In today s world of exorbitantly expensive cars, buying pre owned is a really viable option to consider. Below there are top three reasons why it’s better to buy a used car than a new one.
Price: This one is the most obvious factor. Buying a new vehicle, especially today, is vastly more expensive than buying used. The average new vehicle is going to be at least $20,000. A fully functional vehicle of the same type that is 5 years old may be nearly half that amount.
Selection: Depending on what type of vehicle you are after, as well as the time of year you choose to buy, selection may be a factor. When a model first comes out, there will probably not be as many cars of that type to choose from. In addition, it this is a particularly popular vehicle like the Honda S2000 sports car was, the dealer may be charging an extra fee in order for you to purchase the vehicle, due to its relative unavailability. These large surcharges can add a great deal to the final price if the market will bear it.
The dealer decides how much above the MSRP (manufacturers suggested retail price) they will sell the car for. In the case of the Honda S2000, people wanted them so badly they were actually bidding the price up just to get the few available cars. The dealer, of course, profited greatly from this. If you wait until a model has been out for awhile the selection will be much better. In addition, if you wait until September, when dealers are trying to move out the remaining stock before winter, the selection will be still better.
Short term/long term value: When buying a new vehicle, most people can only see its shiny newness and how great it will look in their driveway. They don t usually consider at the time of purchase how long they plan to keep the vehicle. With today s high prices and typical long financing terms, this is really important to think about. If the vehicle you are buying is something you plan on keeping for at least 5 to 7 years, and you finance it for only 48 months, then you will at least have a few years without car payments before it is time to start thinking about another vehicle. If you plan on only keeping it for 2 to 3 years however, you may have an unpleasant experience occur. This experience is called being upside down in your vehicle.
Most don’t know that a new vehicle s worth drops very dramatically after you drive it home. Unless you put a substantial amount of money down at the beginning, you may owe more money on it then it is worth for the first few years. If that becomes the case, you have a big problem replacing it if you go through a dealer. Keep in mind that most new car dealer s make a lot of their profits on trade in s. If they only give you S2000 for your vehicle and then sell it to a wholesaler for $3,500, they just made a fast $1,500 at your expense. Then the wholesaler may clean it up real nice and sell it for $5,500 taking another profit from your misfortune.
All these factors can be applied to a used vehicle as well, but the amounts would probably be cut in half so you would not be hurt as bad financially.
Back to the idea that you are buying someone else s headache if you buy used. While this can be true, there are procedures you can use and precautions you can take to minimize this sort of thing. In the next couple of chapters we will discuss how to apply them in your vehicle shopping!
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")