New Car versus Used?

So my kid has an internship this summer - and for the 36 days (3 days on site x 12 weeks) I will drive her. It’s easy for me as I’ve been benched travel wise and i"m work from home.

Other thoughts are - as her internship is in downtown Nashville - 25 miles or so away - is drive with her bf to his work and uber as it’d be 6-7 miles. Or find someone in the neighborhood who goes to a similar place and hire them to drive her.

New vs. used is hard - used prices are falling - so what you pay used, you’ll be mad about tomorrow when it’ll be cheaper.

At the same time, new prices are falling - because selling over sticker is rarely happening and at sticker is often happening less. At the same time, in the product I sell, we have had 3 years of price increases - 5%, 9% and then MY24 will be 6% - so even new under sticker is a lot more than a few years ago.

We didn’t send a car to college. But my daughter is in a city, the insurance would be really high and the most reasonable parking garage is a 20 minute walk away. So we have her uber - she likes to go to the beach and I spend $100-200 depending on the month…and I’m ok.

If I had to send a car, I’d buy new - but the reason is - breakdowns.

Her BF, whose dad owns repair shops - has an Toyota FJ Cruiser - and it just died as he was driving - new alternator and serpentine belt.

My son wanted to buy a 2014 E Class with 70,000 miles on it. It was $17K. He should have bought it - would have made money. But as I told him - what will you do when the brakes wear out, need new tires, or minor accident, etc. It will be very expensive.

It’s really a personal choice. The average new car today is near $50K and it’s nuts. A cheap car is in the 30s - and that’s tough.

But finding that $2500 neighborhood car than an elderly widow wants to move on from - also is impossible to find.

I didn’t really give an answer - but I wish you luck.

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Good plan. Would not recommend a new car for a 20 yr old.Accident waiting to happen (literally and figuratively). We commonly did hand-me-downs, giving our car (or a relatives car) to the kids and we got the new one.

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There have been instances where rental fleets sometimes got a safety feature delete option that was not normally available on the model, so buyers of used rental cars did not realize that the feature was missing.

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Our kids were very lucky in that their college graduation gifts for grad school were off lease Camry sedans. Great and reliable cars…and pre-COVID, we paid $15,000 each for cars with less than 30,000 miles on them.

Same place we got these, they are now in the 20,000 range…at this point, I think I’d look for new…something smaller and less pricey. They are out there.

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We have a 2007 Honda Odyssey with less than 90k miles if someone wants it in 3 years.

We’ll throw a 20 year old birthday party in 2027.

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I’ve had 5 of them, I think the transmissions started having trouble near the 20 mark. Good luck!

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Both my priuses had mechanical issues. If you are looking at 80 percent of new for a used with 60k, i would just buy the new, because of the warranty. Btw, you can often save 1k on purchase of new, by financing thru the dealer, and paying it off in full immediately.

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We have bought 3 used cars in the past 3 years. Two of them were last year about this time. The other was in 2019 before the pandemic. Prices did go up a lot, but we got decent deals. One we definitely paid more than we should have, but it was $12k, not $20K. Should’ve been $7k, but we had to take what we could get.

If you have a mechanic you like and trust I would look at AutoTrader and Craigslist. We got the overpriced $12k one from a listing on AutoTrader and got a fab deal on one underpriced at Kelly Bluebook value for $6k off Craigslist. We took the AutoTrader one to our mechanic and had it checked out before we bought it. The Craiglist one was such a deal we just bought before checking it out, but those cars easily go for twice that or more so it felt like a safe bet. We could’ve sold it for more if it didn’t work out. It’s been a great car for the past year. No issues.

Thank you everyone!! Lots to go through and think about. Oh and I didn’t even touch on the interest rates yet!

The one car we’ve ever bought new was hit at high speed three years later by a drunk driver. I took that as a sign.

I like paying cash/buying used from private sellers on Craigslist/KBB … so far, so good. Son is driving a 2005 Subaru. Daughter drives a 2010 truck. A 2011 is the newest car we own; we always drive our cars into the ground. Yes, we do pay more in maintenance/repairs than buying new, but we don’t have car payments.

And we like stick shifts, which makes the search longer but invariably brings the cost way down. Plus, automatic anti-theft!

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@Gatormama in the last two years, we have sold two standard shift cars to friends.

  1. 2011 Subaru Outback with 121,000 miles. $6000

  2. 2003 Volkswagen TDI diesel…$3000 it had 160,000 miles on it.

Both extremely well cared for…

ping me with your next one!

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We’ve had so much bad luck with used cars that we almost always go new now, esp since there isn’t much price difference and you get a full warranty.

We did one certified used, and while that one had 3 problems within a year, they were all covered by a warranty so we were only out the time and annoyance.

The absolute best used car we bought came from an estate auction and we paid cash. The older gentleman was moving into a retirement facility and had kept nice care of his car.

Otherwise, most cars being turned in to be sold used seem to be being turned in for a reason.

When our son needed a car at med school, we had him get used. The dealership has a special for recent college grads, so he got a great price and rate. We had the peace of mind that it wasn’t likely to break down on him. Six years later now it’s still doing just fine. Who knows what would have happened to a used car in that time frame. Still good or would he have needed repairs or a new one by now? If he shared our luck there would have been some exasperating moments to say the least.

I’m sort of floored at ANYONE who says they got a great deal on a car - unless it’s like a car in the family. Negotiating a car price and dealing with the sales team is to me one of the worst tasks in life! Hate the games! And I feel like there aren’t really good deals - why give you a good deal when they can just wait for the next person to walk in the door (if it’s truly a good car)

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Yes! And it’s only gotten worse since the pandemic!

Those cheaper used cars for younger drivers. Aren’t there

Buying a car wasn’t fun at any time.

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We got a great deal on a private cash sale. A Honda Civic that was about 6 years old…had a LOT of miles on it. But the owners were friends. $5000. Sadly, it was hit by another car within just a few months of us purchasing it. But we got $10,000 from the insurance settlement…and bought a newer with less miles on it Accord from the guy who serviced our Accord.

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We bought DH’s new Prius (no deals- take it or leave it) and did the “buy and pay off immediately” to get the $500 military discount. We put the most down allowed (40%) and planned to pay it off as soon as they sent the paperwork (which we did). But- they slapped on over $200 in some fees/interest nonsense. So we really only “saved” half of the rebate. Totally BS

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Let me know as well for your next sale!

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I don’t think we will have any cars for sale…we already have some folks here who want to buy our current cars when we decide to sell. One car is 11 years old, and the other is 7. I don’t think we will be selling either one soon!

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Seven years old!? A brand-new car! :rofl: