I’ve seen plenty of new car threads on here and people are always asking for opinions on whether they can and should upgrade their ride. Most recently there was turbodss’ thread about an SRT-4. Some people approve while others suggest the responsible thing and buy a new car that’s reliable.
So my question is, would you ever buy a BRAND NEW car? I’ve never owned one, nor do I ever see myself buying a brand new car. The way cars depreciate over their first few years, it just seems ridiculous to buy one. There are always plenty of affordable used cars. Hell, I’ve never even bought a car over $3k yet. Granted my budget has always been low, but I have always been more than happy with my low budget cars. You can argue about the repair costs, but I’ve still spent far less than I would had I bought a brand new car.
I’m just curious to see what others think about this. If you have bought brand new, are you happy about it? Are there others out there who have had the finances to buy brand new but have chosen otherwise?
edit- I should add that I’m not considering buying a new car right now, more so just thought this would be an interesting debate.
your money, it’s up to you. i’ve bought a few and taken the hit, but i was working at a dealer in CT, lived in an apt, didn’t have a place to work on it and needed reliable transportation. i had the money and got a good deal working at the dealership and got top dollar for my southern car and shipped it back south and got the new one. if the circumstances were different i may have never bought it…
cars are not an investment for me. I like the numbers to work out in my favor, but it’s not everything. I’m going to get what I want and if it’s a new car then so be it.
Bought the Scion new 5 years ago. It’s been worth more than what I owed on it for the entire term of the loan. I know that’s rare but the car was in high demand and that jacked up the resale value. Even now with it paid off I could still get a good $12k for it as it sits. But the most attractive part of buying and owning a new car is it has never needed service in the 5 years I’ve owned it. I just get in it and drive and I know it will get me there…every time. To me, after owning and wrenching on many different make and model used cars, that is what makes the markup for a new car worth it. And I will buy another new car when the Scion starts to deteriorate and need regular repairs.
We will always have atleast 1 new car in the family and the wife will drive it. after my focus is paid off, Im done for a while. I will then buy used cars. Always new for the wife, used for me unless I really want something bad enuff.
Im with D3x on the relaibility and maintence free worries of owning a new car. Plus we drive the hell of it. we picked our edge in may and it already had almost 12K on it. If anything happens in the next 6 years, we make a phone call and have it picked up or drive it in to a dealership.
It’s really hard to justify brand new when there are so many barely used factory certified deals out there. I got my GTO with 2k miles but those 2k miles knocked about 8k off the sticker.
About the only exception for me would be if there were some crazy incentives going on, like during cash for clunkers. $4500 in government money + zero percent + cash back from the dealer makes brand new look pretty good.
I swore After I bought my Silverado in June that I would never buy another new Vehicle unless it was something rare but now I have 2 people trying 2 sell me a 15,500 GM card for $10K is making it tempting.
hell yeah i would, im not picky when it comes to new cars, i would just want something practical, as of right now id put 3 k down on like a cobalt and just drive it, if i had a family, id do the same except with an SUV or van
i always want something reliable so a new car is my next purchase
when it comes to having fun, id buy a new bike cause theyre cheap, but for cars, there’s no way i could slap down 100k for a new dodge viper that i crave, im more than happy to spend 30-40k on a gts thats been previously owned, when the times right ill grab it, and itll be my fun car, it wont be used much =)
Some of the cash for clunker deals on the newer economy cars were really decent. Sub 10k for a new car, that was good. Too bad I never owned a clunker to start with.
Other than that, I see very little point to buy new in many cases. Most any GM car is going to be close to 50 percent off sticker price inside of 1 year of ownership.
I’ll just pay cash for a 07 or 08 cobalt or malibu, it seems stupid to finance one of those things.
Very good point. I have yet to keep a car for very long, mostly because I’ve either grown tired of it and wanted to change things up, or wanted something with less mileage.
I don’t look at my cars as investments either. I’m not expecting to gain any money while owning a car. But I do try to cut my losses as best as I can.
Definitely agree with you on the more expensive cars. But with the whole reliability issue that a lot of people mention, I just don’t see what’s so hard about finding a reliable used car. Yes, there’s the uncertainty of how the car was treated in the past, but I still believe if you search well enough you can find a good reliable used car. And I understand that some people just can’t settle for that, and they have to have a brand new car. There’s nothing wrong with that, just not something I would consider.
I would hardly call my 1998 Civic a POS. And maybe you would, but then again that’s another matter of opinion on a completely different topic.
I’ll probably only buy new for my wife or unless there is a rare car I want that I can’t find used. Maybe some sort of Camaro or Corvette. IDK Otherwise no.
So my 2006 Crown Victoria with 60K is a peice of shit?
Any 12 year old economy car is a POS compared to the vast majority of new cars on the lot, and you’re rolling the dice owning something that old. Never know when you might pop a motor or tranny and suddenly it’s worthless. If I don’t want to worry about depreciation, I lease.