Wednesday, September 26, 2007

A Certain Car Salesguy Could Kill Me for This...

...but I don't care. Besides, I have the .357 handy...

Via Tom McMahon, Kent Howard's words of wisdom:

For 15 years, Clark has talked about the advantage of keeping a new car for at least 10 years or buying a used car and keeping it for at least four years. Cars lose about half of their value during the first three years, but then the loss ratio drops off pretty steeply after that time. Consumer Reports has now done a study on the virtues of keeping a car for 15 years. Bear in mind that most owners only keep their vehicles for three or maybe five years. But by keeping a car for 15 years or 225,000 miles, you save $31,000 dollars. The report found that during the course of 15 years, your average maintenance will be $18,000 and your insurance will be $18,000

Another trick--buy a car off-lease; your capcost is about 1/2 of "new" car, and with only 50K or less on the clock, it's not likely the car could have been abused seriously. Besides, you can purchase the 'remainder' of the OE warranty, usually good for 75,000 miles.

4 comments:

Disgruntled Car Salesman said...

Believe it or not, I do agree with you. I would be a fool not to. However, most people don't care. Social status is far more important to some than saving money. Welcome to the "consumerous glut" that is America. Why do you think they invented the Kia Rio? Throw away car.

capper said...

Well, it is good to know that I did the right thing. I drove my old Dodge into the ground, and still was able to sell it for a few hundred bucks. Meanwhile, I bought a used lease Toyota with less than 40K for about 1/2 the price of a new one. I can expect to get a good 15 years off this vehicle at least, which would make the cost less than $1000 per year, or about 60% of the cost that the Dodge cost me.

GOR said...

Yes, I have been doing this since the 80s - 3 cars, all with 250+k miles on them and then donated to charity at the end. While what you can claim on taxes for the donations is now less than heretofore, it is still probably as good as or better than trying to sell.

Anonymous said...

I always buy new, I have this thing about driving a car that is:
1.Reliable
2.Safe

Call me crazy, but the fact that airbags are all over occupants of a new car is priceless, there are some things to be cheap about, but not safety and reliability. I have been stranded by a used car in -40 weather..no thanks