My husband and I are shopping around for a car. Although he's previously always bought used cars, he seems pretty opposed to doing so now. My folks always bought new cars (replacing one of their two cars about every 10 years, driving each for 20 years), so pre-MMM I figured I'd buy new, but I've since reconsidered.
He's a *huge* worrier about everything, so with a used car he worries about:
- Whether you get enough of a discount for the 1-4 years of use. (We likely wouldn't buy older than 4 years.) He seems to think that cars are basically dead after 100k miles, so if you get a 30k mile car, you may only get ~8 more years out of it. After a car starts needing repairs he seems to get a bit irrational about whether it's still of value to keep.
- Whether the prior owner took proper car of it with regular oil changes, maintenance, and garaging the car. (Note that our 1934 house has a garage too small to easily fit the car, so we'll also be parking it outside.)
- Getting a lemon. He believes he paid too much for a 3 yr old car with 65k miles once, which required quite a bit of repairs so I think that's biasing him. Neither of us are car-knowledgeable people and we just had a friend burned on a craiglist car purchase in the past month despite having a mechanic check it over, so we would buy a certified car if buying used.
My reasons for getting a used car:
- Better value (cheaper price)
- Also save on initial taxes, excise tax, insurance etc.
- I won't stress about getting the first scratch on it
- I won't stress about kids messing up a brand new car (I'm due in Feb)
Can you point me to any links analyzing car value/optimal buying points, or anything with concrete evidence on used car savings? I think sending him that information would be more persuasive than me continuing to make points in our discussions.
