Getting Used (Cars)
Dec 29 '99 (Updated Mar 02 '00)
If you belong to that part of the U.S. population who believes that buying a used vehicle makes a lot more sense than buying new, here are some reasons why you are right and some ways to make you even righter the next time around.
Why Used Cars Are A Great Deal, Relative To New Ones:
o Someone else took the depreciation hit on the vehicle. The first 2 years of a vehicle's life involve its greatest decrease in market value. In our "New Is Good" economy, just the fact that someone else had their hands on the wheel (and who knows where they've been?) is enough to cause the price to plummet on that mythical first trip out of the dealer's lot. God's gift to the used car buyer is the person who simply must have a new one every 2-4 years. The opposite side of the coin is that after a certain age, a used vehicle (barring its being totaled) ceases to depreciate much at all.
o Used vehicles are cheaper to insure. They are generally less prone to being stolen or vandalized.
o The Vehicle Value/Cost ratio in general is much higher with used vehicles. Even at a ripe old age, most of what the vehicle started out as is still there, especially mechanically, albeit with a bit less lustre and/or zip.
o Older vehicles are easier to work on, should you be so inclined. With the proliferation of fuel injection and electronic ignition systems, more exotic suspensions, and more complicated components in general, newer cars are not designed with the shade tree mechanic in mind nearly as much as older ones were.
o It has never been easier to find that used vehicle you want for the kind of money you want to pay (you're using the technology as you read this).
How To Make A Used Vehicle Even More Valuable:
o If you have purchased a used vehicle that with modest inputs of maintenance will run for years, hang onto it as long as makes financial sense. When the odd $500-$1000 bill appears (and it will from time to time if you are following this strategy), weigh its inconvenience against burning the same money in payments in 2-3 months on something new.
o Every vehicle manufactured domestically or abroad represents a significant investment of raw materials, labor, and the inevitable manufacturing pollution, from the production of the raw materials required through assembly of the final product. The less often this cycle is repeated, the better off the planet is from many standpoints: less material used, less pollution, and less waste of what are essentially vehicles with some/a lot of life left in them.
o You can have more fun making modifications to a used vehicle. You don't see a lot of new cars festooned with stickers or whimsically hand-painted ("What, are you nuts! This baby cost me 30 grand!"), but these inhibitions evaporate in a fairly liberating way with an older vehicle if you like to do these sorts of things.
o Pass it on to someone who can use it when you are through with it. You might be surprised how grateful someone might be (relative, friend, ???) and, hey, it's not like you're giving away a new Caddy.
Happy hunting!
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