G-Class

Segment
SUV

According to a report from the New York Post, cryptocurrency enthusiasts appear to be offloading their luxury cars in response to the furor caused by prominent crypto exchange FTX's recent bankruptcy filing.

If you're not in the know, here's the abridged version. FTX was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF. FTX is a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange that seemed to be making the most of the metaverse craze, apparently doing so well that it could afford to sponsor the Mercedes-AMG F1 team, and even when filing for bankruptcy, SBF said the company was worth around $5.5 billion. As it turns out, the company's crypto holdings totaled less than $660,000, according to Markets Insider.

Many investors, big and small, have lost huge sums, but the ripple effect from this shock to the industry has extended beyond FTX clients, with cryptocurrencies across the globe sinking in value.

As a result, many can't afford the lavish lifestyles that digital tokens like Bitcoin made possible.

The Post's report has found that there has been "an uptick in like-new models of sought-after luxury cars [hitting] resale sites such as AutoTrader in recent weeks, but they're not fetching the premium prices they once did." The Mercedes-Benz G-Class is the de facto status symbol of the newly minted, and demand for the G-Wagen has been immense. In fact, Mercedes in Europe even had to freeze orders at the beginning of the year to cope, and this new report notes that the vehicle was once valued in the region of $300,000 on the used market but is now closer to $200,000. That represents a market value downturn of roughly a third, but it's not the only car that has been affected by the decline of Bitcoin and its rivals.

Various McLaren supercars and the Lamborghini Urus, another new-money bragging piece, have seen resale values drop.

The anonymous CEO of a luxury car dealer who goes by the name "CarDealershipGuy" and pens an eponymous newsletter on market conditions told The Post that a 2020 Mercedes-AMG G63 with only 3,992 miles on the clock recently sold for $179,000 when the same vehicle would have sold for around $240,000 last year.

"It's clear that in the last couple of months, the decline in prices for exotic vehicles has accelerated and that correlates very, very well with the meltdown in the crypto markets where we know that some of the biggest customers of exotic vehicles were crypto millionaires," said CarDealershipGuy, adding that he has had numerous inquiries online from crypto fans looking to offload their expensive toys.

"If we learned one thing," added the CEO, "everything is correlated when you have a large evisceration of wealth. It impacts the entire economy." For those looking to buy a G-Wagen, particularly a high-end AMG model, now may be a perfect time. Not interested in a boxy SUV? How about a McLaren convertible?

Software engineer Brianna Wu recently tweeted about a surprisingly well-priced McLaren 600LT Spider with only 9,000 miles on the clock selling for a little over $255,000, while businessman and auto scout Marshall Haas noted earlier in November that there were more than 1,600 G-Class Mercs up for sale on AutoTrader.

According to a representative at the car listing site that spoke with The Post, the number of used luxury vehicles priced at over $100,000 has more than quadrupled in the last three years.

"We do know in the larger market, used-vehicle prices are under pressure - the wholesale values have been dropping most of this year," said AutoTrader's Mark Schirmer in an email to The Post, adding that "in 2021, there was a historic run-up in used-vehicle values. This year, we are seeing declines - what goes up must come down."

Let's hope that this is the beginning of the decline of insane markups and ridiculous used-car prices across the spectrum. And if we never have to write another article about an automotive NFT, we won't miss that either.