Is buying new a waste of money

[TW]Fox;21868077 said:
Is leasing a brand new SLK on one of the ridiculously cheap subsidised leases Mercedes are offering in order to generate a good supply of used cars a dumb idea? No, its not.
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Good god man I wish you hadn't told me this. £300pcm for a brand-new SLK250?

Thank god I have to sleep and forget about this terrible idea before I can walk into a dealer...
 
I think it's just one of the things you have to do in life.
If for no other reason than just for the experience of owning a car no one else has.
I did it back in 95 with a 106 Rallye, nothing extortionate but at £10k when I was 22 years old it felt awesome. :D

Would I do it again.. Probably not
 
Fuzz said:
I think it's just one of the things you have to do in life.
If for no other reason than just for the experience of owning a car no one else has.
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I once drove a car nobody else had for the first 1500ish miles of its life.

Not really sure I saw the fuss really. Felt no different to the other similar cars with 1k-6k already on them that I subsequently drove.
 
Fuzz said:
I think it's just one of the things you have to do in life.
If for no other reason than just for the experience of owning a car no one else has.
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Someone once tried to justify post blowing £2000 he did not have to blow at a casino to me once with that logic, that sounds almost about as dumb as that.
 
I purchased new once. When the mark 2 focus st came out there was only 2 registered and at the time I got ford employee discount. sold it a year later for what I paid for it as there was still a waiting list.
 
I bought my MX5 new late 2010. At the time I had moved back home and had quite a lot of savings and next to no outgoings. I get a 20% discount on the mazda range through work. It probably works out similar to broker price though in the end.

Now I am a home owner it is quite nice having a new car. Anything major will be covered by the warranty, so I don't have to worry about big bills sneaking up on me. It is a little depressing seeing how quickly it has gone from perfect to minor stone chips and little scratches.

Would I do it again? Probably not. I had a few run in's with the dealership "accidentally" miscalculating my discount and then claiming a road pack was actually a registration fee rather than mats and fuel etc.
 
milgo said:
Now I am a home owner it is quite nice having a new car. Anything major will be covered by the warranty, so I don't have to worry about big bills sneaking up on me.
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Last year I bought a used car. Anything major would was covered by the warranty, so I didn't have to worry about big bills sneaking up on me.

I also saved £20,000 on the new price.
 
It's a fair point. I know I could get a second hand car with a warranty. Like I say, in hind sight I probably would do something similar.

The cost of tyres and servicing for an MX5 don't scare me as much as a nice BMW though. I'm just assuming that's what you bought.
 
SDK^ said:
Here's something.

The combined cost of my mortgage and new car is cheaper than the cost of putting my baby into a nursery 5 days a week.
Nursery costs = £55 per day, and you pay it even if they don't go. So two weeks holiday means you wave goodbye to £550.

New cars are pretty good value in comparison :)
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What a strange comparison to use lol. It's like saying yeah I do £100's worth of crack cocaine a day. My mortgage and car is much better value compared to this :P

To me it appears you have money to burn so I don't think you're the kind of person who I would be questioning about buying a brand new car. A lot of people tend to stretch themselves.
 
I got mine new as:

- I had the cash from a previous sale, and didn't have to worry about monthly payments
- Having seen how people drive here, I really didn't want 2nd hand.. the ones I looked at all had issues or were tatty.
- The options I wanted were not available second hand, so I special ordered one.
- After having always owned used cars, I took the decision to rather go for new with full warranty and service package and take the hit on depreciation, rather than the cost and hassle of paying for repairs and still having depreciation.

That doesn't mean I will always buy new from now on, it really depends on the requirement and circumstances. If I got a second car to go with the GTI, it would likely be used.
 
[TW]Fox;21869855 said:
I once drove a car nobody else had for the first 1500ish miles of its life.

Not really sure I saw the fuss really. Felt no different to the other similar cars with 1k-6k already on them that I subsequently drove.
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I've done this with 4 new cars in the last 18 months, doing around 9k in each before handing it back. You soon lose any sense of joy from the 'newness'! :)
 
I think it depends on the car-

If it was something special that I've been waiting my whole life to be in a position to be able to buy then I'd not think twice about buying new if that was what I wanted.

If it was an everyday work hack then it would have to be a hell of a special deal to get me to buy new. Although when Seat and Skoda do offers such as the VAT free plus 0% APR I do always think that I might be tempted if I was in a position to be spending that much.

This is where I don my flame suit... if I was after a reliable run about / city car I probably would at least consider buying new. Things like C1's and i10's often have cracking deals, that due to the relatively low list price to start with, put brand new cars within a few hundred pounds of nearly new. In that case if I would probably go for the new option.

EDIT- The real kicker for me was always manufacturers warranty but on a run of the mill car and assuming you aren't too fussed what you own then a 2 year old Hyundai or Kia is starting to make a hell of a lot of sense.
 
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lordrobs said:
I think it depends on the car-

If it was something special that I've been waiting my whole life to be in a position to be able to buy then I'd not think twice about buying new if that was what I wanted.

If it was an everyday work hack then it would have to be a hell of a special deal to get me to buy new. Although when Seat and Skoda do offers such as the VAT free plus 0% APR I do always think that I might be tempted if I was in a position to be spending that much.

This is where I don my flame suit... if I was after a reliable run about / city car I probably would at least consider buying new. Things like C1's and i10's often have cracking deals, that due to the relatively low list price to start with, put brand new cars within a few hundred pounds of nearly new. In that case if I would probably go for the new option.

EDIT- The real kicker for me was always manufacturers warranty but on a run of the mill car and assuming you aren't too fussed what you own then a 2 year old Hyundai or Kia is starting to make a hell of a lot of sense.
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Pretty much sums up my feelings - I've had a few new cars (not bought) and it takes about 2 months for it to feel just the same as any other car imo - usually once you notice that first little mark someone has kindly left in a carpark or the first stone chip.

If I was going new then I think I would honestly just lease or take a pcp on the car - easy to work out exactly how much you're throwing down the pan before even taking delivery. Anyone pretending a new car is somehow good value is only kidding one person and it aint the salesman! It's just a case of accepting the amount of money you'll be losing and ensuring it's affordable for you.

Closest you're going to get is with the likes of the c1 etc that can be had for £90 / month over a few years with a small sum down or get into an "in" car at the right time - i.e fiat 500
 
Having just bought at auction from lease hire companies, I might do the same thing for my next car.

Year old Volvos from Volvo UK themselves were going through for 40-50% the new price, insane savings over new! And with two years warranty remaining and full Volvo service history.

Way to go IMO.

Obviously you have to take what is there, but as with anything, if you want it cheap a compromise has to be made!
 
If you've got the cash and are well in the know about the fees charged then a 2 year old car at auction isn't a bad deal - just need to know when to back off though.
 
Buying new is brilliant, no one can deny this.

No need to worry about S/H, repairs etc etc.

That notion of not having to worry about anything is wonderful. Zero depression and zero worry.

Is it a waste of money? Ofcourse not, assuming you can afford this way of life. I do literally mean afford, not you have to become a vegetarian and start taking out loans for it.

Anyway you can't even compare the 2 notions of buying new and buying used anyway.

For the record though, buying used FTW.
 
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