How many of you buy new vs used cars?

Vehicles are normally one of the worst ways to spend money, are there ever circumstances where it makes sense financially to opt for new over used?

Thanks in advance

depending on what you are looking to buy, we are in one of the few times where buying new can be a better deal. the used car market is absolutely nuts right now.

1) The car you're looking at is brand new, never being built before.

2) The price of new (with full warranty) is worth losing $2-3k at drive-off when compared to used pricing. [This is occurring now.]

3) You simply don't give a flying fornication about that $2-3k and figure "It's my money, I can do what I want!" </Eric Cartman voice>

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depending on what you are looking to buy, we are in one of the few times where buying new can be a better deal. the used car market is absolutely nuts right now.

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Agreed.... I have always bought used but am going to buy a new car later this year and am almost certainly going with a brand new car. Used car prices are almost not dropping at all from the new options. Used prices right now are insane.

First and foremost I want to thank all of you on this board who buy used and keep the demand up for my traded-in pickups. I promise you that you are getting a truck that has been well taken care of.

I buy new because I can't stand repair bills. No ordinary shade tree mechanic is gonna work on these new engines and trannys. Its got to be a dealer repair. So if its going to the dealership for repairs its gonna be under warranty. I buy diesels so I keep them for 4 years and don't put over 90,000 and roll them. I kept a previous pickup for one too many years and it ended up costing me nearly a years worth of payments in repairs when I could of traded it in and put the repair money in payments. I learned my lesson.

Its a stupid reason to buy new and I'm probably looking at truck payments for the rest of my life but that's just me. I work my ass off, I'm gonna be driving a new pickup.

The cars that I like are too expensive for me to purchase brand new. That pretty much limits me to buying something used but still awesome.

We did buy my wife's truck brand new because it was reasonably priced. She is not like me and can drive the same vehicle for 10 years.

During our recent car purchase, the used vehicles I were looking at were 2-4 years old with 20-40k miles and were only a few grand cheaper than a brand new vehicle, so we went new.

I have to wonder where some of you are looking at used car prices or if maybe you're looking just a hair too new.

Yes, used car prices are higher than they probably have been in the past. However, I've been recently pre-shopping for a vehicle for Mrs fig and I'm seeing differences of 7k off the starting price of a new model vs a loaded '08 CPO with 40k or less miles (looking at Acuras in this case).

It's a bit of a mileage hit but on a reliable and warrantied vehicle I'm just fine with that. I might spend a very small percentage of that in extra maintenance but that's more than worth the 20%+ reduction in price.

It seems pre-owned luxury is still a better deal, but on the middle tier domestics, newer is only slightly more expensive. Pretty crazy. We are going to be looking at an MDX early next year and will definitely go used. $25k for an 07/08 vs $40k+ new.

What I put in the other thread:


I generally buy used.

I just bought my first new car since 1998.

In 1998, I bought a new F-150.

Got it for $250 below invoice right before the end of the year.

Parents had a $6000 credit from having a Ford VISA card. So I got a new $23,500 MSRP F-150 for about $14,000.

Just bought a new Kia. With the tsunami, the used car prices have been unusually high this year. Like a 1-year old car going for just 2-3k less than the same model that is brand new, despite 20k miles on the odometer. One year is worth 2-3k to me on a ~25k sedan to me and buy buying a Kia, I get the 100k mi power train warranty in addition to getting that extra year of driving.

I bought new for two reasons:

I wanted something with low mileage (less than 30k) and most of the cars with that mileage were pre-owned rental cars that were bare bones - no leather or nice stereos. There was only a $4500 difference between bare bones used and fully loaded new.

I plan to keep the car for 8-10 years and I really wanted the new version of the car instead of last year's model.

Simple, there aren't any used ECOBOOSTs F150s out there.

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Simple, there aren't any used ECOBOOSTs F150s out there.

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I'm pretty sure this one is available.

Oh damn!

As a disclaimer, let me state that the average age of the cars my family drives daily is about 12 years, so maybe I'm not the most normal person to talk to.

Heck, when you add in project cars and work vehicles, the average age is more like 23 plus years.

The rule of thumb always been that a new car loses 70% of its value in the first four years. I suspect that the poor economy has driven used car prices up and forced new car dealers to cut their prices. But I still suspect a four year old car is still going to run about 50% or less of the value of new.

