JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
- 63,590
- 16,776
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My Dad was an auto mechanic, among his other hats he wore, and he told me this when I was about 13 years old, back in the old black and white TV days, but it is still true today.
Buying a new car is the biggest loss of value you will ever experience in your life almost, if you dont play the stock market. The vehicle loses as much as 20% of what you paid for it as soon as you sign the papers because it is not worth the cost of the dealer costs that they hit you with up front.
After three years, the average car has lost 40% of its value and the depreciation tends to taper toward a tableau.
But if you can get the car at 3 years with less than 40k miles on it, it has no signs of problems, and an active manufacturers warrantee, you can buy it and get any issues fixed before the costs fall on you. Also, if it has had no accidents and one owner who took care of it and you are looking at a real nice bargain typically.
So the 3 year old car with low mileage, one owner and no accidents is the best bang for the buck.
Also, pay attention to the trim of the vehicle model. Sometimes the trim is booked wrong by the banks database (my Dad did not tell me this part) and you can get a higher value trim for less, but it still counts for when you trade it in if you do. My last one got totaled, a 2007 Buick Lucerne, that insurance paid me $7400 for with only 75,000 miles on it. Blue Book was around $3500 for it.
It really does pay to take care of your car.
My current vehicle is a 2016 Buick Enclave Premium I got for $21000 with only 45k miles. She sure is sweet. They booked her wrong on the banker database as a Leather trim instead of premium. I noticed this when I was looking at the pics of the car. I probably should have paid $31k for this car.
Doing your homework also pays off well with cars.
But hell, if you are rich enough to lease, then do that and dont worry about nothin at all anyway lol
Buying a new car is the biggest loss of value you will ever experience in your life almost, if you dont play the stock market. The vehicle loses as much as 20% of what you paid for it as soon as you sign the papers because it is not worth the cost of the dealer costs that they hit you with up front.
After three years, the average car has lost 40% of its value and the depreciation tends to taper toward a tableau.
But if you can get the car at 3 years with less than 40k miles on it, it has no signs of problems, and an active manufacturers warrantee, you can buy it and get any issues fixed before the costs fall on you. Also, if it has had no accidents and one owner who took care of it and you are looking at a real nice bargain typically.
So the 3 year old car with low mileage, one owner and no accidents is the best bang for the buck.
Also, pay attention to the trim of the vehicle model. Sometimes the trim is booked wrong by the banks database (my Dad did not tell me this part) and you can get a higher value trim for less, but it still counts for when you trade it in if you do. My last one got totaled, a 2007 Buick Lucerne, that insurance paid me $7400 for with only 75,000 miles on it. Blue Book was around $3500 for it.
It really does pay to take care of your car.
My current vehicle is a 2016 Buick Enclave Premium I got for $21000 with only 45k miles. She sure is sweet. They booked her wrong on the banker database as a Leather trim instead of premium. I noticed this when I was looking at the pics of the car. I probably should have paid $31k for this car.
Doing your homework also pays off well with cars.
But hell, if you are rich enough to lease, then do that and dont worry about nothin at all anyway lol
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