but I'm assuming that their cash-prices are even lower than the trade-in prices because they need to make money from the deal as a standalone transaction.

How long did it take to sell yours privately?

[fridayman Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fridayman]

I have a petrol, and if something happened to it without a doubt I would get another petrol Prado.

[Dex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dex]

why put yourself in that situation at the end of the day its only a car buy something you can afford.
Buy a petrol 90 series you'll get 1 for $5 or $6k and you'll never stress about paying it off. Driving the latest model car has kept some of my friends broke and living in rented houses for the past 20 years they don't own anything but ride everywhere in the latest model car.

Haha - couldn't help but think of the avo toast discussion when I was reading your last sentence!

But you have a fair point, and I think I need to clarify: affordability is not really my challenge, it's liquidity of funds. I have the money to pay for this car outright, but I want to be able to access the funds if my situation requires it.

That's all there is to it. I have calculated my Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for this car and I'm happy with it. The big question is just: can I sell it when I want or need the money, or will it be sitting on the market for months?

Again, my worry is that the market for petrols is simply not deep enough to have sufficient interested buyers even if I discounted the price significantly. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have this problem with a diesel, but I'd rather have a petrol. That's the dilemma.

[drwormy Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close drwormy]

The same engine and much of the running gear is in a FJ cruiser....and given they have gone out of production.... their resale value has maintained very strong.

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey Dex,

You might consider getting a petrol 120 instead of 150.

Petrol 120 is cheaper, much bigger market for them, quicker resale etc. 120 also has bigger fuel capacity at 180litres, and weighs less than the 150.

Petrol 120 GXL all day long in my garage!

Best

Mark

[OzDriver Member Find all posts View Profile Close OzDriver]

Re-sale was one of several reasons I choose a 2.8 diesel over the V6 (although it was a close call after testing both). I think that there are drivers/buyers that will prefer the V6 but it could take longer for them to be 'found'. Dealers will definitely be less keen to take a V6 as trade in due the risk of it sitting longer on their books. Buying a used V6 does seem to be a good approach since you are then benefiting from the lower re-sale from new. Also the V6 is less changed since the 150 started and 120 V6 owners also seem happy.
I have found the performance of the 2.8 to be much better than I first thought and it improves a lot as the km's increase. The main difference seems to be in acceleration from around 80 to 120 km/h. Economy also seems good (about 8-10 l/100). I don't like the complexity of the 2.8 fuel/exhaust systems but hopefully Toyota will live up to their reliability levels.

[Dex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dex]

The same engine and much of the running gear is in a FJ cruiser....and given they have gone out of production.... their resale value has maintained very strong.

Very good point! I actually test-drove an FJ Cruiser a couple of weeks back.

I have to say I was hesitant as the look isn't really my thing. Was impressed with on-road handling and loved the performance of the engine, but I thought overall it wasn't what I'm looking for. Very limited space and I found the window positioning to be very weird, resulting in massive blind spot on either side, and the rear window is basically useless...

[Dex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dex]

Hey Dex,

You might consider getting a petrol 120 instead of 150.

Petrol 120 is cheaper, much bigger market for them, quicker resale etc. 120 also has bigger fuel capacity at 180litres, and weighs less than the 150.

Petrol 120 GXL all day long in my garage!

Best

Mark

Thanks, Mark. I did notice that the 120 Prados seem to hold their value quite well in general. I'll definitely look into it and maybe test drive one over the weekend.

Why is it that the 120 Petrols were popular, but the popularity seems to have dropped of with the 150 despite it basically being the same engine?

[Dex Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dex]

Re-sale was one of several reasons I choose a 2.8 diesel over the V6 (although it was a close call after testing both). I think that there are drivers/buyers that will prefer the V6 but it could take longer for them to be 'found'. Dealers will definitely be less keen to take a V6 as trade in due the risk of it sitting longer on their books. Buying a used V6 does seem to be a good approach since you are then benefiting from the lower re-sale from new. Also the V6 is less changed since the 150 started and 120 V6 owners also seem happy.
I have found the performance of the 2.8 to be much better than I first thought and it improves a lot as the km's increase. The main difference seems to be in acceleration from around 80 to 120 km/h. Economy also seems good (about 8-10 l/100). I don't like the complexity of the 2.8 fuel/exhaust systems but hopefully Toyota will live up to their reliability levels.

Thanks for your thoughts, mate.

Agreed that used petrols are cheaper to buy, but as explained above I'm concerned with ease of resale. So while I'd definitely save the bulk of the depreciation vs. buying new, I'd still have the issue that it may be very hard to on-sell the vehicle when it comes time to do so...