Poll: What is the best value: new or used?

Martin

Lifer
Jan 15, 2000
29,178
1
81
So you're trying to get the best bang for your buck, taking into account reliability, the prospect of repair costs etc.

 

Gibson486

Lifer
Aug 9, 2000
18,378
1
0
Value can be a preference......it really depends on who you ask.

That said, nothing beats a a used Corolla or Civic.....imo
 

dud

Diamond Member
Feb 18, 2001
7,635
73
91
The best value IMHO is definitely used. I'll give you a prime example. I was looking for a fun, luxury car to drive a bit around town, out to dinner, etc. I looked and looked and decided upon a 1990's Lexus SC300 or 400. I recently found a beautiful 1998 SC300 with only 43K miles on it. The original sales price on this car was about $45,000. It was up in mint condition for $12,000. That's value.
 

dustmann

Senior member
Jul 26, 2006
341
0
71
I think it's pretty common knowledge that cars lose 25% or more of their value just for driving out of the parking lot.

From my personal experience with motorcycles (still have the same truck I bought when I was 16, I'm 21 now if you're wondering :)) I've found that just a couple (<5) years old and used is the best. Then you can drive it for a few years and re sell. Lather, rinse, repeat. New is way too overpriced, and when you get something over 7-8 years old, they start falling apart. There are always exceptions of course.
 

senseamp

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
35,787
6,197
126
Depends on the model's depreciation curve. I think Mazda3 is a better value new, since it doesn't depreciate as much. I was waiting a couple years to buy a used one, but after checking out the prices on used models, I bought a new one.
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
102,365
8,475
126
it's not the repair cost, it's the chance that i'll be without a car for an extended period. if you're mechanically inclined and have a good toolset you could buy $1000 cars, keep them running for a year, sell them for what you bought them, and spend less in a year than many do in a month. but i wouldn't really feel comfortable with that unless i had two cars.


the best combination of modern performance, styling, reliability, safety, and value is probably buying 2 to 3 year old off-lease cars with regular amounts of mileage and keeping them for several years. with a lease at least you don't have to worry as much about why someone would get rid of a 2 year old car.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,344
126
Strictly speaking on a financial aspect - the best "value" overall is buying a year or two old domestic midsize sedan that stickered originally at $20,000+ for only $10,000 and running it into the ground. Insurance is cheap, parts are cheap, and they are reasonably fuel efficient for their size.

But value usually has more subjective demands to it than simply the wisest choice from a fiscal standpoint.
 

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
Originally posted by: ElFenix
it's not the repair cost, it's the chance that i'll be without a car for an extended period. if you're mechanically inclined and have a good toolset you could buy $1000 cars, keep them running for a year, sell them for what you bought them, and spend less in a year than many do in a month. but i wouldn't really feel comfortable with that unless i had two cars.


the best combination of modern performance, styling, reliability, safety, and value is probably buying 2 to 3 year old off-lease cars with regular amounts of mileage and keeping them for several years. with a lease at least you don't have to worry as much about why someone would get rid of a 2 year old car.

I try to avoid off lease, corporate and ex-rentals. They are absolutely abused for the most part.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
8,344
126
Originally posted by: Gillbot
Originally posted by: ElFenix
it's not the repair cost, it's the chance that i'll be without a car for an extended period. if you're mechanically inclined and have a good toolset you could buy $1000 cars, keep them running for a year, sell them for what you bought them, and spend less in a year than many do in a month. but i wouldn't really feel comfortable with that unless i had two cars.


the best combination of modern performance, styling, reliability, safety, and value is probably buying 2 to 3 year old off-lease cars with regular amounts of mileage and keeping them for several years. with a lease at least you don't have to worry as much about why someone would get rid of a 2 year old car.

I try to avoid off lease, corporate and ex-rentals. They are absolutely abused for the most part.

Depends on the car. A leased BMW, Audi and Lexus are usually in exceptional shape. They likely had every routine maintenance done on them because they were free under warranty. I also don't know of many professional people that run the ever loving crap out of their luxury sedans leased, owned, or otherwise.

I'll put my faith on a 3 year old luxury sedan being in better shape than a 3 year old midsize "normal" sedan that likely has had pets, coffee, kids, mud, mulch ect thrown in it and probably had minimal maintenance work done on it because the owner was too cheap.
 

Eos

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2000
3,463
17
81
Ugh. I am about a year from replacing my 1996 Toyota Avalon. I hate thinking about finding something that has been as reliable.
 

Summitdrinker

Golden Member
May 10, 2004
1,193
0
0
depends on the car, for 2 to 5 year old car the best buy maybe a mercury grand marquis or lincoln town car

 

MysticLlama

Golden Member
Sep 19, 2000
1,003
0
0
Originally posted by: senseamp
Depends on the model's depreciation curve. I think Mazda3 is a better value new, since it doesn't depreciate as much. I was waiting a couple years to buy a used one, but after checking out the prices on used models, I bought a new one.

Same thing happened on the Impreza my gf just picked up. Getting the new one with full warranty and 0 miles made more sense than saving a couple thousand to get one with partial warranty left and 60k.

Depends on the car. I don't know that I would ever buy a Porsche new.
 

MysticLlama

Golden Member
Sep 19, 2000
1,003
0
0
Some would, some wouldn't. I have two, they are close to the most reliable cars I've owned, the newer one gets great gas mileage, they are reasonably quick (but not all that fast), and have been cheaper maintenance wise when something does come up than my Honda Prelude was.

Edit: They are also old enough to be close to the bottom of their depreciation curve, and I can drive them for years and put a bunch of miles on them and lose very little in that respect.
 

