What is the “best” age of a secondhand car?
Discussion
As a car ages it depreciates in value, but the rate of depreciation is not even, as it drops mostly quickly over the earlier years. On the other hand, the cost of maintaining a car generally increases as it starts to wear out. It also falls outside of the manufacturer’s warranty so any big bills become your own.
So what is the “sweet” spot for buying a second hand car? Three years? Five years?
So what is the “sweet” spot for buying a second hand car? Three years? Five years?
Used to be 3, trade value had dropped 50% and still reliable. But prices are still funny.
When Honda were making the old quality cars, I used to buy at 5 years and run to 10. You could even get a Honda extended warranty up until year 8/9.
Now Toyota has the 10 year/100k free extended warranty as long as you use main dealers for servicing. That’s great value and worth the cost of the service on its own.
When Honda were making the old quality cars, I used to buy at 5 years and run to 10. You could even get a Honda extended warranty up until year 8/9.
Now Toyota has the 10 year/100k free extended warranty as long as you use main dealers for servicing. That’s great value and worth the cost of the service on its own.
I used to buy my cars at around 2-3 years old, with Max 40k miles and sell them before 70k, was a nice sweet spot on outlay and value retention. Now the cars are so expensive to start with I see better value in just buying at the bottom and keeping it running for a lot longer until it dies then repeat.
I ran two cars alongside each other a few years back;
Car A: Owned between 2-6 years old, driven 40k miles
Car B: Owned since 15 years old, driven 60k miles
When I went back through and looked into the numbers, Car A was costing roughly three times as much to run as Car B, despite being newer, lower mileage and far less maintenance. The primary cause of then costs was depreciation; £10k over 4 years. Averaging at £2,500 per year in depreciation, this was significantly more than Car B, which was purchased for only £2k anyway.
Over the years, I've kept Car B and the average maintenance bill each year is around £500. Which, compared to the depreciation on a newer car, is a drop in the ocean. In 2023 I only had to spend £80 on a new battery for it, that was at 181k miles and 20 years old, still doing 12k miles a year. This year I may spend a few hundred quid having the sills welded, if they deteriorate enough.
Car A: Owned between 2-6 years old, driven 40k miles
Car B: Owned since 15 years old, driven 60k miles
When I went back through and looked into the numbers, Car A was costing roughly three times as much to run as Car B, despite being newer, lower mileage and far less maintenance. The primary cause of then costs was depreciation; £10k over 4 years. Averaging at £2,500 per year in depreciation, this was significantly more than Car B, which was purchased for only £2k anyway.
Over the years, I've kept Car B and the average maintenance bill each year is around £500. Which, compared to the depreciation on a newer car, is a drop in the ocean. In 2023 I only had to spend £80 on a new battery for it, that was at 181k miles and 20 years old, still doing 12k miles a year. This year I may spend a few hundred quid having the sills welded, if they deteriorate enough.
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