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Took me quite some time to piece all the information together for this thread, which I have wanted to start a few months back. No right or wrong here, just some personal opinions on why I think the AD plays an important role in determining the resale value of the model sold by them. Feel free to share your thoughts (a forum is meant for members to engage in meaningful discussion, isn't it?) Many ADs has been playing hard to maintain the sales price of new car sold by them, citing reasons such as protecting customer's interest (by not having an unusually wide price fluctuation from month to month), guarantee a good resale value in the used car market (used car price is tagged almost directly to new car pricing), better service if buying the car from them directly, etc. But is that always the case? It is an open secret that when ADs are not able to meet their sales target, they will register the new car and sold it as used car through their used car division of even 3rd parties. I am using PML and Wearnes as an example below, to highlight the adverse effects of doing so. PML (BMW) With the new X3 priced from $302,888 (xDrive20i) / $308,888 (xDrive20i M-Sport) before over trade, the profit margin is between $68K to $71K, which is almost 150% of their respective OMV! Even after an generous O/T of say ~$30K, the net car price will still be around $270K to $280K. Yet PML would rather sell brand new unit at a much lower price (estimated to be ~$250K+) every month to used car dealers, only for it to be listed as used car, than to price it down to similar level for genuine buyers (direct PML customer). This is the screen grab I have taken from sgcarmart.com and the list is not exhaustive. You can even find pre-facelift X3, which was registered exactly a year ago, on the list (there are actually several units available, but the dealer don't want to give potential buyer the impression that they have to lelong the car in their inventory)! Based on the info I have, used car dealers got these units last year at just $200K thereabout, so they can continue to hold and wait (for uninformed buyer). So what does it got to do with resale value? Well, we all know that in a few years time, when the owner want to sell their ride, used car dealers will probably offer PARF + remaining COE value + another few $$$K for the body, and given the record breaking COE premium currently, the owner is likely to burn >$150K in just <5 years (buy at $280K, sell at $105K - $120K max. at 5th year). That's when some will KPKB that BMW has low resale value, nope? Wearnes (Volvo) Let look at the total number of V60 Cross Country and V90 Cross Country registered in the first 5 month of this year, 13 units in total. Want to make a guess how many of this units are sold as brand new used car? 1, 2 or 3? Well, I found 5 units listed on sgcarmart.com (I have reasons to believe there are more units available but not advertised - 'cos I saw at least another 1 - 2 units parked outside Wearnes Pre-Owned, probably management unit, which will eventually be sold as used car). That translate to ~40 to 50% of the new car sold as used. Reason for doing that? Having to meet sales quota without lowering the new car price. BTW, the profits for both model range from ~$67K to >$100K (before O/T), I will leave it to the readers to decide if that is reasonable for the brand. In the case of Volvo, it is a double whammy for the owners (be it brand new from Wearnes or brand new used car / management unit), as not only they are experiencing paper lost as what I have described above, with many used car in the market with transfer count of more than 1, the resale value will be further suppressed. One just need to browse the used car list on sgcarmart.com for the earlier model, and some can be had for ~$14K annual depreciation (in the current climate of $100K COE, so I cannot imagine when the COE return to $50K, these used car will have <$9K depreciation??) One particular unit of V60 Cross Country has been put up for sales for at least 2 months, with asking price of <$190K (for a 6 months old car) till the owner gave up and sell it to Eurokars Pre-Owned, so does that paint a picture that matches what I have written so far?

As above, which make and model you would buy with the 220k and why? Can be any reasons..