On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 13:23:55 +0000, jim wrote:

I have offers for a new car of Circa 26600 (carwow) in my choice
of metallic.

2nd hand/ex demo "year old" examples are advertised (ebay, auto
trader) for 24000 or 24500, usually in cheapo white.

If these cars retain 45% value after 3 years shurely these used
prices are way over the odds?

What gives?

They expect the buyer to be less smart than you and assume that a nearly
new car will be a lot less than a brand new car and so don't bother to do
the sums.

Especially when a number of brand new cars come with zero percent finance
deals so actually work out cheaper than buying s/h with a loan of c5%.