…is buying a car. Happy day.
Over at The Savvy Scott, Pauline describes her recent purchase of a Hyundai Tucson with 140,000 miles (!) on it. Pauline, the proprietor of Reach Financial Independence, evidently lives in Guatemala and decided to buy a car through an auction house in Orlando while vacationing in Florida, the costs being significantly lower and the chance of getting a decent car significantly higher when one buys in the US.
LOL! To say you’re less likely to get ripped off in Florida is to say something startling about Guatemala, eh? 😀
Later models of the Tucson are indeed very nice — it’s among those I’ve been considering — and Pauline is very pleased with her find. And she got a good price on it by purchasing at auction.
I’ve never bought a second-hand car from a dealer. My ex- and I got our Mercedes second-hand, but we bought it from one of his law partners. We knew where the guy lived. 😉 The prospect of coping with a used car salesman makes me shudder, and I can’t even imagine the risks entailed in buying at auction.
But given the outrageous cost of new cars, and the fact that they’re mostly equipped with so much unnecessary electronic frou-frou that you have to go back to school to learn now to drive one, I’m considering the possibility of a used car. One of my friends knows a car broker. If I can get him to give me a referral to that gent (and I don’t hate the gent), I’ll probably see if he can get me a late-model Toyota that comes with a six-banger.
Pauline points out all the perceived joys of buying second-hand: lower cost, less depreciation, lower insurance costs. In Arizona, we can add lower registration taxes, since these drop as a car ages. I can pay registration out of cash flow now; I’d have to draw down from savings to register a newer vehicle.
On the other hand…
If you drive your car until it falls apart, it will run for ten to twenty years (depending on how much you drive and how well you care for the vehicle). An old junker will have to be replaced in less than ten years — possibly less then five.
If you drive a car for ten years, you have ample time to set aside “car payments” in savings, accumulating enough to pay for the next car in cash.
If you buy new and keep the car for ten to fifteen years, depreciation is irrelevant. A reliable vehicle, such as a Toyota or a Honda, will give you your money’s worth over that period.
Over a fifteen-year lifetime, the cost of insurance and registration will drop into the sub-basement, whereas if you buy a five-year-old car every five years, these costs will never decrease significantly.
New cars tend to be safer, because they have up-to-date safety technology and because key components like brakes will not fail from age.
New cars come with warrantees, usually for 100,000 miles. Junkers do not — they’re pretty much guaranteed to cost you money for repairs.
A Hyundai that has 140,000 miles on the odometer may run for another 60,000 miles, give or take. That’s not very far. It certainly isn’t if you live in the US. Possibly it would be a good buy if you lived someplace that had decent public transit and amenities such as grocery stores within walking distance. But that certainly is not true in most US cities. Here, such a vehicle would be penny-wise and pound-foolish.
While I surely do resent having to pay more for a new car than my first house cost, I’m also uncomfortable with the downsides of buying a used vehicle.
I dunno. Maybe I’ll just get the Dog Chariot’s brakes fixed and try to coax it to run to 200,000 miles.
Welp, the car is (belatedly) down at Chuck’s Auto Service
What a shame! It was SUCH a wonderful car, so beautiful…and holy MACKEREL the power that thing had! It was slow from a standing start, but at 65 mph all you had to do was breathe on the gas pedal and suddenly you’d be at 85. You have never seen such acceleration in a big old galumphing sedan with walnut and leather trim.