With new cars running around $24,000 and up, that's $12,000 of lost value, or $3,000 a year...in addition to gas, interest on the car loan, insurance, maintainence and repairs.

Maybe some folks won't miss $3K a year. I and most others would.

As far as when I would buy new?

1) If you are in a business, and a tax credit is available for new equipment and not for used.

2) If you have enough money that it doesn't matter.

That's really about the only places it makes economic sense to buy new. Some might think someone with ZERO mechanical ability/sense should buy new to save on repairs. If that's the case, buy gently used and get an extended warranty. I doubt that such a warranty would be equal to 50-70% of the car's cost.

just put that truck in a big bowl of rice, it's soak up all the water and work just fine (like they say about the iphones)

To the OP, I think it depends on what you're buying. I just bought a used 2010 Ram Crewcab truck last week. (bring on the dodge haters). The price difference without any rebates were about 9,000. With the rebates, it brought it closer to 5-6000. But then I probably would have gotten some crappy dealer interest rate with rebates.

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let me state that the average age of the cars my family drives daily is about 12 years

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That's as far as I got

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Simple, there aren't any used ECOBOOSTs F150s out there.

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I drove one today and good lord…awesome truck. Amazing how much power it had.

They tried to close me on an FX2 with Luxury package, 3.55 gear, and Ecoboost v6 for about $32,300.

S-crew or S-cab?

That price isn't bad, pretty much the same truck I've got.

Back to the OP’s question, right now the used market is so high for slightly used cars, 3-4 years old, sometimes the rebates and “under invoice” pricing on new cars make it more sensible than buying used.

For me, in this market the only real no-brainer is on the cars with high mileage and over 5+ years old. They’re the real value. Late model used aren’t the bargain they used to be. We just bought a used suburban back in January. New ones loaded were going for over 50K. CPO type cars in the 2007-2008 range were still over 30K. We got a 2004 with 54K miles for about $16,700, and we’ve spent about $300 in random electrical repairs that were very minor.


[This message has been edited by mm98 (edited 8/22/2011 3:51p).]

SuperCrew. It was a good price. I just wasn't ready to buy. It had damn near everything one would want, minus the Navi. If anyone is looking for one in Rosenberg, TX, Luxury Ford has a nice one they're dealing on. Black with Black leather.

I paid less for mine with a nice chunk down, wasn't a hard sale at all.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay. Over 30K?

Slightly, yes

DAMN!!!! When I bought my GMC crew cab last year I spent less than 25K new off the lot! Pretty much everything but leather and navigation.

GM has had insane incentives the past few years. My buddy at work bought a 2010 Texas Edition Crew Cab. Same thing as you, Tree. Everything but Navigation & Sunroof. Paid mid 24sK.

I would be pretty wary of buying a used (non-exotic) sports car. Non-warranty repair costs mostly. Sports cars are more likely to be abused, so unless it's low miles or you happen to know it was well cared for, you'll want to do your homework and be sure about what you're getting.

By non-exotic, I mean cars below the level of, say a Viper or NSX. Things are different when you start getting into the higher end cars. Even stuff like Supras and FD RX-7s, if you're looking for an unmodified one.

[This message has been edited by madd_ag_05 (edited 8/23/2011 6:34a).]

I bought two cars in April 2010. One was an '08 F150 with 8,800 miles on it. That was an easy decision to buy used.

I bought my wife's Rogue new, because at $100 over less a rebate and some bonus cash for financing with NMAC plus 0.9% for 60, it ended up costing us less than an '09 with 30K+ miles would have. At that point I was able to get her exactly what she wanted with no miles for the same money.

From experience, it all depends on what you are buying.

I've done it both ways...bought new in late 2008. I got a F-150 lariat package 4X4 for around $27k -28k out the door. They were giving trucks away at that time since the 09's were out with the new body style and gas was through the roof. I could touch a used with under 40 or 50k miles for less than about 25 so new made sense to me.

I sold that truck last July to car max for 28k with 30k miles so i ended up paying almost nothing for a couple years of use. I ended up getting an 07 F-350 King Ranch with 17k miles on it for right at $35k. New trucks like this are close to $52k-$55k out the door so the 17k miles, which is absolutely nothing for the diesel engine, was definitely worth the difference in price.