[dibbers006]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 20 December 2023 at 21:19

[toast boy]

When you say consideration of price includes depreciation do you mean we are comparing a £20k used with a £20k new or a brand new A4 against a 3 year old A4, for example?

[toast boy]

In that case I would always take the old car. I can't imagine myself ever buying a brand new car, unless I win the lottery. People always moan when someone suggests on a what car thread that you could buy an Exige for the price of a new Focus but I think it's a valid point. Maybe that example doesn't work if the requirements don't fit but there are a lot of old cars available that are a lot of fun and can be had for surprisingly little money. I may be a little different in that I'm not worried about reliability particularly as I will service and fix almost anything myself so it's just how much fun the car is that is the factor for me.

[300bhp/ton]

dibbers006 said:

Taking everything into account... Price/ Servicing/ Interior/ Exterior/ Reliability/ Cost of Parts/ Time off the Road and so on.

What sort of vehicular purchase offers best 'Value For Money/ Joy'

* Consideration of Reliability must be OLDER THAN 3 Years
* Consideration of Price includes Depreciation
* Servicing is based on Part/ Average Hourly Rate Cost

A common (questionable) example would be to state that all New cars are more reliable but less joyous than older cheaper examples that would be less reliable.

eh?

Doesn't it depend on the exact car you are looking at. Also what you intend to do with along with your own mentality and views and financial situation.

e.g. if you plan to buy to keep forever, then you won't lose a penny on it. You only lose money when you sell it on.

If this is your plan then a brand new one will be good value.

If you buy and plan to sell in 1, 3 or 5 years. Then it'll likely cost you more than buying wise in the used market.

[toast boy]

300bhp/ton said:

e.g. if you plan to buy to keep forever, then you won't lose a penny on it. You only lose money when you sell it on.

If this is your plan then a brand new one will be good value.

If you buy and plan to sell in 1, 3 or 5 years. Then it'll likely cost you more than buying wise in the used market.

That is probably the case for the average person in the street, I know of a few people who aren't really into cars and they always buy brand new and keep forever. For people on here though, I'd imagine they change their cars at least every 3 years, I know I don't keep mine for much more than a year usually.

[Tyre Smoke]

300bhp/ton said:

dibbers006 said:

Taking everything into account... Price/ Servicing/ Interior/ Exterior/ Reliability/ Cost of Parts/ Time off the Road and so on.

What sort of vehicular purchase offers best 'Value For Money/ Joy'

* Consideration of Reliability must be OLDER THAN 3 Years
* Consideration of Price includes Depreciation
* Servicing is based on Part/ Average Hourly Rate Cost

A common (questionable) example would be to state that all New cars are more reliable but less joyous than older cheaper examples that would be less reliable.

eh?

Doesn't it depend on the exact car you are looking at. Also what you intend to do with along with your own mentality and views and financial situation.

e.g. if you plan to buy to keep forever, then you won't lose a penny on it. You only lose money when you sell it on.

If this is your plan then a brand new one will be good value.

If you buy and plan to sell in 1, 3 or 5 years. Then it'll likely cost you more than buying wise in the used market.

Indeed. everyone's criteria are different. When I buy a 'new' taxi I look for comfort, reliability and running costs. Depreciation is irrelevant. As soon as you put a meter and roof light on a vehicle it's like a cancer - slow death. If I'm buying for myself, it depends what I want and how long I want it for. My RRS S/c is late 2006, but I'm not looking at selling it for ages because it only has 27k on the clock. If I was truly minted, I'd have chopped it in for for a new 500hp model. But I'm not, so I didn't.

[CampDavid]

300bhp/ton said:

Doesn't it depend on the exact car you are looking at. Also what you intend to do with along with your own mentality and views and financial situation.

e.g. if you plan to buy to keep forever, then you won't lose a penny on it. You only lose money when you sell it on.

It depends on how you view it. To my mind, if I buy a car for £15000 which I plan on keeping forever then that car has cost me £15000. In depreciation terms that's a good deal, I plan on kicking around for at least another 50 years so it's only doing about £300 a year, however buying it means I am £15k down.

[marcosgt]

CampDavid said:

300bhp/ton said:

Doesn't it depend on the exact car you are looking at. Also what you intend to do with along with your own mentality and views and financial situation.

e.g. if you plan to buy to keep forever, then you won't lose a penny on it. You only lose money when you sell it on.

It depends on how you view it. To my mind, if I buy a car for £15000 which I plan on keeping forever then that car has cost me £15000. In depreciation terms that's a good deal, I plan on kicking around for at least another 50 years so it's only doing about £300 a year, however buying it means I am £15k down.

I think his point was you have an asset, which may be worth £15k (until you come to sell it - Buy wisely it might even be worth more, but it's unlikely).

Obviously in terms of cash, you have £15k less.

It's like buying a house - Spending £250K on a house and are you £250K worse off or not?

M.

[chris7676]

I can't imagine a new car would be cheaper in the long run, whether you sell it later on or keept it forver, you always pay the new car's price, which you may PARTLY recover leter, or not - if you choose so. The only upside is that it's likely to be in a better condition tha the old car.

[otolith]

300bhp/ton said:

e.g. if you plan to buy to keep forever, then you won't lose a penny on it. You only lose money when you sell it on.

That's not quite right, if you plan never to sell it on you lose the entire purchase price, you just intend to amortise it over the rest of your life. If you sell it, you only lose the purchase price - the resale price but you amortise it over a (hopefully) much shorter period.

eta - or the rest of the car's life, whichever is the shorter

Edited by otolith on Wednesday 19th January 16:12

[chris7676]

Now why would anyone want to buy new to keep it for 50 years? You may get a 10 year old one and not even notice it's not new