Top 5 Reasons To Buy A New Car

[bowtieguy]

http://autos.aol.com/article/reasons-to-buy-a-new-car

i've got the top 5 why not to:

5)avoid interest paid above the value of the car
4)lower insurance costs
3)gas prices(avoiding a monthly payment in addition to high gas prices)
2)lesser depreciation(who cares if my $1500 civic depreciates?)
1)the peace of actually owning the vehicle presently driven

to the author's credit, he does say "if" you can afford a new car.

[theholycow]

Top reason for everybody other than me to buy a new car: So there will be more used cars on the market for me.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I've been kicking around the idea of getting a late model used car, or a new car. One of the models I'm looking at is available with 60 month 0% financing.

[bowtieguy]

yes, the 0% interest and the 100k warranty deals are tempting. altho i advocate buying used, i must admit buying new, if it's budget feasible, is the best way to go.

nothing like driving a car w/ no mystery issues to deal with. of course, i'd want to own the car AT LEAST 5 years beyond being paid for.

[theholycow]

I've bought new cars and I don't expect to do so again unless I have money to spare after making my payments (or preferably, after paying cash unless it is 0%).

I hate worrying about preserving the warranty. I hate the first dent/ding/damage. I hate the higher cost of insurance. I hate driving on the latest technology that hasn't had billions of consumer-miles driven on it (not for fear of safety, just worry that there will be downtime fixing it). I hate scheduling and waiting for dealer service appointments.

If I had plenty of extra money I could ignore the warranty at will, paying for the luxury of not dealing with warranties.

I used to prefer new because then I know the vehicle's driving/service history but I'm much more comfortable with the idea of my car needing repairs now. Still, I really love that toxic New Car Smell. If I ever get filthy rich, I'll be humble about a lot of things but I'll always drive new vehicles just for the smell.

[jadziasman]

Refuting.

5) Pay with cash (yes, that's still allowed and dealers are surprised when you can!)
4) Negligible insurance cost differential between new and 5 year old car for collision. For liability and personal injury - no difference at all and maybe more since you don't have the latest airbags and good crash scores.
3) see 5)
2) can't refute this one.
1) see 5)

And.......

No one is impressed (except you) that you save $$$$ by driving a P.O.S.

I knew a guy who religiously placed a beat up car cover over his P.O.S. at work. His co-workers were not impressed. Laughed behind his back instead.

If you must buy used, get a late model car with a high odometer reading. People will be impressed and they won't know you didn't pay alot for this muffler.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Yeah, I could just about pay cash for a decent used model (~$10-$12K). A new model would run me about $500/mo for the next 5 years (with 0% interest and a modest down payment). That would also slow down my plans to fix up Rusty and the BWH. Although I can afford new, I'm still leaning towards used, simply to free up my cash flow for other vehicle projects (BWH and Rusty again)

[bobc455]

Originally Posted by jadziasman

{snip}
And.......

No one is impressed (except you) that you save $$$$ by driving a P.O.S.

If I want to pick up girls, then I'd worry about that. I'm already married, though, and my wife is impressed by other attributes. And I'd rather have money for fun vacations or my hobbies.

I know some people feel that it's important to impress people with a car, but unless that car is a Ferrari, Lamborghini, *maybe* a $250k mercedes, a classic car, etc., I'm not impressed. People think their scions or fancy subarus or celica GTs are impressive- not to me.

By the way, a group of my friends recently had the following discussion:
"If you won the lottery, and you could buy three of any car, what would they be? Your three cars would be for the following:
1) A family car (i.e. a large Mercedes sedan, perhaps)
2) Something that goes incredibly fast
3) Something that is incredibly eye-catching (i.e. a Laborghini diablo, etc.)" (this would be the "impressive" car)

- Bob C.

[bowtieguy]

agreed Bob...100%

refute the refute...

a)paying cash is not synonymous with POS.
b)there is a significant difference in collision cost between a financed and owned vehicle-no matter the age.
c)if one worries about imagine, he/she is a victim of things owning them rather than they owning things.

besides, bought cheap enough, a POS can be repaired/painted

[jadziasman]

I bought my very last POS nearly two years ago. A 2004 Chevy Malibu Classic with the 2.2L mill.

It was a good deal at $3500 for a five year old car with 100K miles on it.

However.......

Since I've owned it,

I had a new fuel pump installed.

(which ended up costing me dearly since I did not get the car towed home so I could replace it myself. Yes, this was my choice but with only two cars at the time I needed something that wifey could drive while I still drove my trusty 1992 Honda Civic - which never left me stranded BTW.)

I needed to replace the Classic's transmission pan gasket and in the middle of winter too. Not a high cost repair but still a pain to do when the garage floor is a toasty 25?F.

I've had to replace the front brake pads on the Classic twice (wifey drives like Jackie Stewart). And the brakes on GM's don't seem to last very long if they're used.

Some would consider Yoda a POS but for me it's a new car compared to the VX I drove for five years. Yoda will achieve POS status when the traction battery dies. So far, no sign of obvious degradation of the big battery.

I also own a 2010 Nissan Versa. Very nice to have a new, very reliable car that I wouldn't be afraid to drive to Cal-I-Forn-I-A if I had to.

I liked my VX's very much but the it seemed the last one always needed something to be repaired/replaced every other week.

Much better to have new or nearly new (when you can afford it).