Originally Posted by MuseChaser
A dealership "certified" used car, at least the one I bought, comes with a full year/12K bumper-to-bumper warranty, and a BETTER drivetrain warranty than the same car new from the same dealership. The "experience of new car ownership" is really only two things; paying a LOT more money for the bragging rights of putting the first 20k or 30k miles on the car, and the ego-boost of showing your friends (and yourself?) that you bought a new car.
New cars make absolutely NO financial sense. I've bought two in my life, and will never, and I mean NEVER, buy another new car.
'72 Datsun B210 (first car in college.. gift from parents with 97K miles on it)
'73 Oldsmobile Delta 88 (girlfriend-and-eventual-wife's college car she bought for $400)
'71 Fiat Spider (private sale)
'74 Fiat Spider (private sale in a pile of parts)
'82 Ford E150 manual van (bought new) ($10k, stripped cargo van; passenger seat for wife was an OPTION)
'80-something Dodge Colt E (Mistubishi, bought privately for $500)
'81 Nissan Sentra (bought from friend, $1200)
'89 Colt Vista (Mitsubishi, bought new) (approx $12K, IIRC)
'92 Ford Aerostar (bought dealer certified used) (approx $12K)
'91 Audi 80 (bought in terrible shape from private "dealer") ($1K)
'93 Toyota Celica (bought dealer certified used) (approx $12K)
'93 BMW 325i (bought from dealer in as-is condition from auction) ($8.5K, and best bang for the buck of all of my cars ever)
'93 Range Rover County LWB (bought in charity auction from church, $15K)
'89 Volvo 240 (private sale, $900)
'92 Volvo 240 (private sale, $1200)
'88 Mercedes 560SL (eBay purchase, nightmare, $15K)
'99 Mercedes ML430 (local used car dealer, $15k)
'06 Mercedes ML500 (same local used car dealer, $12K, but needed new tranny)
'13 Scion FR-S (Toyota/Scion dealership, certified, $17K)
I had nothing but trouble with the Ford van I bought new, and gave up on it at about 65K miles. The other new car, the Dodge/Mitsu Colt Vista, was a great little family truckster, but only went 125k miles before it became unreliable.
Best bangs for the buck were the 325i by a long shot (I put almost 200K miles on it myself, and the only problems it ever had were stuff that is SUPPOSED to wear out), followed by, believe it or not, the Ford Aerostar (we put over 200K on that ourselves), the Celica (of course.. 235K on it before giving it to our oldest son in college), and the ML430 (235K on it, 150K of which were ours) before the salt and multiple deer hits took it's toll on it.
Worst cars, fiscally, were the Rover (although we love, Love, LOVED it, the high-for-us purchase price, constant maintenance and repairs, and rusting out of liftgate made it a tough vehicular partner), the two Fiats (lots of fun, never ran reliably, but were cheap so maybe NOT necessarily a bad bang-for-buck), the ML500 (simply because I had to sink SO much time and money into it to fix a bunch of undisclosed problems.. $1500 worth of modules, $7000 for tranny and torque converter, and a host of other expensive stuff; the $12K bargain turned into paying $22K total for a car worth maybe $15K.. and less, now.. but it's been great for the past year or two). AND.. the FR-S. Not because it isn't a fun car, or reliable, or cheap to drive.. but because I paid more for it (except for the ML500 w/ repairs) than any other car. There's no WAY it'll equal the 325i, no matter how many miles I put on it, in terms of value for your dollar.
On another note, you can tell by my list that we're not exactly filthy rich. On the other hand, we haven't had car loans in decades, and have paid off our mortgage. I've loved driving BMW, Mercedes, Range Rover, and Volvo vehicles. Plan on eventually owning a Porsche. No way we could do ANY of that new. I just don't get why anyone would want to pay new car prices for any reason. Heck, I saw a new Toyota Sienna minivan at the dealership a few days ago... for over $50K!!!! Unbelievable. If I had $50k to spend on a car, I'd buy four great used cars and put two in storage for the future.
Yeah, I kind of feel strongly about this issue. Sorry for the long-winded trip through memory lane. I just don't get it, though.. what is so great about buying a new car? Where's the value in it?
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