Buying brand new - Is it REALLY that bad?

paradigm

paradigm

paradigm

Caporegime
Joined
26 Aug 2003
Posts
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Location
Leafy Cheshire
First of all, I'll state that this is not "for me", I'm not looking to replace my A6 with a brand new car, it's more just a general musing.

So, buying brand new, is it really as bad as this forum would have you believe? Have you bought brand new before, and do you regret it? Would you do it again?

I've had one brand new car before (2003 Citroen Saxo VTR), and if I'm honest, the ownership experience from start to finish was great. I got the car I wanted in the colour I wanted, with the spec I wanted (granted there isn't much to spec on a Saxo, but you could replace "saxo" with "A3" and it would be applicable to someone else). Sure, I had to wait for delivery, which takes far far longer than buying used, but I was getting a car that no-one had abused, badly maintained, crashed, or mis-treated in any way (I did later, but well, I was young :p). I also took a hit on depreciation for the privilege, but isn't that just a trade-off for the piece of mind of having a fully comprehensive warranty, knowing that whatever goes wrong, it is covered (unlike some extended warranties).

I know a lot of people would suggest that you either save up to buy outright, or get a bank loan, but are car finance options really that bad? I'm not sure that hire-purchase (or leasing) is a great idea for individuals, but just a simple finance package to purchase the car in total I suppose can make sense if you want to ensure that your motoring outgoings are at a fixed per month.

Not really sure where this thread has come from, or where it's headed, but I'd be interested to hear from both sides of the coin.
 
My parents get their cars nearly new from Motorpoint.

Mum got a 7 month old current shape Fiesta Zetec 1.25 82PS with parking sensors and folding mirrors for £8600.

I would never buy brand new when you can get one <1 year old for a serious amount of money less. There were so many Fiestas in that there were plenty of engines, trim levels and additional extras to choose from.
 
Why buy a new A3 1.6 when you can buy a nearly new 2.0T?

Why buy a new 2.0t when you can buy a nearly new S3? Etc

I would rather spend money on the additional running costs of a better model than the additional depreciation of a new one.

A good nearly new is pretty much the same and has the warranty benefits etc.
 
I'm in the get a 1 year old car instead camp. Downsides are that you cant always get exactly what you want unless its a very common car and obviously has 1 year less manufacturers warranty.

We've just bought a 1 and a bit year old Toyota Avensis estate which is utterly boring but a very good saving over new (apart from the stale smoke smell which has materialised but thats another matter!)
 
OK Fox, what about if the model in question is either thin on the ground, or they are all really badly specced?

Case in point, a family friend is looking to buy an A1 S-Line 185PS, and all of the currently "approved used" cars are utterly rubbish in spec (with random oddities like someone specifying keyless entry, but not climate :confused:), they also only seem to be a few thousand less (when you are talking £25k~ for a new one, it seems a bit daft to take a used one for a £2k saving).

Whilst I appreciate that a 6 month - 1 year old example will still have the same warranty benefits, it isn't necessarily going to be the car you "want".
 
I've bouhgt one new car in the past and did ok when selling it as there was a waiting list at the time.

But in gereneral I wouldn't buy a new car. The second you drive out of the garage you've just thrown awy thousands of pounds uncecessarily. I'd prefer to buy a nearly new car and buy the better model. It has been a while now but in 2004 I bought my 4Mo. It was immaculate and only 6 months old (an ex-VW demonstrator). If I recall I saved around £4k off the list price just because it had been driven in that time. Admittedly I wouldn't know how well or badly it had been driven but it's still running fine today :)

Why buy new?
 
To be honest if no one bought new there would be no used car market.

Unless I'm loaded I'd not buy new myself as the principal of depreciation (at such high rates in the first year in particular) put me right off but if everyone thought like me we'd have no choice to buy new!
 
I don't think I'd buy new myself to be honest since there are so many good deals about on used/nearly new. However as I get a company car I get a brand new car every 4 years, there are some nice benefits to it i.e. being able to spec it up and get the toys you want and knowing nobody else has driven it is nice but I think overall with depreciation and running costs I'd rather have a used approved if I was buying my own.
 
paradigm said:
For the reasons outlined in my previous post? :confused:
Click to expand...

