The Democratic Republic of Used Cars

Whilst sick recently, I have been scouring the used car market for my own amusement and have noted that the value of decade old cars seems to be largely related to public opinion or demand. The price is almost solely based on what people are willing to pay for them rather than any intrinsic value of the car. Thus, the attribution of value is largely democratic.


Purchasing a used car is also somewhat like voting in a democratic election. You seemingly can choose whatever you want however you don't know what you are choosing. There is no way of knowing what design work went into building a car just as there is no way of knowing how the mind of a politician actually works. Furthermore it is almost impossible to predict how your car will perform once chosen. You must base your decision almost on reputation alone and what is reported in the media. There is also an obvious restriction on the choices available to you in that you cannot control which cars go on sale at any one time. Such is democracy, there are really only a couple of viable options to choose from.

2000 Toyota Corolla, roughly described by Jeremy Clarkson as the only car without a soul.

In my searching I found a few bizarre elections in the used car democracy. Since the cars are so old, their value has seemingly no or little relation to their original list price. As such, a few conservative options end up costing the same or more than better equipped ‘unfashionable’ vehicles. A 2000 model Toyota Corolla for example, costs the same as an Alfa Romeo 156, Volvo S40 or Ford Fairmont Ghia of the same year. This is really weird since the latter three vehicles were worth at least twice as much as a Corolla when new. The other odd thing is that the latter three are safer than the Toyota. They all at least have ABS and dual front airbags whereas the Corolla only has a driver airbag and no driving aids. I would have thought that this basic level of safety would be a priority for most car buyers these days. So what is driving the value of the Corolla? Believe it or not, it is the image car of the four. Whilst Corolla drivers probably don’t care what they look like meandering down the street, they are paying for the reputation of it being a cheap and reliable car. Ironically it is this reputation that makes it sort of expensive.

Corolla alternatives from left to right: Alfa 156, Ford Fairmont Ghia, Volvo S40

There are even odder examples of cheaper cars becoming comparatively expensive. The 2001 Jaguar X-Type SE with a 2.5 litre engine and automatic transmission was $70,350 when new. Bizarrely, it is now the same price as the Jaguar S-Type SE with a 3.0 litre engine and automatic transmission from the same year which was originally over $25,000 more expensive. The odd thing about this is that you would normally expect vehicles from the same manufacturer, of the same era, to have the same reputation for build quality and vehicle performance. Furthermore, Jaguar clearly would have tried to make the S-Type a better car than the cheaper X-Type. My only explanation for the current similarity in price is that people don’t like the retro styling of the S-Type, either that or they are prepared to pay a premium for the X-Type’s four wheel drive system.

So how does this all relate back to democracy? With the Corolla, I believe it shows that given the uncertainty involved in buying a car, people will tend to stick to what they know. Conversely, I think it also shows that people don't necessarily know what is available to them if they looked a bit harder. This may be a long bow to draw, but I believe people have a relatively fixed mindset which they apply to everything in life. Admittedly this mindset will change with age/time, but a conservative person will always make conservative decisions just as an ambitious person will always make ambitious decisions and so on.

Skip to the end: A small, possibly ridiculous comparison between used cars and the workings of democracy.