Buying brand new - Is it REALLY that bad?

[TW]Fox;21695028 said:
500 and mini really buck the trend.
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To back Fox up, my girlfriend bought a new Fiat 500 Lounge when there was the scrappage scheme.

Cost £10600 minus the £2000, so £8600, with some guidance she went for a Lounge spec with some options ontop of this in a colour other than white!

Ran it for almost 3 years with only some very minor faults which were fixed no problem. Sold it to a dealers for £7200 after this period, so total cost of ownership was only £1400 over almost 3 years. Could have got more via private sale, closer to 8000 I think.



Have now ordered a new Hyundai, a very strong used market in Australia makes buying new almost a no brainer. 5 year unlimited km warranty is a big one really, don't want to end up paying out if there are any faults.

On a higher value car such as a BMW where the depreciation is likely to be much greater I would more than likely buy almost new and make sure I had a manufacturers warranty.
 
I've bought several new cars and many used cars

It all depends on the car and the deal. Mainstream stuff like a Focus is often best bought lightly used because there are loads of decent spec ex-hire or Ford Direct cars available through various sources at good prices.

Sometimes a manufacturer offer and/or beating down a dealer when they need a sale can work to your advantage. I got my Octavia vRS for about £750 more than the best deal I could get for one around 12 months old. I figured the new one would be better value - a years warranty and half a set of tyres would cost me more than that.

If you're after a big engined BMW thats going to drop ten grand in the first year, unless you're in a position where that money doesn't matter to you, then AUC all the way.

Manufacturers and dealers tinker with the market to ensure movement of their stock and an adequate supply of used cars - these cheap leasing deals often posted on here move stock and drop low mileage used cars back into the network later.
 
paradigm said:
They are offering one of those daft hire-purchase/leasing options at £200~ a month.

Certainly not the way I'd look at going, as the final balloon payment is sodding huge, and you'll almost certainly be in negative equity/tied in to a new lease after the term (as is the true incentive to the manufacturer with these "cheap" financing packages), but again, if youa re just trying to keep your motoring outgoings fairly fixed and low £/month, then I guess it draws a few people in.
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They have recently changed the deal to a 3 year finance plan, where as I got the 2 year plan a couple of months ago. Here is a brief run down:

Recommended on the road price for my car = £15570 + finance interest so its 16/17k
Balloon payment (if you choose to give the car back after the 2 years)= £9300 or something like that.
Mininum Deposit roughly = £2800ish
Dealer contribution of = £750
then 24 monthly payments of £182.70 on a 10000 miles a year plan or 20000 miles over the two years.

I plan to pay off the whole finance and own the car outright as soon as I can afford to, which you can do. :)

I initially set my sights on a nearly new but used car. Eg, the demo A1 which was for sale with the same engine/gearbox etc but with every extra you could get, Audi A8 style sat nav, technology package with 40gb hard drive, led lighting pack, xenons, parking sensors, upgraded alloys, bose, black headlining etc. Probably at least £4k worth of extras. :cool:

Which was great but when working out finance, the list price was £17999, had 3000 miles on it, 6 months old, okay so far. Then the figures, £350 a month for the next three years and thats with a £3000 deposit and no dealer contribution because its not new and the salesman set the guarranteed end value as £7700 (which I think would be well off the real price after 3 years/30k miles....). :eek: :o

EDIT: and if you have a look at used A1s on pistonheads there is quite a bit of choice for various budgets, but they aren't depreciating much in my opinion.
 
We have just ordered two new cars; my girl friend a Ford Focus and I've gone for a BMW 1 Series.

The 1 Series M Sport has only just been launched, so with no used models being available it was the only option. I would still have bought new though; the saving on 1 year old BMW's isn't that much anyway and I also like being able to spec up the car exactly as I want.

The downside is waiting for it - I've got another 6-7 agonising weeks before it gets delivered :(
 
SDK^ said:
the saving on 1 year old BMW's isn't that much anyway
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I disagree with that statement. Just going through BMW's AUC site will show you the thousands you can save on year old models.
For example, an M3 less than a year old carries a saving of over £10,000 off the list price.
 
[TW]Fox;21694946 said:
Would you buy a brand new Focus Style or a 6 month old Focus Titanium X with Nav if both were the same money?
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My view is only on the basis that the car is like for like and not of differing trim levels or options. There will always be something better used for the same or slightly less money.
 
Sure there will always be acceptions and the M cars fit right in there.

I could have got a used 1M for pretty much the same money but didnt due to high running costs and it being an out going model.
 
