This difference may not be the same for other makes and models of cars and therefore, further investigations will be made.
Hypothesis
It is assumed that ‘the older a car, the cheaper a car will cost’. It is so, due to the general public like to drive new cars and will not prefer old cars. New car also gives good performance.
Mileage
To investigate this factor, I will need to restrict some major factors such as; age, make, model, style and fuel. To do this, I will need to use cars with the same age, make, model, style and fuel. As I have said before, I will use 10 Fiat Punto and 10 Volkswagen Golf. Specifically, 10 Fiat Punto, 2003, 1.2 Active, Hatchback and 10 Volkswagen Golf, 2000, 1.4, Hatchback.
Hypothesis
‘The higher the mileage, the cheaper a car’ is my prediction of the factor, mileage.
I will see whether, if this statement is true or false through further investigations.
AGE
Collection of data for:
The Factor Age:
Renault Clio
Vauxhall Corsa
Already, it is seen that ‘the older the car, the cheaper a car will cost’ as I have said in my hypothesis. The ‘Difference (£)’ column increases from the one before.
From these data, I will try and produce a graph from which I could be able to spot patterns and colorations and make further analysis.
For both the cars, a decrease in price can be seen as the age increases. For Renault Clio, there is a very high decrease in the price in the first 2 years; from then on a gradual slope is formed meaning that price began to drop gradually. As for the Vauxhall Corsa, there is an outstanding drop of the price in the first year; after that a gradual slope can be seen which also means that the price began to drop gradually. The graph for Renault Clio shows that, a car could have been used the most in the first two years and as it is new, it will give excellent performance and thus be driven a lot.
The graph for Vauxhall Corsa, shows that the price decreased very much in the first year. I believe this is so because the new Vauxhall Corsa has better specifications than the old ones and therefore there is a massive decrease in price in the first year than the rest of the years.
My hypotheses was correct that ‘as the age increases, the price will decrease,’ but this hypothesis can be thought wrong by many, as they will think that there is an exact amount of drop in price as the car gets older. This should be made clear that, the rate of the drop is determined by the car itself. If the car has attained a high mileage or it has few dents here and there or etc. this will also affect the car price also.
Now to go on investigating further, I shall find out the percentage of the drop from the original price.
Renault Clio
Vauxhall Corsa
Obviously, as the age increases, the difference increases also, thus increasing the percentage of price decrease. As the percentages are in ascending order, I can now make statistical analysis, by finding out the median, mean and range.
Renault Clio
Median: the middle value of these data is 69.96 ( 66.33 + 73.58 / 2 ) 2dp.
Mean: the mean of these data is 66.53 2dp.
Range: the range of these data is 112.93.
Vauxhall Corsa
Median: the middle value of these data is 72.3 ( 70.82 + 73.78 / 2 ).
Mean: the mean of these data is 73.54 2dp.
Range: the range of these data is 137.99.
The above table, will be drawn into a line graph.
Renault Clio
Vauxhall Corsa
As predicted, both car types percentage in price decrease increases as the age increases. In Renault Clio, 50% of the price is reduced within 2 to 3 years, whereas in Vauxhall Corsa, 50 % of the price is reduced within 1 to 2 years. This could imply that Renault Clio has better demand and service in cars than Vauxhall Corsa. This could also mean that the rate of decrease is the highest in the first few years.
During this investigation, it has come to my notice that the price decrease is not constant but rather it varies.
I have found out that as the age increases of a car, its price decreases.
MILEAGE
Collection of data for the factor: Mileage
Volkswagen Golf
Fiat Punto
From these table it can be seen that my earlier hypothesis which was posed is inaccurate that ‘the higher the mileage, the cheaper a car’. The tables are not a very good way of presenting the data so I shall present them in a bar chart.
From these graphs, there are no correlations or patterns that can be seen. This would mean that Mileage does not play a vital role as a factor affecting its price. For example in Volkswagen Golf, a car which has done 8,000 miles is worth £4100, but another Volkswagen Golf which has done 26,000 miles is worth £4700. A big mileage difference, but not so big price difference. Another example from Fiat Punto is one which 47,000 miles costing £4,500 but another Fiat Punto which has done 41,500 miles is worth the same as the one which has done 47,000 miles.
From this we can conclude that, mileage does not affect a car price and that my hypothesis was wrong.
EVALUATION
During this investigation I have learnt many things to do with trading of cars such as; mileage, age of cars affecting the price etc. All these will be useful as a day will come when I actually buy a car and due to this investigation, I shall be a better observer in cars.
Overall I think I have done O.K in this investigation abd I think improvements could have been made. My hypothesis of the factor Age was correct but it was wrong for the factor mileage. By doing further investigation, it has helped me to find out if I was correct or incorrect with the hypotheses.
