re: How bad of an idea is it to buy a new car?

quote:

---

Life is too short to buy used cars.

---

Especially when you can expense them through your llc's.

My experience has been that high end luxury used cars have depreciated as a percent of value a lot more than "regular" cars.

You can get a lot more bells and whistles for the buck used rather than new.

That said we tend to buy new or barely used and drive them to 200K or more.

For example we once bought an expedition for my wife that was two years old and only had 25000 miles. Looked new detailed. We paid about $10k less than a comparable new one and never had a problem. We put 175K miles on it and I still see it around town now 5 years after we owned it.

Think harder about the make/model.....is a mid sized SUV really necessary? They're gas hogs and overpriced for the cargo space and amenities. Calculate how many miles you'll drive it and compare with more fuel efficient vehicles. Mint be a better idea to buy a new or newer car with better mileage than a new or slightly used guzzler. I drive 40 plus miles a day, and I see so so so many people driving alone in SUVs. I'd rather have money in my pocket (or in my retirement fund) than in my gas tank.

I buy new.....or at least a like new dealer loaner. But I keep em 10-12 years and do all suggested manufacturers scheduled maintenance.

quote:

---

Life is too short to buy used cars.

---

This.

quote:

---

I you plan to maintain it meticulously and drive it until the wheels fall off - I'm talking 12, 14 years, 175k to 200k miles.

---

Yeah, if you're talking about working on your own vehicle, that's almost no one. A lot of people simply don't have the time to maintain a vehicle themselves, especially if they have careers that have them working 60+ hours a week or have long commutes.

I saw my parents drive their vehicles until the wheels fell off like you said. They brought their vehicles in for routine maintenance and all of that. But vehicles still break down. I guess they saved money in the long run but the frequent inconveniences of having the car in and out of the shop in the later years and how much stress it seemed to cause hardly seemed worth it to me.

I think having a reliable vehicle under warranty is well worth it IMO. I guess like others say it's a personal choice. I don't have a ton of debt or a lot of expenses so I guess that may be why. If I had 4 children and a lot of debt I probably would feel differently.

quote:

---

My daughter just bought a Volvo XC-60 managers demo with 1200 miles on it. Regular warranty is 5 yrs, 50,000 miles. They also offer free maintenance for first 36 mo which they extended to 5 years since it is a demo. It was a 2015 which had 2250 in dealer incentives and an additional 1000 since I'm a Volvo owner. I own an XC-90 with over 100,000 miles on it. I paid almost as much for mine back in 2009 and it was a year old with 14,000 miles on it.

---

+1 on those long-running Volvos. Have had a few myself in the same pattern---dealer demo, 100+K miles with no trouble.