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13$k for used or 17$k for new? (honda fit)

brianmanahan

brianmanahan

Lifer
i am looking at getting a honda fit, and its basically a choice between 13$k for a 3-4 year-old used one or 17$k for a new one. could afford either one. on the one hand i like saving 4$k, but on the other hand i like getting a warranty and starting at 0 miles instead of 50k miles.

dear garage, if you were given this %25 difference in price for new vs used, what would you do?
 
Honda...Buy new Almost ALWAYS better to buy a honda new. not to mention the better finance rate you get on a brand new car will almost always help offsett the used car rate and full finance rate between 13k-17k only looking like 60-70 a month difference in cost over a 60Month term. id go new.
 
Black2na said:
Honda...Buy new Almost ALWAYS better to buy a honda new. not to mention the better finance rate you get on a brand new car will almost always help offsett the used car rate and full finance rate between 13k-17k only looking like 60-70 a month difference in cost over a 60Month term. id go new.
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This. There aren't many cars on the market right now I'd bother with used, the used car market is far too dear at the moment.

Another way of looking at this: Is 3-4 years on a Honda fit and paying $4k for those years, at the beginning of warranty a good price? Your answer is hell yes. If you can't get a $17k car after 3-4 years for $11k tops, then it's not worth it. There is also nothing in the world worse than making payments on a car AND covering repairs. Just sucks, straight up.
 
Depends on if it's a CPO in my opinion

If it's a good CPO with low mileage, then you are basically just avoiding a $4k hit in depreciation
 
Jumpem said:
New. I would never buy a car out of warranty. Or keep one out of warranty.
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That is terrible advice.

There is nothing wrong with purchasing a used vehicle that has been properly maintained with full service records.

Cars do not suddenly break down after their 60,000 mile warranty is expired if they have been looked after carefully.
 
Doppel said:
This. There aren't many cars on the market right now I'd bother with used, the used car market is far too dear at the moment.

Another way of looking at this: Is 3-4 years on a Honda fit and paying $4k for those years, at the beginning of warranty a good price? Your answer is hell yes. If you can't get a $17k car after 3-4 years for $11k tops, then it's not worth it. There is also nothing in the world worse than making payments on a car AND covering repairs. Just sucks, straight up.
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for me, mileage and condition would be the deciding factors. If there were 30k+ miles on those cars, I would opt for new. <20k, I would probably buy the used. I would look at the used market and see what kind of condition the cars were in, if they were nice, and fairly low miles, I think a $4k savings would be nice.

Also, as mentioned, if you are financing, the overall difference might be considerably less when factoring in incentive financing rates. So you need to factor that into your decision as well. If you are paying cash, that changes things again. You need to weigh your options for your own situation
 
fstime said:
That is terrible advice.

There is nothing wrong with purchasing a used vehicle that has been properly maintained with full service records.

Cars do not suddenly break down after their 60,000 mile warranty is expired if they have been looked after carefully.
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They could. Even if the chance is small. I'm not willing to wisk a sudden $3-5k expense. I buy new, and sell just before the 100k mile extended warranty is up.
 
fstime said:
That is terrible advice.

There is nothing wrong with purchasing a used vehicle that has been properly maintained with full service records.

Cars do not suddenly break down after their 60,000 mile warranty is expired if they have been looked after carefully.
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+1... most modern cars can do 200k or more without any major services if one does scheduled maintenance. You start missing oil changes, not doing trans fluid changes, timing belts, etc, then you will paying some decent repair bills down the road
 
Jumpem said:
They could. Even if the chance is small. I'm not willing to wisk a sudden $3-5k expense. I buy new, and sell just before the 100k mile extended warranty is up.
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good for you.... not everyone is your situation to buy new. and it is vert unlikely to have a "sudden 3-5k expense". you would have to have an almost complete drive-train failure to get into the 5 grand ballbark. Have the car checked out by a trusted mechanic prior to purchase and your level of risk should be pretty low.

and I think you are putting too much weight on a warranty. In my experiences, the worst car/repair situations I have had have been cars under warranty. Dealers are HORRIBLE to deal with and I could likely get things repaired by my mechanic for less than 1/2 of what dealer would charge and with less headache.

I have been through bad situations with

multiple ford dealerships -
- stolen parts off vehicle out of their lot, not done when stated, missed repairs, etc

mazda
- multiple trips for same repair.... 4 times and still never fixed sunroof issues. finally just unhooked it.

two nissan dealers
- damaged my Z car on a TSB repair, damaged wiring on a warranty repair to HVAC on Xterra, had to contact corporate to get a gate repaired.

Dodge,
- stratus coupe... refused a cv repair, stating it was a wear item, when the car had <12k on it. boot tore to improper retaining clamp install. Later trans went out (flex plate broke). Had the car in for a warranty service as trans was making noise and causing issues in shifting (before it completely let go). they gave the car back to me saying nothing was wrong. Flex plate completely let go and blew apart the trans case, and upper cast oil pan on the motor on the drive home from that service. Took them over a month to repair the car.
- trans went on a caravan at 400 miles. Dealer said they would only cover 1/2 the repair costs.....
 
I bought new Ford back in 2003. Since I have properly maintained it from the day, I never had any problems.

Now there are pos and cons.
Pros for new:
You will get most of your buck with new Honda. It will last forever. It will surely last more than used one, simply because it has less yrs on it. Also repairs will surely occur yrs later than on used one.

Pros for used:
Some makes (Ford, Hyundai, BWM come to mind) lose value so quickly so it does not make sense to buy them new. You will not offset extra yrs and no repairs by buying new. But Honda isn't one of them.
 
