Used Car Market

[Packbat]

T3rran's "Watch the Roads" suggestion made me think of this: the tycoon game should include some simulation of the used car market.

• Reliability and drivership: Each segment of the car market is going to treat its cars differently. For example, wealthier people will probably put more miles on their cars (leading to a linear increase in accidents and wear), sportiness-focused consumers will drive their cars more aggressively (leading to more high-RPM-related wear, more tire wear, and more accidents per mile), and off-roaders will ... well, take their cars off road more often (suspension, undertray). In addition, design decisions will affect repairability - steel body-on-frame sedans are relatively easy to fix, while fiberglass monocoque sports cars are much more likely to be totaled - which in turn will affect the attrition rate of the vehicles.
• Prestige: New cars will have the new-car levels of prestige. As the car wears out or corrodes, and as its technology grows obsolete, the car will lose prestige accordingly. In addition, cars will take an automatic big penalty to prestige for being last year's model. However, after about 20-50 years (depending on what kind of car it is), cars in good condition will start to gain significant prestige from historic value ... which might mean it's a good time to cash in on the name with a new, updated version.
• Resale value: If a car loses resale value quickly, their owners will be more money-strapped and therefore take longer to replace them - but when they do get replaced, the old cars will be competing for sales in a lower-price-tag market slice. And, if they get in accidents, they're more likely to be written off as totaled. Cars that keep their value, on the other hand, will both depress sales of new cars in that market slice and bring a nice boost to the reputation of the brand.

I don't know how much of this is accurate, or how much is already planned to be in the game, but it seems interesting to think about and - especially if something like T3rran's "Watch the Roads" suggestion is included - a good addition to the tycoon side of the simulation.

[VicVictory]

This has been discussed before and found to be not in keeping with the spirit of the game, which is designing, marketing, and selling your NEW cars.

We all know in the real world there's a used car market, and it plays against the new car market to a degree. But the design of the tycoon game is focusing entirely on the new car market, the buyer demographics, and their preferences. It's an unspoken assumption that 100% of that market will be buying new cars.

For flavor and variety, there HAVE been secondary markets considered and discussed, such as contracts to provide police cars, taxis, rental cars, etc. That was a pretty interesting conversation and seemed to go very positively.

[Packbat]

Do you remember where those conversations took place? I have a hard time finding these things with the Search function.

[07CobaltGirl]

I remember someone discussing it last spring or summer. It might have been during one of the CTC events?

[Slim Jim]

Slim Jim to the rescue! viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4949&hilit=police+taxi

I should know... I contributed to the discussion, LOL.

[Packbat]

Oh, dang - I meant the conversations about used cars! (I'm really happy at the positive response to the police/taxi/&c. contract discussion, though!)

[VicVictory]

I spent some time looking for it. Part of the problem is the search terms you'd need to find it are so common that the board software disregards it. I found an off-handed mention to it in a thread a little over a year old, but I know it's been discussed more recently than that.

But really, one thing should nix the whole used car market from the game:

Who makes money when a car is sold 2nd hand?

Answer: Not the manufacturer. So any used car sales wouldn't budge your bottom line anyway. This is true for CPO cars as well. The dealership makes the money for the car's sale, not the manufacturer. They didn't build the same car with the same VIN TWICE.

"Well, but good used cars will make your company get a better reputation".

True, but there's already an mechanics that account for this: reliability and service cost. In real life, the used cars with great reliability and low cost of ownership are sought after the most, which also translates to them being sought out as new cars. So when the Devs put in the reputation system, your design decisions and ultimate reliability will simulate this in a way.

[Packbat]

*thinks*

Okay, I think I understand now. It would be a tremendous amount of work for very little reward.

[Killrob]

While we will not have a used-cars market from the beginning, we're still considering adding it (the player cannot influence it directly) because it is such an important part of the market in general. If there are only over-priced new cars in a segment available, the potential buyers will have a good look at the second-hand market. Also, in each buyer demographic there are wildly different budgets, which means that some who need a new car just can't afford a new new car.

[JussiE]

I definitely like the idea about second hand market. And the car companies are not that much involved in selling the second hand cars. (Although their import organizations are) So it's okay not having to involve player in it.

Another thing important from the used car is that:
1) it will tell you how well your cars are designed and manufactured. Some of the cars can be useless after few years and some can last "forever". This also has something to do with your service organization, quality and pricing (which might not be in the game but could be interesting choice to have)...
2) Depending on the point number one your used car prices will drop slower or faster.
3) If you sell attractively priced but expensive cars, which are good when new but complete crap after three years of use, they're not worth the money in long run, although they could be very popular when new -> This would hit your brand and/or model reputation -> you might not be able to sell expensive cars in the future if they're not well enough built
4) Number three also is affected by how well the problems are solved and handled with the customer -> from this we'll get back to service organization

[Packbat]

Thanks for the official reply, Killrob!

[nialloftara]

We wouldn't need a full used car market persay, just a stat extrapolating reliability, environmental resistance, and prestige to form a "resale value" stat. Maybe have the other main stats partially contribute to it, but I think those three will matter the most. Resale would probably allow a slight sales boost through those buyers who trade in cars near the end of factory warranties or lease programs.

[DaPeezi]

Oh I´m sorry, did find the thread about Remarketing after all. Its very unfortunate that this will most likely not be in the game, that would have been a very huge step - if you look after Capitalism I/II or OLDTIMER for example which also not include this parts

Guess the fucus ist just a lot more designing the cars than selling them.

[TrackpadUser]

The thing with the used market is that the car company themselves don't take part in it very much.

[DaPeezi]

Hm, I think that is true and not true at the same time.

+ When you buy a one year old car, that was used before by an employee (Jahreswagen), then thats still a used car
+ Some Car Manufacturers give you a rebate if you change your old car to a new one (even if your old car is another brand), although I assume that those are sold to 3rd world aka price sensitive countries or be scrapped entirely.

Of course its totally possible to do those two Options with lets say a checkbox, maybe in your stores or in the marketing department, like:

"Sell x percentage or fixed ammount as "Jahreswagen" instead of new". This would for example raise the motivation of your workers that get those cars almost for free but would decrease the reliability of the used car by a litte. Also those Cars cannot be sold in the first year of course.

The 2nd could work immediately. You could make it so that for example that every car is charged 2/3000$ less for example. For the USED car you get a random ammount of materials (iron, aluminium, rubber or so) from which you could produce your own parts/cars of or like actually getting a "USED CAR Quality XX" that you can sell - not directly competing with your own models of course. Though by doing this you raise not only your sales ammount but also your marketshare in sold cars and for those out there and driving (!). You get rid of an "enemy cars presence" and replace it with one of yours.