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In that price range you can have a new car. Stay away from 3 year old used cars that are selling for 90% of new and have 50,000 miles on them. I could not believe my eyes but truecar.com is showing me $10,314 for a 2016 Versa. I am sure the anti-Nissan contingent will descend shortly but there is nothing wrong with Nissan.
When I looked, again for the second time, that's right around where I wanted to be. Unfortunately for the car I was looking at you were looking at 4-5 year-old cars with more like 100k for $14,000. Since I could buy the same car brand-new for $20,500 that wasn't worth it at all. Even if you assume the car will do 300k as trouble free as the first 100k, which it won't, it's rather absurd. With that assumption, which is as said false, by 100k the car has used up about 1/3 of its useful life and should be priced at no more than 2/3rds of what you can buy new. It was actually higher than that. Factor in the warranty, new car being nicer than a used one where you may be inheriting the previous owners lack of maintenance and abuse along with normal wear and tear, and that cars with 200k+ miles are just not as reliable as ones with 0 miles and the fact that it cost more than 2/3rds the price of new, it clearly was better to buy new.
That was a case of a car that holds its value very well at that time, less so now with cheaper gas prices, and was being discounted because it was old and overdue for replacement and wasn't selling well so I got about $5,000 of MSRP on a $25,000ish car. If you change 300k to 200k, however, that's probably a more accurate figure. You'll find a lot of cars, especially economy cars like Civics or Corollas, that end up being little better to buy used than new. For more family sedan type vehicles or up, especially if you want options which tend to go for very little more than the base models which come fairly well equipped today on most cars, buying in that 3-5 year-old range regardless of whether it's over $13-16k price is often the best way to get them. The car Toyota mildly pushed me towards was about $40,000 before TTL. I could pick one up that's 2-3 years old with 30-40k miles all day long for 25-30k. I'm all for paying less than 2/3rds of the actual selling price (less than 60% of MSRP) on a 3 year-old Toyota with <40k miles. Huge amount of that is options. There's $6,000 of options, the base model sells for around $34k (actually it's no longer sold, dropped in 2015). Once it's a few years old those $6k in options only command an extra $1-2k on the used market. That's much more reasonable. Absolutely no way on earth I'd pay $6k for the options. $1-2k is worth it and I would.
My car would have been probably $4k more new, but everybody says 38k miles is nothing if they are all highway miles and it has been maintained well. I paid $11k and it probably still has 85% of its reliable life left, wear and tear wise. For about 75% of the price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malloric
Other thing is a lot of the depreciation wonders (like the Ford Taurus) don't really depreciate that much. Residual value gets calculated off MSRP. You can pick up a base model Taurus for just over $20,000. Huge chunk of the "depreciation" occurs before the vehicle is sold. That's not depreciation. Brand-new for $20,000 or 5-year-old for $12,000 with 70k miles for $12k. That's not bad depreciation. It's a five-year-old car with about average mileage selling for 60% of what it did new. The loaded Toyota depreciates almost as much in half as many years as the so-called depreciation wonder Ford Taurus. Options is a huge part of it. Taurus SE is one of those not so good cars that's actually a pretty good buy new. Used? Get an Avalon or Buick Lacrosse. New the only thing that comes close in price is the Impala and even that's significantly more expensive.
All in on the car payment for me, which I'm pretty much middle of middle-class would be around $50k. Assuming they don't verify income (mine isn't verifiable as I'm self-employed, and most dealers do not with factor financing) and I honestly report it that's about how much most lenders would approve me for. Certainly Toyota was happy to lend me $40k based on my reported income and credit score. I probably could have lied and said I made more but $750/mo car payment for me is where I feel "all-in." I'd prefer to keep it below $500/mo and the less the better.
I'm a student and not keen on lying to take on any car payment above $0/month, which (presumably) fits someone making $28k/year in one of the highest COL areas in the country and paying some school bills to boot. Fortunately, I will graduate totally debt free. I won't owe a red cent to anyone, for any reason.
