Old vs New Car Costs
Discussion
Hi all!
I was helping a friend look for a car and he was interested in an automatic coupe, with low mileage, relatively few owners, and didn't break the bank too much. This narrowed our search down to the e92 BMW or Audi A5. For the money he wanted to spend the BMW seems the better value at his budget.
We then narrowed it down further to be between the 320d or 325i. Having read posts on here it seems the 320i is a no go on the autobox?
Another friend then chipped and suggests that he only buys cars from the approved garage of his choice (BMW, Audi, Jag etc) and there's no point in buying a 2006 car (in his words, "older cars are less reliable"). Now I have a 2006 335d which hasn't caused too many problems.
However, my friend is now torn between spending £6K on a 325i from 2006 which meets the criteria or buying something 3/4 years old at £14K. Is there a website or data to show that older cars aren't that much of a bad investment?
I was helping a friend look for a car and he was interested in an automatic coupe, with low mileage, relatively few owners, and didn't break the bank too much. This narrowed our search down to the e92 BMW or Audi A5. For the money he wanted to spend the BMW seems the better value at his budget.
We then narrowed it down further to be between the 320d or 325i. Having read posts on here it seems the 320i is a no go on the autobox?
Another friend then chipped and suggests that he only buys cars from the approved garage of his choice (BMW, Audi, Jag etc) and there's no point in buying a 2006 car (in his words, "older cars are less reliable"). Now I have a 2006 335d which hasn't caused too many problems.
However, my friend is now torn between spending £6K on a 325i from 2006 which meets the criteria or buying something 3/4 years old at £14K. Is there a website or data to show that older cars aren't that much of a bad investment?
Simple man maths?
If you buy a 3 year old car at £14K and its 10 year old equivalent is £6K you know you have £8K to spend on repairs etc. before the newer car makes more sense. If you only service main dealer you may be better off with new but happy to use specialist buy old run until you get the first bill that is worth more than 75% of the residual value.
If you buy a 3 year old car at £14K and its 10 year old equivalent is £6K you know you have £8K to spend on repairs etc. before the newer car makes more sense. If you only service main dealer you may be better off with new but happy to use specialist buy old run until you get the first bill that is worth more than 75% of the residual value.
mikethepenguin said:
However, my friend is now torn between spending £6K on a 325i from 2006 which meets the criteria or buying something 3/4 years old at £14K. Is there a website or data to show that older cars aren't that much of a bad investment?
The most your friend can lose on the 2006 car is £6k... The £14k car will likely lose that amount in depreciation over the next 3 years.The older car may need some more expensive things doing to it as time goes on - suspension bushes, cats and so on can all go and need replacing, and the newer car is unlikely to need this. So, it depends on two things;
1. Does your friend prefer to pay for repairs or depreciation?
2. Does your friend value having a newer car, with better in car technology, etc?
I've done both in the past, and like my newer car for the technology and other advances over the older one - I accept it will cost more in depreciation than my previous older car would have cost in maintenance.
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