Buy new. My father just bought a new CRV and traded his 10 year old CRV LX for $8.1k which was going to be soon needing lots of maintenance.

He test drove the Fit and the lack of any power was unacceptable to him but he was looking at the automatic.
 
i just bought a new 2013 fit sport saturday. Though seems for that price, you can get a base model Fit brand new.
 
While I agree that dealerships in general are terrible, unless I'm seeing a 40-50% savings over new I just buy new. With honda and toyota in particular (unjustified stigma that they are more reliable...) resale values are so high that it tends to make sense to buy new.
 
thanks guys for all the advice, i am processing it now

all the 3-4 year old fits i can find within 250 miles of me have like 40k+ miles
 
SpatiallyAware said:
(unjustified stigma that they are more reliable...)
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i can vouch for Honda. i got a 7 year old Civic base model. All i've done to it is change the front 2 tires and the battery once. I never changed the oil as often as i should or did any other maintenance to it.
Honda's paint jobs suck though, initially i washed and waxed it often, but didn't take long before it sucked too bad to where its not smooth enough anymore to wax it and i literally power washed off a section of paint from the front bumber.

So i got a nose mask for my new Fit, but you can tell the paint is poor quality. My friend had a Toyota pickup, over a decade old, been in a serious front driver side wreck, bent the A frame..etc and could still reliably get you anywhere you wanted to go. that truck was a beast in reliability.
 
To answer the OP's question, I would buy the Fit new. $4k extra is worth it, especially if you really like the car and can afford it. The percentage may be big, but the amount really is not because the cost of the car is low.

The used car will probably need new tires and a timing belt within the first 20k miles, which will eat into that $4k savings pretty quickly. Now if we were talking about a $40k+ car, it is worth considering because the dollar amount in savings is much larger.

Jumpem said:
New. I would never buy a car out of warranty. Or keep one out of warranty.
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I am not saying that buying used is always the best choice, but you may be leaving a lot of money on the table with this mentality.

In 2009 I bought a 2007 Acura TSX for $18k with less than 30k miles on the clock. The MSRP was just over $30k with the technology package.

In 2010 I bought a 2007 Acura RDX for $23k with 32k miles on the clock. The MSRP was $36.5k with the technology package.

What have I done to it besides change the oil, filters, batteries, and rotate the tires? Not a damn thing. And guess what? Both are out of warranty. Oh no! If one does require repair in the future, I'll be able to dip into the $25k+ I saved over MSRP to pay for a repair.
 
In this case, I'd suggest you buy new. Along with many good reasons already stated here, think of it this way: In 3 or 4 years, you can buy another brand new one for $4k if you sell yours. Only at that time will you be able to decide if you are willing to keep it (as the warranty runs out) or justify it as a $750 - $1,000 a year expense.

It makes less of a difference now since most popular options are bundled together, but there is the added benefit of getting to choose the color, trim, and options that you want.
 
Why the Fit? I'd get a Civic for the same price. There's nothing wrong with buying a used Honda as long as it was well maintained. That goes for most Japanese cars. They only really start to develop problems well after the warranty expires. Chrysler, GM and VW though, well... let's just say the warranty has come in handy more times than I can could count in my experience. They have a lot of little things that go wrong in their early life but costs climb quick fixing them.
 
I often recommend lightly to medium used vehicles with 5k-75k miles already on them in many cases, but the depreciation on the Accord/Civic/Fit/etc is so slow that the extra peace of mind, new full warranty, and all that is worth just starting fresh.

The absolute best thing about a brand new car imho is that you know full well that there was no previous owner that ran shitty oil for 15k miles before changing it, or got work done on it by an incompetent shop that botched the job, or had sex with some STD factory in the back seat and left biological slime back there, or whatever. You can then maintain it like a boss and get a great experience out of it unless it's a lemon or something, which is rare with Honda.
 
brianmanahan said:
space to throw big stuff in the back

already have a civic and i really really want the extra room
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How about a Mazda CX5 SkyActiv? It's gonna be a good bit roomier and still get great fuel economy. Might be fun to try something different 🙂

Are you keeping the Civ or trading it?
 
Arkaign said:
How about a Mazda CX5 SkyActiv? It's gonna be a good bit roomier and still get great fuel economy. Might be fun to try something different 🙂

Are you keeping the Civ or trading it?
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still gonna keep the civ as a backup

i looked into mazdas but they are a good 8$k more new for the cx-5s, which is more than i want to pay

and also partly because i honestly dont care that much about fun in vehicles, im a very boring person who basically just drives to get where i want to go and wants to get there without a hassle. civic just makes getting my stuff there a chore or impossible.

since i dont care that much about vehicles i kinda kick myself for looking at new ones. only payed 5$k for an old civic that i have gotten years of use from, so maybe i should just hold out for a cheap 2007 honda fit. doesnt have some of the cool new features, but neither does a 90s civic and i have survived with that for a long time.
 
mmntech said:
Why the Fit? I'd get a Civic for the same price. There's nothing wrong with buying a used Honda as long as it was well maintained. That goes for most Japanese cars. They only really start to develop problems well after the warranty expires. Chrysler, GM and VW though, well... let's just say the warranty has come in handy more times than I can could count in my experience. They have a lot of little things that go wrong in their early life but costs climb quick fixing them.
Click to expand...

At the time, I went with the Fit because the Civic didn't have a hatch. I don't purchase cars with only a trunk.
 
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