Now that this debate is settled and we all agreed on a common conclusion…let’s settle the rent vs buy property debate.
That’s 1 potential scenario. What about the old grandma who drove it to church on sunday’s and the local grocery store 2 miles away twice a week? (I know this to be a real scenario)
Come on. There’s no way every used car had been driven like a rally car.
So, it doesn’t contribute much to an argument
^ highway miles>city miles. Also a grandma won’t push the rpms thus not blowing carbon out of the cylinders. That accumulation isn’t healthy.
Used. Once you drive a new car off the lot, you lose 30% of its value.
Used higher end cars for me. Sometimes new makes sense, but rarely financially.
If I came up on some big money I’d buy a couple bad used cars (panamera for the wifey, r8 for me).
Only exception right now is the new range autobiography, but would try to wait for a used one.
I read 15%, with a 5 % margin of error.
I’m finding myself dangerously close to getting a new car… I just found a 2011 Grand Cherokee with the options and colors I want selling for 2k under blue book. Part of me says I should resist, the other part of me says that I was planning to buy a new car next year anyway, why not now, especially since rates are still so low. I could probably finance it at 2%, and before the blake paid cash comment, I could pay cash, but the question is why. I’d rather keep my 25k for financial flexibility…
I prefer to buy used because I enjoy doing my homework to uncover potential sources of value. Something about being a “value investor,” I guess.
Also, debates like this have enabled CarMax to fill a rather large unaddressed market.
People aren’t advising to buy a lemon Greenie!
For example, my car in college broke and I needed a new one. I looked at new cars and then used cars. I got a Toyota Corolla that was only a year old and 20,000 miles for roughly half the price it sold the year prior. It has now 100,000 miles and nothing has broken yet (although I get scheduled maintenance like you should to replace things as they age). Car came with a warranty like it was new and such because it was from a dealership, although I’ve yet to use it.
^If the car sold for $30k last year, and you just bought it for $15k, I’d wonder if the sellers had an “asymmetrical informational advantage”. (Wow! I did learn something in the CFA curriculum!)
Maybe it’s worked out for you in this instance, but I would bet that this is the exception rather than the rule.
^ There’s nothing “wrong” with buying new cars if that’s what you want to do. Someone has to buy them new, so why not you. I do find it interesting though that you seem to believe every other car owner in the country beats the crap out of his/her car in the first couple of years to the point that it is about to fall apart and then tries to dump it on someone else, but you are able to baby a car so much during it’s first 2 years that it will last 12.
Certified Pre-Owned is the way to go. I got a 2012 Honda Civic LX with 12,000 miles on it for $14,000. I played dealers against each other and got a fantastic deal. It has a 100,000 powertrain and 46,000 miles bumper to bumper warranty.
I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to get myself to buy a brand new car - it will take a lot of convincing. The ONLY compelling argument for me is… well, you just don’t know how the pre-owned car was treated. Plus it’d be nice driving off with a virgin car.
Always a nice thing to have.
Some people are such cynics.
now greenie that is silly. I have had 7 used cars, including a 4 year old range rover (high maintenance) and a 4 year old Audi a8 (high maintenance). They have not been materially different than the new car my wife has. Maybe I research better than the average buyer, and particularly with British and German higher-end cars you have to be very cautious, but I had cars ive loved while letting someone else pay 80k+ in depreciation while incurring almost the exact same maintenance costs as the new buyers.
But dude why would you buy a used Rangie or Audi for $30K when you could’ve had a brand new fully loaded Hyundai???
Makes no sense…
jcole…i am jealous of you…i paid the depreciation on my Audi. I need to be rational going forward.
Not asymmetrical informational advantage. Previous car owner was a smoker and it appears they factored that into the price. But you could tell from the mileage and the condition, that “smoker” variable in their pricing was over stated. After 1 washing in 2 days all signs of the smoke was gone. You can call it used car arbritrage! ha ha