New car prices.

[Gary L]

Just drove past a garage. I don't take much notice of the cars that are always there for sale as they're not my type anyway. seen a price of £12,100 on one of the windows.

I can't justify spending that much money on a little car and it being a Fiat too. you can buy a decent second hand car for a quarter of that.

if you had £12,000 cash in your hand, I think you'd realise that paying £12,000 for that car is a big waste of money.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Some people are prepared to pay a premium for that new car with all it's glossy guarantees, the choice of colour, accesssories, etc. But they have to accept the immediate loss in value the moment the new tyres touch the road.

Buying a car only a couple of years old can save a lot of money, but you don't get the manufacturer support as most of the warranties aren't transferrable, and you don't really know how well the car was treated, even if it does have a service history. So it seems a bit more of a gamble. The biggest challenge though can be finding the model, spec, colour you want.

Personally, I'll buy nearly new for the saving and that I inevitably knock value off my cars by not treating them especially well.

I agree with both points above, but buying a car is an emotional as well as a fiscal transaction.

When we replaced my wife's 10 year old Fiat, she wanted a new Fiesta; not a nearly-new, not a second-hand, but it had to be a new Fiesta.

So that's what we bought (but I got the dealer down from £11,750 to £9,300, so I wasn't too upset ).

[mentalis]

Sometimes it's who you know.

I have a family member working at a Vauxhaull dealership, so got a very good (first time), but slowly going down (second time) discount on a new car.

[roger skillin]

You should by one a year old, i do the purchasing at my company and i just sorted a new car for my boss, he wanted a BMW 530 GT new which with the packs on would have cost £48k he decided to go second hand, we got a 1 year old 530 GT with all the packs on and only 6500 miles on the clock for £35k that's a saving of £13k and you still get another 2 years warranty left, if you can afford a nearly new car then it's perfect i for one need a new car and have £1500 to spend so i wont be getting one of those hehe

[superbiatch]

Originally Posted by roger skillin

You should by one a year old, i do the purchasing at my company and i just sorted a new car for my boss, he wanted a BMW 530 GT new which with the packs on would have cost £48k he decided to go second hand, we got a 1 year old 530 GT with all the packs on and only 6500 miles on the clock for £35k that's a saving of £13k and you still get another 2 years warranty left, if you can afford a nearly new car then it's perfect i for one need a new car and have £1500 to spend so i wont be getting one of those hehe

I tend to do something like that, but not on quite a large scale.

However I almost got caught out this time as I stupidly thought all Fords came with a 3 year warranty, as they used to. The don't! They come with 1 year now (at least my model does). As it happens I was purchasing a car which was 2.5 years old and a further warranty for when I thought the original once expired (which was yesterday) - so got away with it by the skin of my teeth

[gazzae]

After always buying cars new i've gone to the complete opposite end of the scale and bought a 5 year old with 95k miles for 2k.

[Aragorn]

Getting a new Mazda 6 delivered tomorrow Main reason for buying new - interest free credit (which is covered by my car allowance). It's also quite hard to find low mileage 6 diesel estates - most people hang on to them (as I intend to do). Yes, I'll lose money off the forecourt but I get a nice shiny new car and after the three years I'm about break even.

[NoKnowledge]

I always ask a mechanic I know, before buying a car as some cars are a pain (apparently) to fix.

You're OK if you only ever use dealership garages.

[Dai]

Originally Posted by NoKnowledge

I always ask a mechanic I know, before buying a car as some cars are a pain (apparently) to fix.

You're not wrong about that. Some jobs that should be relatively simple can end up being horrendously expensive. For example, changing the cam belt on my Audi involves disassembling virtually the whole front end.

Probably belt=£50, Labour £350...

[haydnwalker]

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

You're not wrong about that. Some jobs that should be relatively simple can end up being horrendously expensive. For example, changing the cam belt on my Audi involves disassembling virtually the whole front end.

Probably belt=£50, Labour £350...

And changing the headlight bulb in a megane involves removing the front wheel and having child-sized hands

[ChrisLUFC22]

I bought a 2 year old Clio (can't remember how much) and had loads of niggly little problems, things like sensor warnings coming on etc, I vowed never to buy anything new-ish again and I won't be paying more than £1,500 for my next car, which I'm currently saving as the Clio got wrote off.

[Osem]

I'd never buy a new car. When I bought mine it was just 6 months old, with only 5k on the clock and immaculate. I got over £6,000 off the MRP of £22k and still had 2.5years warranty and AA cover.

[SnoopZ]

I have just bought a 49 day old Astra VXR (had to wait 3 months in total though)and i recon i saved around 4-5K by not buying new, not that i could have afforded to anyway! So i think buying new is a waste of money considering mine was immaculate and only 3K on the clock and nearly 3 years warranty left.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by ChrisLUFC22

I bought a 2 year old Clio (can't remember how much) and had loads of niggly little problems, things like sensor warnings coming on etc, I vowed never to buy anything new-ish again and I won't be paying more than £1,500 for my next car, which I'm currently saving as the Clio got wrote off.

Ah but the problem you had wasn't buying second hand, it was buying a Renault...

---------- Post added at 21:34 ---------- Previous post was at 21:29 ----------

Originally Posted by DaiNasty

You're not wrong about that. Some jobs that should be relatively simple can end up being horrendously expensive. For example, changing the cam belt on my Audi involves disassembling virtually the whole front end.

Probably belt=£50, Labour £350...

Very true!

The new generation of CR diesels can also be hideously expensive to repair when things like injectors and DPF filters go wrong. People tend to overlook what happens after their 3 year warranty expires, the cost of repairs when injectors, turbos, etc. are involved and the price of servicing in years 4,5,6.....

Check out the honestjohn.co.uk website for some real horror stories if you have the stomach........