New Car vs House Down Payment?

[Stump1000]

Once you buy a new car and drive it for a week, it's a used car as well.

My dad bought a 2010 Ford truck and paid 35k for it. He sold it 4 months later for 22k. I guess that's an unreliable vehicle with 5k miles on it, since its "used". That's $13k saved just because someone else drove it off the lot.

The point is, there is cars out there that are very nice, pretty much like new for a huge savings.

Look the cars over good and look for low miles. If the car is obviously taken care of inside and out, most likely it was maintained well too.

I've bought a lot of used cars, and I've only bought one new car. That was about two years ago and I won't ever do it again.

[MonkeyMama]

Originally Posted by mojave1

In a theoretical sense I think we could agree that as a car ages, it's reliability must decrease. It's definitely not the other way around. No car is more reliable at 200,000 miles than it was brand new.

So let's say you buy a car that has reached 50% of its useful life for 50% of the price of a brand new equivalent. If you continued to do that, you would need to purchase "new" used vehicles twice as often, subjecting yourself to additional registration fees and smog checks compared to a new purchase that lasts as long as two or three used vehicles. Even a very reliable car is going to need more major (i.e. expensive) preventative maintenance done as the miles are racked up. Things like timing belt replacement are not cheap. Again, if you continue to buy used vehicles, you will be stuck paying these costs more often.

Unexpected repair costs are a whole different unknown, especially not knowing the car's history when you purchase it.

Remember, this is assuming 50% useful life for 50% of the price of a new car. Given the costs of buying cars more often and the maintenance/repair associated with older cars, are you really better off buying used? A lot of cars produced in the last 2-3 years are increasingly more fuel efficient than the predecessors in years prior. How do you factor that in?

I'm warming up to the idea of buying used instead, but I'm also trying to be methodical about it. Your thoughts?

I don't know where to start with this.

As Disney said, cars do not depreciate in a linear matter. I've paid 60% the price of new for 2 one-year-old vehicles. I might get to drive them 14-19 years instead of 15-20. I only lose one year of use, but saved $10,000+ in the price.

Unexpected car repairs? We've driven several used cars, and I do not find that we have had more repairs than anyone I know with a new car. Honestly, I'd say we have had less. Maybe a little luck, but I don't find it hard to pick out a quality used car. I avoid shady sellers, and cars that don't look well maintained, etc. I personally think it's easy to weed out most the scammers. (Plus, we always have a trusted mechanic to help us choose a used car AND who does not scam us with ongoing repairs - which is one reason we have less car repairs than most people I know with NEW cars).

I laughed out loud about your comment on fuel efficiency. !! SORRY! But, my spouse's 2001 Ford Escort easily gets 35mpg. I haven't seen any comparable cars for most of the last decade. Gas efficiency took a big drop the last decade and is just starting to return to where it was in the late 90s. Only cars made in the last 2-3 years compared to the gas efficiency we are used to, yes. I agree with that.

I personally don't really care either way if you decide to drive new or used, but like steve, I am just tired about the myths out there about used cars. We have no doubt saved TONS of money buying used cars. I Can start running numbers if you want to see.

I mean, I think you mentioned smog checks? I've had my car 5 years and it has it's first smog check this year. So I pay $50 every other year for a smog check? But I saved $10,000 on the price of the car! This is the part that is frustrating to get across. Sure, repairs may tend to be more on average, but insurance and taxes will be less. NO one mentions that part. But again, repairs will never come close to the tens of thousands we have saved over the years buying used cars (AND keeping them for a LONG time).

I paid $1000 for my first car, and drove it 7 years. It was an old car and probably had more repairs more than any other I have owned. It was infinitely cheaper to maintain that car than to buy anything significantly newer. Every car I have owned has been extremely reliable. Like, I have only been stranded by flat tires (in 20 years driving?), and that can happen to a new car too. Maybe a dead battery here or there, but that happens to new cars too, once they get older. Plus, easy to just get a jump and move on, so I don't know if I would put that on the "stranded" category.

[jpg7n16]

Originally Posted by mojave1

I'm warming up to the idea of buying used instead, but I'm also trying to be methodical about it. Your thoughts?

Maybe we've been going about this the wrong way. Seems like we're trying to convince you how much you could save by using personal experience and examples, but maybe we could bring it a little closer to home.


What kind of truck are you interested in?
What area of California do you live in?
What color would you like?
Any special features you're looking for?
How long do you expect to own the truck?
How many miles do you expect to get out of it?


Why don't we do a quick experiment and see what the trucks you want are literally selling for in your area and give you some figures of what you could save. (I tried to do this with the Camry listings, but maybe that's not close enough to home for you)

[MonkeyMama]

Jpg - good post.

Actually, I am also well aware that if used cars were popular, they wouldn't be so inexpensive. So, sometimes you just have to shrug and enjoy that the majority will only buy new. That just means TONS of high quality used cars for the picking (because people tire of their cars quickly, buy up, etc.).

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by MonkeyMama

Jpg - good post.

Actually, I am also well aware that if used cars were popular, they wouldn't be so inexpensive. So, sometimes you just have to shrug and enjoy that the majority will only buy new. That just means TONS of high quality used cars for the picking (because people tire of their cars quickly, buy up, etc.).

Actually, that's why used car prices have gone up in the past couple of years. Between the recession and the credit crunch, more people who would normally have bought new were forced to buy used. That increased demand and prices on the used stock. Also, cash for clunkers took thousands of good quality cars off the road further increasing demand for the remaining stock. There were also issues after the tsunami with a serious drop in the supply of new cars from Japan. So a lot of factors combined to increase demand for use cars.

All of that is just a blip in the cycle, though. Normally you can save a lot more buying used but in recent years the situation has been exceptionally weird. I've seen many cases where 1-2 year old cars were selling for as much or even more than brand new models which is simply nuts.