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I looked at several brands to see if it was some cars that had this high maintenance fee at year 3. I looked at Toyota Camry, Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Chevy Malibu, Subaru Impreza. All these cars have $2000+ maintenance at year 3.
Something interesting I learned today. Those who own new vehicles, did you get this maintenance done at year 3 and if so what were they? I never owned a brand new car so I don't know
Never seen anything like that.
Closest was the timing belt back when vehicles still had timing belts, but that was usually more like at year 4 or 5 than year 3, depending how much you drive. Last two cars didn't have timing belts so there really wasn't anything at 60k (or increasingly 75/90k towards the end of timing belts being remotely common). Last car I had 3 years was the Mazda and there was no $2,000 maintenance ever in the 7 1/2 years and 140k miles I owned it, nothing even close to that at all. Not even remotely close.
I'd use Edmunds TCO instead. Even that runs high for any car I've ever had but at least it's somewhat within the realm of reality. Cars.com just seems out in left field with it's thumb in its arse.
Dealer service of a dsg equipped VW GTI at 40k is around $800. Add in some performance tires...and that's about as close to those numbers as I can get.
Dealer service of a dsg equipped VW GTI at 40k is around $800. Add in some performance tires...and that's about as close to those numbers as I can get.
Christ. Cross a DSG-equpped VW off the list for me. What exactly are they doing there to justify it costing 4x more than a regular transmission flush?
I don't know it's not a terribly difficult DIY. But they charge $400 for the dsg flush alone then another $400 for all the other service items at 40k.
My major service at 30 and 60k consists of an oil change and replacing the cabin and engine air filters. Dealer did the air filter for free with the oil change, just pay for the overpriced part at the dealer so not exactly free but cheap enough I wasn't going to bother. Cabin air filter I just did myself not long ago. Took about 30 seconds and one doesn't even need to have the amazing ability to operate a screw driver to do it. Nice change after the Mazda where it's annoying to do, although basically the same process. Prius is just better designed. I'll probably squeeze a simple drain and fill on the transmission in at 50k. Not a fan of "lifetime" transmission fluid.
It almost always pays off to buy a 2 or 3 year old car vs a new one. The only time it doesn't is if you can get within 10% or so of the used price by getting 20% or more off of msrp and there is enough demand for the used 3 year old model that it has retained more than 60% of its value.
1st year 20%
2nd year (and each year after that) 15%
So it looks like this when looking at % of original value
Estimate Actual (using my example)
1st year 80% 91%
2nd year 68% 83%
3rd year 57.8% 77%
4th year 49% 73%
5th year 41.7% 70%
6th year 35.5% 69%
7th year 30.1% 65%
8th year 25.6% 59%
9th year 21.8% 55%
10th year 18.5% 51%
You will be hard pressed to very many cars that break this rule by any significant amount. There are very very few examples of any mass produced cars that do break it.
Now some lux models may exceed this and depreciate faster.
After 10 years its get dicey. Many more things come into play so its kind of up in the air after around 10 years.
Lots of people scoff at first. Especially people that do not understand what their car is actually worth. When assessing a vehicles depreciation you need to look at the Dealer Invoice for that car when it was new and the avg dealer trade in price. Thats what the majority of most people pay and what they get when they sell.
I do agree that in many instances buying a 2-3 year old vehicle is "better" (and I use this term loosely) in that someone else takes the first year depreciation hit. Unfortunately, the depreciation can sometimes be minimal dependent upon the type of vehicle it is.
I'm not sure that they depreciate quite that fast..... I'm sure some do, but a lot of vehicles (trucks especially) don't depreciate nearly as quickly as the example above.
My truck depreciates at a much slower rate than a Kia Sorrento. Extremely slower.
With that being said, I do agree that after 10 years the depreciation factor does increase (in some cases exponentially) and you can see prices drop off quickly.
You really can't factor in the trade in valuation as the sale price since that isn't real sales numbers. You have to look at private party resale value (I understand that many don't do this and take a bigger hit). Just because the dealer only gives you $19k for a vehicle that blue book says is worth $25k retail doesn't mean it isn't worth $25k. It just means folks allowed themselves to be taken to the cleaners for some instant gratification of getting a new car today.
The dealers will roll over negative equity to the next vehicle, so you take the hit and then on top of that in many cases sell the vehicle for full blue book retail value. Double dipping, so to speak. So the value is still there, you just lose it in the rush to get something "new or newer".
At a car show sometime back I saw a perfect '64 Chevrolet Impala SS for sale. 396, Hurst 4-speed, very original. Owner asking $32,500, would probably take 28,000. That money would get you that Camry. I can just see those two rides side by side.
The Camry has better fuel mileage, but depreciates. And you look like a million others on the road.
The SS guzzles fuel, but will NEVER depreciate. And you'll look like a million bucks!
Also if you buy used from a private owner cost is usually just somwhere halfway between trade in value and dealer used car price, plus most states they are very strict on dealers and sales tax but not so much private owners.
For instance I went to look at a late model land rover. Car was mint, mint, mint guy actually wanted same as dealer used price. I fought with him and said skip it. He sold it at that price a few days later.
Why, well he told me I am a CEO, bought it new, it is a third car, as a businessman I want to keep 100% of the profit the dealer would make if I traded it in. What do you get in return, you meet the owner, see where car was parked, get all paperwork and I sell it to you with no sales tax which in my state is a $2,500 savings.
The car at dealer that is used could just be an auction car or whatever.
In retrospect I should have bought it.
Jeep Wranglers makes the most sense to buy new as they hold value extremely well and are often abused.
Buicks for instance make sense to buy used, they lose value quickly and generally are older owners who take very good care of htem.
My major service at 30 and 60k consists of an oil change and replacing the cabin and engine air filters. Dealer did the air filter for free with the oil change, just pay for the overpriced part at the dealer so not exactly free but cheap enough I wasn't going to bother. Cabin air filter I just did myself not long ago. Took about 30 seconds and one doesn't even need to have the amazing ability to operate a screw driver to do it. Nice change after the Mazda where it's annoying to do, although basically the same process. Prius is just better designed. I'll probably squeeze a simple drain and fill on the transmission in at 50k. Not a fan of "lifetime" transmission fluid.
My brothers 1967 Firebird he bought used in 1980 he never changed the tranny fluid or raidiator. Car runs fine. Prior owner said she changed it once around 1976,
I also bought my mothers 1969 Plymouth in 1989 sold it in 1993 with original tranny fluid and two of the original tires on the car.
Too bad Japanese cars are delicate little snowflakes.
I tend to buy my cars new and drive them 10+ years. Depreciation isn't an issue for me.
Yep.
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