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Comment by smoovb | Hacker News Reader

Picked up a 10 year old Fiat 500e with 50k miles for $5k as my daughters first car. She and my wife love it. Way more power than the gas model, and a super fun drive.

Thank you "Plummeting Resale Values"!

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Fun fact -- three years after the first 500e went on sale, they were going through auction off-lease at $4K (in the US, at least). Ouch! I remember this vividly because a coworker of mine's wife had purchased one brand new for over 30 grand.

For a few years (maybe ~2017-2019?) you could lease them for well under $100 / mo in CA with standard down payments & fees. Total lease cost was like $1k per year.

One has to wonder... What's the reason for so much discount?

"Compliance cars" are cars that manufacturers need to sell to activate subsidies or avoid financial penalties.

As deadlines get close you got really good lease deals on these cars.

I know a bit unrelated but I leased the top-of-the-line Mazda MX-5 for $350/month for 3 years. Lease prices can be amazing.

Such a fun car to drive.

Simply not much demand. Not enough buyers of used cards want them. Dealers will bid in auctions to price point where they can make reasonable profit. I would expect something like say two thousand and then some percentage on auction price to make retail price.

They are doing it weekly. They know what sells at what price and how fast. So price discovery can work pretty well and mostly correct.

Now more questions can be asked why there is no demand? Is the initial price maybe too high? Or is there some other factors.

It's just too small for most americans' tastes lol

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