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
Originally posted by: vi_edit
Originally posted by: Gillbot
Originally posted by: ElFenix
it's not the repair cost, it's the chance that i'll be without a car for an extended period. if you're mechanically inclined and have a good toolset you could buy $1000 cars, keep them running for a year, sell them for what you bought them, and spend less in a year than many do in a month. but i wouldn't really feel comfortable with that unless i had two cars.


the best combination of modern performance, styling, reliability, safety, and value is probably buying 2 to 3 year old off-lease cars with regular amounts of mileage and keeping them for several years. with a lease at least you don't have to worry as much about why someone would get rid of a 2 year old car.

I try to avoid off lease, corporate and ex-rentals. They are absolutely abused for the most part.

Depends on the car. A leased BMW, Audi and Lexus are usually in exceptional shape. They likely had every routine maintenance done on them because they were free under warranty. I also don't know of many professional people that run the ever loving crap out of their luxury sedans leased, owned, or otherwise.

I'll put my faith on a 3 year old luxury sedan being in better shape than a 3 year old midsize "normal" sedan that likely has had pets, coffee, kids, mud, mulch ect thrown in it and probably had minimal maintenance work done on it because the owner was too cheap.

The company I work for provides lease vehicles for nearly everyone and they pay for all fuel and maintenance costs. The vehicles are still driven quite hard because the driver doesn't have to worry about upkeep (since it's free to them) and they are quite abused when they are turned in. IMHO, nobody respects a "free" vehicle and that's why I avoid rentals and corporate leases.
 

Summitdrinker

Golden Member
May 10, 2004
1,193
0
0
yep rentals,corporate leases and most fleets are not for me, these cars are abused and not always maintained that good

now a personnal lease return maybe, you have to check that car over good, it also depends on the model too

 

desy

Diamond Member
Jan 13, 2000
5,442
211
106
I'll buy new when I want Jap quality and buying used makes no sense cause they depreciate so little in the first 3 years. I'll also know the vehicle history

I'll buy 2-3 yr old used domestic when I want a deal, and have someone else take the depreciation hit for a car that 'when you buy the right one' will have decent reliability.

I buy really old when I want something that with minimal maintenance runs but I don't want to have to rely on it or worry if it gets thrashed IE I bought a 20 year old Yamaha motorcycle as a toy 5 yrs ago. I could sell it today for what I bought it for I've bought one rear tire and battery for it in 5 yrs.

Typically no matter what I buy I'll drive it til I've wrung most of the value out of it then junk it or sell it cheap to be rid of it.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,686
126
Originally posted by: desy
I'll buy new when I want Jap quality and buying used makes no sense cause they depreciate so little in the first 3 years. I'll also know the vehicle history

I'll buy 2-3 yr old used domestic when I want a deal, and have someone else take the depreciation hit for a car that 'when you buy the right one' will have decent reliability.

I buy really old when I want something that with minimal maintenance runs but I don't want to have to rely on it or worry if it gets thrashed IE I bought a 20 year old Yamaha motorcycle as a toy 5 yrs ago. I could sell it today for what I bought it for I've bought one rear tire and battery for it in 5 yrs.

Typically no matter what I buy I'll drive it til I've wrung most of the value out of it then junk it or sell it cheap to be rid of it.

Good point. I've paid close attention to the auto market over the last couple of years and noticed that Toyotas and Hondas barely depreciate at all in the first 2 years. I've actually seen them going for sticker price when they have 30,000 miles on them. That's why when I bought a used car I bought a VW. It is surely more finicky than a Japanese car would have been, but half the price.
 

Apex

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 1999
6,511
1
71
www.gotapex.com
Depends. There's no blanket statement you can make that will cover all situations.

In general, used will give you better bang for your buck. However, there are plenty of really really really bad used vehicles as well.
 

Tyrant222

Senior member
Nov 25, 2000
802
0
0
Yup I have to agree. You cannot generalize it that much. In the end I stuck to what I did with my last car, buy a slightly used car. I have some warrantly left and saved many thousands of dollars than if I would have bought new.
 

dirtboy

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
6,745
1
81
Always buy new. You always get the best miles the car has to offer. If you buy used you buy someone else's problems.
 

thomsbrain

Lifer
Dec 4, 2001
18,148
1
0
I ran the numbers when I bought my car. For the Honda Accord, the difference between buying new and driving it into the ground versus buying two used Accords (the second being equivalent to the model you would have purchased when it was new) and driving them both into the ground over the same total period of time is so small that it is definitely worth it to have enjoyed the newer car for the first half of the time period.

The point is that, at least with Accords, it doesn't really matter from a financial standpoint, other than that you had to tie up more capital up front when you bought new. So I found a nice used one well within my budget but with all the crucial features of the new one, bought it, and invested the rest of the money. But if I'd had trouble finding what I was looking for, I would have just bought a new one.

For any car with lower resale values (and by that, I mean any car, period), the answer will always be that used is a significantly better value.
 

PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,749
584
126
Originally posted by: dirtboy
Always buy new. You always get the best miles the car has to offer. If you buy used you buy someone else's problems.

I don't always agree with that. But I have a similar experience to desy. I see a lot of people say "buy a 2 year old corrola/civic!" but why would I? They seem to cost maybe $1000 less then a brand new one.
 

Mermaidman

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
7,987
93
91
I see used cars (usually imports) priced higher than new ones of the same model!

Best value are used domestics a few yr old. e.g. Buick Century
 

Eos

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2000
3,463
17
81
Originally posted by: Mermaidman
I see used cars (usually imports) priced higher than new ones of the same model!

Best value are used domestics a few yr old. e.g. Buick Century

I have a boring car, but I'm not quite old enough for a Century... :D