How many of you thought it was a mistake to get a new car?

[dr_sharp]

in a Subaru, will the LAST 20k miles matter?

IMO this is an over-generalization. Just as AKLGT stated, the 2.5GT is much different than the 2.5i in terms of reliability for two reasons:

1 the car, obviously the turbo adds complexity and more to go wrong and

2 the driver, someone who shops for a LGT obviously cares about performance and is likely going to 'get' what they paid for if you catch my *cough* (drive it hard) *cough* drift

[bgray]

When i bought my car new, i relzied. 3 cars after that and they have all been used....is the only wayt to go really

[schneiks]

With dealer rebates and special financing, the differences even in the early years of ownership are negligable. I bought mine new after buying my last several cars used. I don't feel it was a mistake at all.

[welby]

IMO this is an over-generalization. Just as AKLGT stated, the 2.5GT is much different than the 2.5i in terms of reliability for two reasons:

1 the car, obviously the turbo adds complexity and more to go wrong and

2 the driver, someone who shops for a LGT obviously cares about performance and is likely going to 'get' what they paid for if you catch my *cough* (drive it hard) *cough* drift

 

But IMO, if you buy one used that has low enough miles and is still under warranty, you should have plenty of room left for potential issues to pop up and be covered under the warranty. I bought my '05 in Feb. with 30,600 miles, I now have 33,000 on it, so I still have 1.5 years and 27,000 miles of warranty left. I saved $10,000 buying used.... That's a serious chunk.

[legacycutie]

I would never but another used car. I've had my share of new and used and the 2 used I bought have burned me. 1st was a 94 integra and had sooo many problems. the 2nd was the 05 Legacy 2.5GT ltd that I bought in Sept '06. Well after only having it for about 6months the fuel injectors blew, good thing that was still under manuf warranty. Then before I traded it in for a brand new 08 Legacy my boyfriend who is also a autobody mechanic told me the car was in a pretty bad front end collision and that it's been on the frame machine. He didn't want to tell me sooner because I bought the car, 1st of all, without him and 2nd, he knew I would make up problems knowing it was in an accident. I loved the car but the only thing I hated was that it was an automatic and the collision damage was just the final reason I needed to buy a new one. Go figure the dealership noticed the paint change on the hood and asked about an accident so I had to play stupid and say I knew nothing about any accident!!

[qikslvr]

I bought mine new for one reason only. I plan to be the only owner that this car ever has. Aside from that; I've bought about 30 used cars and probably 12 new cars over the years. With a used car, you roll the dice a little, but if there is a warranty involved you should be fine. That and most of the little annoying stuff should already be taken care of already. New cars are great, but they don't stay in "new" condition for long.

 

If you change cars often there is no point in buying new because of the $6K hit you take for driving it off the lot. Maybe if you pay cash it would come out in the end, but if you finance; the payment schedule usually falls slightly behind the value of the car, so you will almost always take a hit when you go to sell it or trade it in. Any way you look at it; a car is an expense and not an investment(unless you are buying $100K+ cars).

 

The best ratio of price to milage/age is usually acheived by getting a car that is around two years old. That way the initial depreciation hit has been absorbed by the first owner and two years have depreciated off the value too. After this point the depreciation levels out to a predictable amount over the following 4-6 years. Also, at this point you still have at least 1 year and probably 15K miles to find any issues that would be covered by the 3/36K "bumper to bumper" warranty. After that you should still have at least a couple years and 30K-40K miles left on the powertrain warranty.

[rjundi]

No regrets on brand new. Given I just sent my government rebate check off and will receive title on our 3 year old 46k 05 LGT mt wagon. No payments I don't really care anymore.

 

We plan on keeping at least 7 years so depreciation is meaningless.

[Artmasterx]

Why do people keep saying depreciation is meaningless. I think it perfectly justifiable to purchase a new car for piece of mind and the simple desire to own something brand new and from the start.

 

Depreciation may be meaningless to you, but financially speaking it is not meaningless no matter how long you keep the car.

 

In the simple case where you pay cash for the car, if you can buy a used car with 25k miles and save $8000 over what a new car would cost, that is depreciation. If you bought the used car, you would save $8k up front, but you would also have to pay the potentially additional repair costs for a higher mileage car.

 

Let's say you drive a car for 100k miles and you can either buy a new car or a used one with 25k miles for $8k less. You drive 12500 miles per year. Assume that starting in year 3, the car depreciates 15% of the value of the car at the start of the year. Also assume that the annual repair are $0 for years 1-3, $250 for 4-6, $500 for 7-8, and $1000 or 9-10.

 

I have attached a plot showing the resulting net loss for each case. I also did the same thing for the case when repair in years 9-10 were $2500 per year.

 

You can see that barring exorbitant repair cost in the final two years for the used car, it will be difficult to come out financially ahead buying a new car. Emotional satisfaction, of course, is assigned no value.