It was a rehetorical question :)

What I meant was that in my view the advantages of a nearly new car outweigh the disadvantages. Bujt I'm glad people want to buy new because if they didn't then I wouldn't be able to buy their nearly new car at a massive cost saving :)
 
I have had two brand new cars, both had major issues within months of me owning them, I lost money on both. Very overated. Much better off buying a one year old version of the car you want. The only exception would be a car that has only just been released.
 
This is my 2 pence. Buying brand new has its pro's such as:
If you are financing, you get a very good rate.
You get to choose the exact spec you want.
You can add things like servicing packs, which are excellent value for money.
You obviously get to be the first owner and drive it out of the showroom, which for some people is a real plus point.
For me it only makes sense if you are being given an allowance by your company to spend on transport costs per month. Having said that I still wouldn't discount it, if the above points were important to me and I could afford it.
 
[TW]Fox;21694215 said:
Why buy a new A3 1.6 when you can buy a nearly new 2.0T?

Why buy a new 2.0t when you can buy a nearly new S3? Etc

I would rather spend money on the additional running costs of a better model than the additional depreciation of a new one.

A good nearly new is pretty much the same and has the warranty benefits etc.
Click to expand...

What if you want to buy an F10 M5 and you cant find any to your exact spec?
 
I'm sure that in general the "experience" of buying and owing a new car (therefore typically fault free or at least with warranty) will be better. The question is whether you're willing to pay for it.
Lets take as an example my old Volvo S60. Cost new was around £30k and in 2 years would have written off approx half it's value, i.e. about £7500/year. In the two years I owned it, it depreciated at £1500/year. Lets add another £500/year for tyres, MOT and servicing.

So basically, to own from new would have cost approx £5500/year more.

To me that would be:
- Pay off some of the mortgage
- Buy some new hi-fi kit AND
- have an OK holiday

It's all a question of how you want to use your disposable income.
 
panthro said:
This is my 2 pence. Buying brand new has its pro's such as:
If you are financing, you get a very good rate.
You get to choose the exact spec you want.
You can add things like servicing packs, which are excellent value for money.
You obviously get to be the first owner and drive it out of the showroom, which for some people is a real plus point.
For me it only makes sense if you are being given an allowance by your company to spend on transport costs per month. Having said that I still wouldn't discount it, if the above points were important to me and I could afford it.
Click to expand...

Hi, agreed, only for me I only buy new when I get at least the first years depreciation discounted off the price.
Chris
 
Depends if you can afford it.

If you can afford the luxury of going out and choosing your own model, colour and spec then why not?
You just pay for the nose for doing so.
 
Most recent cars I have bought were 5 Months old with ~25% saving on a Leon FR and 18 months with >50% saving on a Z4. The former's saving will allow me to finance tyres and servicing for the lifetime of the car, all because I let someone else put 8k miles on it (i saw the car do the opposite motorway journey to me every day).

On the latter I didn't get a great colour but the amount of depreciation allowed me to buy a car well above my expectations in terms of performance and extras. Other's on this forum have had better private deals than I got too on this model I'd argue. £23k or so looks like the amount you need to get a 185ps A1 with a few options, this is just an obscene amount for such a little amount of car in my eyes. To compare it to something in a similar class though looking at autotrader, I'd expect to get a <1 year <10k Polo GTI for around 16k it seems, I'd much rather go with that than an A1 personally.
 
Compared to the alternatives it almost never makes financial sense to buy a new car, but lets face it whether buying new or used few people change cars because they actually "need" to.

I guess it depends on how much personal value you put onto being the first owner, having your exact spec etc and how much spare cash is available to chuck into it.

I would be willing to bet a vast percentage of new car sales were actually through lease / contract purchase sales with a healthy percentage of that number being through company cars etc.
 
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I've noticed quite a few people buying brand new A1's on this forum and in general around my workplace. Are Audi offering some kind of amazing deal on these?
 
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