Is Buying New Always A Mug's Game

[TW]Fox;22461478 said:
How totally pointless.
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Not totally, no. Of course you'll pay more on interest. But most deals nowadays are PCP where you're only financing about 50% of the vehicle, whereas the rest is done by the dealership. The more deposit you put down doesn't automatically apply to the 50% section you finance personally, but as a whole. So you're using more money to finance a car you're not actually financing yourself.
 
In most cases when buying a new car you lose 20% on the purchase cost immediately before you have even tuned a wheel due to VAT. I can never see myself buying a new car unless I had money to throw away.

You can get lucky if you buy a new car which they can't produce fast enough to meet demand. People will then pay over the odds to avoid the waiting list. An example of this was the new mini in 2001 or the Audi R8 in 2007 and more recently the RR Vogue. This really only works if you keep the car for a very short time.

Some limited run models can also appreciate instantly such as the 911 GT3 RS 4.0: 600 built and sold for £128,466 in 2011 and now available second hand for £170,000+
 
wingman said:
Not totally, no. Of course you'll pay more on interest. But most deals nowadays are PCP where you're only financing about 50% of the vehicle, whereas the rest is done by the dealership. The more deposit you put down doesn't automatically apply to the 50% section you finance personally, but as a whole. So you're using more money to finance a car you're not actually financing yourself.
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I think you need to check how a pcp works. You pay interest on the full amount borrowed.
 
[TW]Fox;22462370 said:
I think you need to check how a pcp works. You pay interest on the full amount borrowed.
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Correct even on 0% finance deals, as the dealer adds the interest to the initial purchase, so for the first couple of payments you would be paying the interest before you actually start paying off for the vehicle.
 
J1nxy said:
And you don't pay VAT on used cars from dealers ?
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I don't know, you probably do.

I've never bought a car from a dealer, only private sales. You can't buy a brand new car in a private sale though so you always have to pay VAT, hence loosing 20% of your money straight away.
 
[TW]Fox;22461282 said:
Nil deposit on a new car?

Why do people do this? I don't get it, insta-negative equity :/ At least put a deposit in the mix!

Then you end up owing more than the car is worth in 3 years time and then take another 'no deposit' deal to finance the cost of the new car AND the outstanding balance on the old one, its just a spiral of 'Well as long as I can afford it monthly.....' :(
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You will laugh at me even more.

I bought the wife the Mini on a whim and just signed up to pay for it over 4 years at £200 a month with a GTFV of £3865.

Next feb when I finish paying the maintenance to my ex, I'm just going to pay that on top on the car payment and it should all be done in 3 years then.

Theres nothing wrong with no deposit/monthly payments, its when those monthly payments are all you are ever going to able to afford and you live hand to mouth.

I could have done the car over 2 years straight away, but I've got some hefty things to pay for this year so I'm doing it this way.
 
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You do pay VAT on second hand vehicles. Of course only when buying from a VAT registered company - a dealer - and not anyone else - i.e. private sale :p

It's complicated though as they can choose to charge VAT for the whole cost of the car, or only charge VAT for the profit margin. The former is easier for them, but more expensive for you (and possibly them if they have to reduce price to keep competitive) and the latter not so easy for them (more paperwork to maintain) but cheaper for you/more profitable for them.
 
it's all about budgetting making sacrifices for the things you want.

I still save £70 - £100 month, thats after all my bills. May not sound like a lot but when you support a family every little counts. taking into account some of that is for xmas pressie. so come december i dont have to worry about forking out a lot as the money has been saved.

in the current climate not many people can save after all their bills, so i see it as a big accomplishment.
 
At the end of the day, while it is nice to be the first owner, and have that new car feeling, it does cost more money thats just a fact of life unless you get really lucky and end up with the years must have motor.

If it's a special car to you then i can fully appreciate the appeal of speccing it yourself and taking delivery of it brand new and untouched or if you have a lot of money and the extra costs are not something your bothered about, then go for it on a new car

But...if the car is not at all special to you, and is just a get me from A to B car, and the overall costs are an important consideration, it makes zero sense to get a new car, over a nearly new one i'm surprised there is even an argument on this point??
 
Peter450 said:
But...if the car is not at all special to you, and is just a get me from A to B car, and the overall costs are an important consideration, it makes zero sense to get a new car, over a nearly new one i'm surprised there is even an argument on this point??
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Quite. Espeically when so many people cite road tax, mpg and not having to pay £30 a year for an MOT as a crucial factor when choosing a car. To then go and spend thousands more to have 7 miles not 3000 miles on it just seems a bit odd. Either you want to save money - therefore buy a 6 month old Focus - or you don't - therefore dont worry about the ecohippy stuff.
 
People only use those justifications for buying a brand new boring car because it's easier than admitting to having a mushy brain and no common sense.
 
mulpsmebeauty said:
Now I'm in a job doing 20-25k miles a year, where the car is simply a tool, to be reduced to the cheapest monthly outgoing possible, whilst not being a 1k shed to be run into the ground. Looking around, there seems to be a bit of competition amongst manufacturers to get you into a new car, where payments are spread over 4 years or so, with a modest final payment (though I'd be looking to move to another new car at that stage).
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That's a very high annual milage, after 4 years the car could have 100k on it. If you are looking to trade it in for another new one rather than making the balloon payment, you will like be very disappointed at the trade in value a dealer will give you.
 
Buying new seems to have worked for us. Wife wanted a Golf, at the time there were almost zero second hand cars, let alone petrol ones, as the MkVI had just come out. So we bought a new 160 TSI for 17k in 2009. It's been a very good car actually, serving us well as a dull family hatchback and has probably only lost around 3k in depreciation, due to getting a good new price through drivethedeal and VW resale prices being remarkably high.

We'll probably keep the car for a very long time and use it as the shopping trolley / roundabout.

So in my view buying new has worked very well for us.
 
Robbie G said:
So we bought a new 160 TSI for 17k in 2009. It's been a very good car actually, serving us well as a dull family hatchback and has probably only lost around 3k in depreciation, due to getting a good new price through drivethedeal and VW resale prices being remarkably high.
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Err you might be a tad dissapointed where you to trade it in if you think its only lost £3k from new :p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...radius/1500/page/1/postcode/so155ab?logcode=p

Or a VW Approved Used car from a main dealer at £5k less than new:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ostcode/so155ab/keywords/1.4_tsi_gt?logcode=p

I make that about £7k loss if you were to sell it privately best case?
 
Ours is a five door DSG. What kind of private resale are we talking for those (25k miles)? Maybe we lost 7k, that's still only 2300 pa. Though really it's academic unless we sell it (which seems unlikely in the near future).
 
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desires said:
What if everyone bought nearly new though. They'd be no cars left.
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I wouldn't know the percentage but a lot of cars are bought by fleet buyers like car rental firms, and these come with a huge discount. So when they sell them on in three? years they are not really making much of a loss.
I'd imagine this suits the manufacturers too, as any overproduction of a duff model can still be shifted in a timely fashion.

Actually the discount they negotiate is so good they won't sell them to their own employees, unlike in America.
 
It can work out well sometimes, for example I bought a car new for my company in Czech.

I got 15% off list price, then 20% VAT back and then saved 24% in corporation tax over 2 years.

So really a 30k car only worked out to cost me 17k (until I sell it then VAT and tax needs to be paid on the sale price)
 
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