 

This assumes you get a used car that has not been abused since the repair costs were assumed to be the same for years 1-8 of the new and used cars lives.

[legacycutie]

Here's a good point on new-- I bought my 01 honda civic new in 01 and paid(after financing) $18,000 (for a civic!!). I traded that in with 60k in Sept 06 for a used 05 2.5 LGT w/33k. I got $8k from the dealer for the civic and paid $19,280 for the LGT. So for a car that was already, according to the dealers, 7 model years old I only lost $10k. That's not a bad return at all if you ask me and the car did not give me not one problem because I owned it from the start. I absolutely loved my 05 LGT but it had someone elses problems which is why I buy new. I know how the car is being driven and when maintenance is done. No offense but some people just do not know how to take care of a car and I do not want their problem.

[acqui]

I think given the fairly comprehensive pre-owned warranties by some manufacturers ( Lexus, BMW, Acura etc), a used car can be a very good buy. I've seen several 1-2 year old LGTs in the NYC area that are in the low to mid 20k range with less than 17,000 miles. I would probably never buy a used car from someone other than an authorized dealer for that specific car as I've got a friend with an auto body shop in NYC and people have no clue the sort of things these guys can do to cars that were almost cut in half.

[808LGT]

i bought my LGT used, no regrets! Had the dealer check everything out, still have the factory warranty also. never owned a brand new car!

[Bradkx]

I call shenanigans... thats 42 cars bought. How old are you?!?

 

Not counting cars you helped other people buy, how many cars have you purchased and registered in your name?

 

 

 

I bought mine new for one reason only. I plan to be the only owner that this car ever has. Aside from that; I've bought about 30 used cars and probably 12 new cars over the years. With a used car, you roll the dice a little, but if there is a warranty involved you should be fine. That and most of the little annoying stuff should already be taken care of already. New cars are great, but they don't stay in "new" condition for long.

 

If you change cars often there is no point in buying new because of the $6K hit you take for driving it off the lot. Maybe if you pay cash it would come out in the end, but if you finance; the payment schedule usually falls slightly behind the value of the car, so you will almost always take a hit when you go to sell it or trade it in. Any way you look at it; a car is an expense and not an investment(unless you are buying $100K+ cars).

 

The best ratio of price to milage/age is usually acheived by getting a car that is around two years old. That way the initial depreciation hit has been absorbed by the first owner and two years have depreciated off the value too. After this point the depreciation levels out to a predictable amount over the following 4-6 years. Also, at this point you still have at least 1 year and probably 15K miles to find any issues that would be covered by the 3/36K "bumper to bumper" warranty. After that you should still have at least a couple years and 30K-40K miles left on the powertrain warranty.

[Viber]

Pay off your car and trade it for something better before its a piece of shit

 

Pay off your car and drive it till it dies

 

I dont give depreciation much thought with my LGT. They hold their value very very well in Utah

[BigT]

Why do people keep saying depreciation is meaningless. I think it perfectly justifiable to purchase a new car for piece of mind and the simple desire to own something brand new and from the start.

 

Depreciation may be meaningless to you, but financially speaking it is not meaningless no matter how long you keep the car.

 

In the simple case where you pay cash for the car, if you can buy a used car with 25k miles and save $8000 over what a new car would cost, that is depreciation. If you bought the used car, you would save $8k up front, but you would also have to pay the potentially additional repair costs for a higher mileage car.

 

Let's say you drive a car for 100k miles and you can either buy a new car or a used one with 25k miles for $8k less. You drive 12500 miles per year. Assume that starting in year 3, the car depreciates 15% of the value of the car at the start of the year. Also assume that the annual repair are $0 for years 1-3, $250 for 4-6, $500 for 7-8, and $1000 or 9-10.

 

I have attached a plot showing the resulting net loss for each case. I also did the same thing for the case when repair in years 9-10 were $2500 per year.

 

You can see that barring exorbitant repair cost in the final two years for the used car, it will be difficult to come out financially ahead buying a new car. Emotional satisfaction, of course, is assigned no value.

 

This assumes you get a used car that has not been abused since the repair costs were assumed to be the same for years 1-8 of the new and used cars lives.

 

Theoretically, your example is sound, however in actuality it is faulty.

 

1. You did not factor in the probability of buying a crap used car/getting screwed. (If you say that you have a 1/10 chance of getting screwed, which I think is pretty generous in your favor, then you should amortize the cost of the probability over the 8 years.) If it costs you 4,000 if you get screwed, you should amortize 400 over the 8 years.

 

2. Your repair schedule is way off. I'm not sure if you included maintenance in repairs, but nobody with a subaru pays 0 for three years and has the car last. Regular maintenance is around $350 at 15K, 30K etc. Add in oil changes and so on. Also, if you think that more expensive things like clutches, brakes, battery, etc don't go faster and more frequently the more miles/older the car, then your nuts.

