Why are used Land Rover Vehicles so cheap?

It seems like Land Rovers' don't hold their value worth a darn.....anyone know why? They are regarded as great, off-road capable warriors but according to KBB the a 1995 Discovery is only worth around $2,000. I know they have been owned by BMW, Ford, and now Tata Motors of India. Is it because they are expensive to fix/maintain? Thanks!|||None of these people know what they are talking about. I'll tell you precisely why they depreciate so fast. Very few people know just why cars have to depreciate.





Let us look at the Range Rover as an example. A new one costs around 76 grand. Now, it is fairly easy to get a well off person to pay 76 grand for a new luxury vehicle, especially a Range Rover. It sells.





The yuppie buys it. Here is where things go awry. He doesn't like it, because he is a yuppie, and he thought he was getting a normal wannabe SUV. So, he decides to sell it, and runs into a problem.





He cannot find a well off person who is interested in buying a used luxury vehicle unless it is one heck of a deal. After all, why pay 70 grand, when you can drop 6 more and get a new one?





For that matter, in this price range, why pay 65 grand?





As a matter of fact, that vehicle will have to fall much farther before the well heeled will consider owning it secondhand. So, it sells to the next buyer for 55 grand, who is also a well off person, but at least he got a killer deal. As such, he doesn't mind the fact that it is used. The seller didn't mind the loss because the vehicle qualified for a tax credit anyway.





So, yuppie number two drives it for a couple of years. He determines that he simply isn't manly enough for a Range Rover, and decides to sell it.





Now, in his ownership, he has reduced the value of the vehicle further, but just how much? It now has between 40 and 70,000 miles on the odometer, and is considered a proper used car.





No well heeled person would purchase such a vehicle, so it goes to an average yuppie this time. Average yuppies don't have near as much money as the previous owners, but they make up the market, so...





The price goes down, into the 30s or 20s, depending on how old the car is. It has to go this far for the people in the market to afford it.





So, this average yuppie buys the car, and he in turn drives it for a while.





After this while, the vehicle has more miles and is even older. He realizes that such a car really is too extravagant for him, and his wife's recent pregnancy mandates more monetary responsibility. So, he decides to sell the vehicle.





Now, this is a three owner car, and it is packing between 60 and 100,000 miles. It is older, but it is still in decent shape. The market has to drop again, but not to bottom just yet.





The only people interested in this car just got their first real job after college. The car has to drop to their price range to sell, so it lands between 10 and 20,000 dollars.





After a while, when THEY decide to sell it, it is too old for any yuppie to be interested in, or it has too many miles.





It has to fall down to the ENTHUSIASTS price. And that, my friends, is the price you are referring to. That is where WE pick it up, and drive it for 300,000 more miles before chopping the top and installing air lockers and rock sliders after we purchase another yuppie owned rig for driving on the street.





THAT is how depreciation works.|||They're British crap.





If you think they depreciate a lot, check out a Jaguar. When Ford foolishly bought Jaguar, they were just on the raggedy edge of being able to produce a car that could successfully be used for transportation. Just on the raggedy edge.





Both these companies improved somewhat while the huge engineering and financial resources of Ford were being wasted on them.|||They require a lot of repairs and the parts are very expensive. They are great cars in performance, however. You are better off in the long run with a jeep Cherokee.|||Because they suck, and they always break down, or there is always something wrong with them. And yes, they are very expensive to fix and maintain.|||They are the number one car that looses its price as soon as it drives off the lot.|||Keenith W great anwser