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I don't think I would ever buy brand new, unless I come into millions of pounds all of the sudden then I would do it just for kicks under the heading Life is Short.

But I live in a world where I don't have millions so that would never happen, the only advantage to me of getting brand new is getting the exact spec I want. Everything else, such as the new car feeling, be it the knowledge of I am the one that drove it away from the showroom to the smell, that goes after a while and I can't say that feeling is worth thousands of pounds.

I think getting one that is a year or two old even has advantage such as any small kinks in the car at the start has been fixed under warranty from the first owner so you would get it all working and still under warranty.
 
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[TW]Fox;21694946 said:
Would you buy a brand new Focus Style or a 6 month old Focus Titanium X with Nav if both were the same money?
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My reply was a lazy one, I should have taken the time to further clarify what I meant.

If using your example the Focus Style represented everything I wanted and needed and saw no need to buy a higher spec model then I would consider buying it new, yes. If on the other hand I really wanted the Titanium X then the Style wouldn't fall into my category of being able to afford exactly what I wanted brand new so in that case, no I would buy the used car.


Not saying it is right or even rational but just my take on it :)
 
Someone I use to work with bought a brand new 60 plate Corsa 1.0 eco thing, she really wanted a 5 door but said she 'couldn't afford it', it had no alloys, and she had to pay the garage to fit a dodgy Parrot kit with cabling all over the dash.

Hers for only £13500 over 5 years.

Her lesbian life partner did pretty much exactly the same with a Mazda 2 the same week.

£27,000 and not a single alloy.
 
Peerzy said:
Someone I use to work with bought a brand new 60 plate Corsa 1.0 eco thing, she really wanted a 5 door but said she 'couldn't afford it', it had no alloys, and she had to pay the garage to fit a dodgy Parrot kit with cabling all over the dash.

Hers for only £13500 over 5 years.

Her lesbian life partner did pretty much exactly the same with a Mazda 2 the same week.

£27,000 and not a single alloy.
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These people keep the economy going :p
 
I bought two brand new Vauxhalls within 12 months of each other. One was a cheap corsa that I still own and is now 6 years old. The other was an Astra TwinTop Design, both depreciated like crazy and I lost 20k od across both of them in a 3 year period. I paid about 21k for the astra and sold it for about 8 two years on, I guess my corsa is now worth more to me sitting on the drive than It would be should I sell it.

Did I regret it? Not one bit really, sure I lost loads of money but on the plus side I have had trouble free motoring with my corsa which has only cost me servicing and two tyres plus front brakes in its 6 years. I bought the corsa outright but spread the cost over the years and it is peanuts really.

The Astra on the other hand I got bored of very quickly, lost a ton of money and sold it on after just under 2 years.

For me I can see the benifit of both buying new and from the secand hand market and have had good experiences with both. On my new cars I have generally got them to throw in free insurance/gap insurance servicing etc which is always nice plus the peice of mind of having the warranty to fall back on is a bonus.

In my mind I always think that if you can afford to buy new and are not worried about the financial hit associated with it then go right ahead and do it. This way you get exactly what you want.

I would certainly buy new again, not from Vauxhall as they don't really have anything that interests me now but I am not put off of the overall experience.
 
Vince said:
Did I regret it? Not one bit really, sure I lost loads of money but on the plus side I have had trouble free motoring with my corsa which has only cost me servicing and two tyres plus front brakes in its 6 years. I bought the corsa outright but spread the cost over the years and it is peanuts really.
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While I see what you are saying, there's nothing stopping you having trouble free motoring with an older, cheaper model. For something like a corsa, there's going to be 1000's up and down the country so it wouldn't be hard to find one in good shape. Until I had an altercation with a stationary car, even my 20 year old MX5 cost me very little (oil + filter, tires, pads) for the first 3 years of ownership.

I just personally feel if I can have 99% of the 'experience' of a new car, for 50% of the price I'm going to do it every time.
 
SDK^ said:
We have just ordered two new cars; my girl friend a Ford Focus and I've gone for a BMW 1 Series.

The 1 Series M Sport has only just been launched, so with no used models being available it was the only option. I would still have bought new though; the saving on 1 year old BMW's isn't that much anyway and I also like being able to spec up the car exactly as I want.

The downside is waiting for it - I've got another 6-7 agonising weeks before it gets delivered :(
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It's not to your spec though. It has very few extra options so its hardly a custom dream spec. You openly admitted you had to leave off some options as they were out of budget.

AUC cars offer big savings. My 2 year old 335 was 20k cheaper than a new one. I appreciate in your case there areno used ones but the spec argument is invalid.
 
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