84k miles??? There are much better deals out there than this.
I bought a 2014 Fusion SE three weeks ago for $15k. It was a personal lease return vehicle, in immaculate condition, with only 17k miles. It still has the new car smell, somehow. lol
With most dealerships posting Carfax or Autocheck info on their websites now, it makes buying a used car a bit less risky. For the most part, you can tell if the car was leased, owned or a rental fleet car, or it was involved in an accident.
I do agree with the OP that this price range is a nice sweet spot for a used car. I strongly considered buying a NEW car, but like was mentioned above, that price range limits you to subcompacts or a maybe a base model compact if they are offering some big incentives. I feel I got more car for my $15k budget by buying "nearly new".
Just a for instance, I was not going to put that much time into searching for a car I am not buying. I do agree with you however.
In that price range you can have a new car. Stay away from 3 year old used cars that are selling for 90% of new and have 50,000 miles on them. I could not believe my eyes but truecar.com is showing me $10,314 for a 2016 Versa. I am sure the anti-Nissan contingent will descend shortly but there is nothing wrong with Nissan.
What 3 year old cars sell for 90% of new? The Versa is an unsafe, small car. In fact it is unsafe relative to other small cars, never mind midsize cars.
A buyer is going to get more for their money buying a used car of the larger sort. Better road feel, better engine, better internal space.
Another option is to buy a new leftover from the previous year. I was able to get $8k off the msrp of a $26.5k midsize sedan (built at the end of the model year) as it was going to be 2 years behind the current models in the lot. There have been zero problems with the car and we have owned it for 6 years.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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The best used cars deals I find are former used cars. You get something that is 2 years old with 30-50k miles and a few scratches for the bottom of what that vehicle should cost. The rental company would have done proper maintenance, which doesn't always occur with single owner vehicles. My wife recently got a great deal on a 2014 Honda Civic from Hertz and so far not a single problem. Plus we get a totally free week long rental with rewards points.
As others stated, when buying used the key is to stick with a top brand like Honda or Toyota.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Quote:
Originally Posted by robrobrob
What car sells for 35,000 and then is worth 13-16,000 three years later?
A little older but you can buy a loaded 2011-2012 Mercedes C300 with 60k miles for $14,500 any day of the week. Heck, there's 30 of them within 50 miles of my house for sale right now on Cars.com.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dpm1
What 3 year old cars sell for 90% of new? T
Prius, Subaru. In fact, even if paying cash, it is often a better deal to buy a new Subaru than a 2-3 year old one because they hold their value so well. Of course, you can't always get them right off the lot due to the popularity.
Prius, Subaru. In fact, even if paying cash, it is often a better deal to buy a new Subaru than a 2-3 year old one because they hold their value so well. Of course, you can't always get them right off the lot due to the popularity.
Meh. I have a 12 month old loaded 6-cylinder Outback that was a bit under invoice when I bought it last March. $34,500-ish. KBB claims I could sell it in a private sale for what I paid for it and a dealer trade would only be about $2K less than I paid for it. Somehow, I find that very difficult to believe.
If I only had $13K to $16K to spend, I'd struggle between buying a new Korean car with a 100,000 mile warranty where I'd have predictable ownership costs for 7 years versus buying a nicer used car where I'd be assuming the risk.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD
Meh. I have a 12 month old loaded 6-cylinder Outback that was a bit under invoice when I bought it last March. $34,500-ish. KBB claims I could sell it in a private sale for what I paid for it and a dealer trade would only be about $2K less than I paid for it. Somehow, I find that very difficult to believe.
If I only had $13K to $16K to spend, I'd struggle between buying a new Korean car with a 100,000 mile warranty where I'd have predictable ownership costs for 7 years versus buying a nicer used car where I'd be assuming the risk.
Subaru has a guaranteed buyback program. I know people who have gotten the price you mention and bought a new subaru.
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