“Dem cars nice, but dey have NOOO resale value!”

We hear those words daily in Trinidad and particularly about Kia Cars. But what is resale value?

“The trade value of a good that has already been purchased. If the original owner of a car wishes to resell the car to another party, this would be the amount of money made from the transaction. If the money made is relatively close to the original price paid, that’s considered high resale. The converse is true.”

What’s the reality in Trinidad?

We have too many tomatoes on the market. When there are too many tomatoes, the price is low. One flood … tomatoes scarce … prices skyrocket! Same with cars. Think of the traffic burgeoning new and used car lots and the pages and pages of auto classified ads both in print and online. As a result, resale value of all cars, whatever the brand, is lower than it used to be. And don’t expect any scarcity in the auto market. The Asian boats arrive every 2 weeks.

Traditional names like Toyota and Nissan are weathering this storm because of perceived durability, performance and safety. But let’s do an exercise – look at the used car section of any newspaper or trinicarsforsale.com now and see how many Kias there are in comparison with Japanese cars … point made.

Kia owners aren’t re-selling as quickly … why?

A Kia bought in Trinidad and Tobago 4 years ago already had factory installed Bluetooth, Push Button Start and Reverse Sensors. So the owner isn’t pressed to upgrade as quickly as a Japanese car owner whose car would have been notoriously feature-poor, four years ago.

Kias are outnumbered

Kia vehicles in Trinidad and Tobago aren’t available foreign used which means less to be sold in the second hand market -think tomatoes scarce, price high. No Kias available on the foreign used market therefore resale value high.

Kias continue to excel in safety, performance and durability

Kia Motors America wins 2014 Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards for “Best Value Brand”

“Value will always be at the forefront of every vehicle we sell. From the Rio all the way to the recently introduced K900 rear-drive luxury sedan, Kia continues to redefine what value means by offering an entire line-up of stunningly designed vehicles that are packed with the features and amenities today’s new-car shoppers demand.” – Michael Sprague, executive vice president of sales and marketing, KMA.

So the next time a man says about a Kia “Dem cars nice, but dey have NOOO resale”- now you know the facts. Those are old stories, folklore like Douen and La Diablesse. Meant to ‘frighten d chirren!’