It's main draw is that the average 10% discount is higher than most traditional dealers and car supermarkets and since modern cars tend to last much longer, second hand values are higher.
But in those happy days few cared much about second-hand values.
Even local consumers have become fed up with Proton's cars, with their sharply declining second-hand values.
Also, one of the ways leasing made more expensive cars seem affordable was by attributing to them high second-hand values after the lease was over.
Falling second-hand values bear this out.While all this was going on, the bursting of the stockmarket bubble was beginning to hurt the pension funds of the Big Three.
They then use the stream of income from customers' repayments to secure debt from the capital market, even as they discount their new cars and weaken second-hand values.
However, there's a lot to celebrate in this little car and BMW offers a five-year battery guarantee, promises to keep up second-hand values and offers buyers the chance to sign up to a renewable source of energy.
And the recalls seem to be having no effect on second-hand values either.GM's boss Mary Barra, who took the helm barely six weeks before the recall blitz began, may have calculated that the best approach to damage control is to clear the decks so that she can get on with fixing the car giant's other problems.
Where there have been defaults, strong second-hand values have shored up recoveries for lenders repossessing vehicles.This buoyancy is reflected in the strong issuance of securities backed by car loans compared with those linked to other categories of consumer debt, such as credit cards and student loans.
A nightmare for GE would be another carrier flying into Chapter 11, or one of those already there being liquidated, as either would release a flight of planes on to the market, thereby further depressing second-hand values and leasing rates.Many of GE's leases to American carriers are so-called leveraged leases.