 

3. IMO depreciation only matters for 2 things, tax purposes for businesses and trade in/resale value. If you don't fit into either of those categories, then depreciation really doesn't matter to you. If you drive the car until it dies after 15 years, does it matter what value it has at 10? Not really. Also, if you are going to argue that it is counted towards net assets of an individual, it is really not a useful asset for anything except driving and selling.

[jmo]

this thread is going to go on foreverrrrrrr. ive always bought new. my buddys bought used and are running in to problems. i feel that best thing to do is buy a CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED.

 

CARS ARE AN EXPENSE NOT AN INVESTMENT unless you by a car worthy of being on a auction block

[lkjohnson1950]

I buy new to, hopefully, get what I want. If you buy used you take the color combo, equipment etc the way someone else wanted it. If that suits you, fine. I like to go to a dealer and say "I want option X not Option Y, Color B not color R, etc. One of the reasons I bought a LGT was that they were the most cooperative in getting the car the way I wanted it, not shoveling something off the lot on me.

[SlingXShot]

Ye but everyone keeps missing out extended warranties (full). New or Used you still have to pay maintanance fees and tear/wear - tires,breaks,rotors, etc. Then eventually on that new car you got 3 years ago, you might want to put in 4 year extended warranty thats gonna cost you (new or used). So either way its an endless circle. The only thing is that when you buy used, you automatically get warranty and thats really the difference. And if you guys going to mention that tires and breaks, rotors going to be worn out on the used cars. Thats nothing, when I got my new leased car, the stock tires were so horrid I changed them in a week. Then 1 year later, my rotors got warped and had to change the breaks, then few months ago I had to change the break pads again and cut front rotors. So it still costs me money to deal with a new car as it would be used. And if you got warranty used or new, they will repair without labor/part charge. And some dealers will drop you of at work/pick up or let you rent a car for free. Thats why when I would look for a used car, I'll make sure it is in good condition, I mean the transmision might be destroyed with the engine, but then again it will be covered by warranty up to 100K miles...

[CTATV]

not so long ago used was used and new was new. I think certified pre-owned has created a third category. I am much more likely to buy a used car from a dealer than from a private seller (for a regular modern car above 10K... If i were looking to buy a truck or older car that isnt as complext to work on i would consider buying used from private owner but when your dropping 20k+ on a used car nice to get warranty and some degree of liability the dealer has after their 100 point checks etc.... and the condition they claim the car to be on. Private seller you get what u got. basically if you buy anything mechanical used from a private seller assume you will have to work on it after you get it. if you get it from a dealer assume there is a % of the unknown but the car SHOULD be ok...

[fonts]

I used to be a die hard used buyer. Felt it was just common sense based on the $$ savings. True that the vehicles were generally somewhat boring daily drivers. Had minor problems with a couple of the vehicles but never anything major.

 

The LGT is my first new car and my attitude has changed totally. This may be because this is the first car I've loved and modded. It's the first owner's forum I've been involved with as well.

 

Knowing that I'm the only one who has driven the car gives me piece of mind. Getting exactly what I wanted is certainly worth an extra couple $$.

 

Maybe getting a little older and a little more financially stable has contributed to this attitude. I want what I want. If I have to pay a little extra to get this then so be it.

[SlingXShot]

I used to be a die hard used buyer. Felt it was just common sense based on the $$ savings. True that the vehicles were generally somewhat boring daily drivers. Had minor problems with a couple of the vehicles but never anything major.

 

The LGT is my first new car and my attitude has changed totally. This may be because this is the first car I've loved and modded. It's the first owner's forum I've been involved with as well.

 

Knowing that I'm the only one who has driven the car gives me piece of mind. Getting exactly what I wanted is certainly worth an extra couple $$.

 

Maybe getting a little older and a little more financially stable has contributed to this attitude. I want what I want. If I have to pay a little extra to get this then so be it.

 

Exactly. I am sure anyone who has the $$ the purchase a new car, would do it in a heart beat. However, people who don't have the money and don't want to get into debt (paying 600$ a month), then used car is the only way.

[imstillatwork]

It can be a mistake if you get suckered into crappy prices and crappy financing.

 

I keep my cars long after they are paid off, so it should be worth it to me, even though this is my first new car.

[Jerboa113]

I have never owned a used car as a daily driver.

 

On that note however, I really want to pay this one off.. I suppose I was economically retarded in my past. If I had to do it again however.. I most certainly would have. This has been the best DD I've owned and its the 1st dd I've had that continues to put a smile on my face past 30k miles. It doesn't have xm hids or navi, but a quick run up to speed makes me wonder why I need those things anyway

[Guest]

Used is risky, especially for a performance car.