What are the advantages of buying used right now?

[Davidpingu]

Was it ever confirmed whether there were any suspension revisions on later cars?
I get the ECU thing as an argument to go a couple years older but when there were concerns over the rear suspension set up it seemed that some suggested there may have been revisions made to later cars but I’m not sure that was ever really confirmed. Slightly different situation here in the UK as we don’t tend to have dealers raise prices above mrsp. In fact the only time I’ve seen it is for the FK8 when production suddenly stopped. Any remaining stock saw a big hike, especially on the boost blue.
Anyways I’ve ordered a new car and have been told to expect a wait of around 8 months. It sucks because of course I’d rather be in one now but for me it does make more financial sense to wait.
Of course I’ll lose money however I buy but it still matters to me how much I’ll lose and I’m always looking to limit that if I can.
If I buy used now I’m looking at around £45 - 46k which is only a £4K saving and the car already then has 1 registered owner.
If I’m buying used I always think it’s nicer to buy a car that’s had one owner from new than one that’s seen multiple owners. There’s the break in period as mentioned too.
There’s the cost of finance which is anything from 0% to 1.9% new whereas it’s at least 4.9% used. Looking at how this effected monthly payments, my monthly payments were less on the new car.
Then finally as others have mentioned I can’t ignore resale value for what will probably be about 2 - 3 years after purchase. By that point I think the car that had 1 owner and is 2 years newer will fetch more.
Why is that important to me? Because it hopefully means there’s a material difference in the size of the deposit I’ll have on the next car. On balance, in my situation I think it’s better to wait but that doesn’t mean I don’t still look at used cars and get tempted to just have what I want NOW.
Usually it’s looking at the monthly payments being more on a used car by £100 - £150 that makes me think “don’t be stupid, just wait”

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[synolimit]

I think everyone here is on the same page. No one buys vehicles to « make » money. We are here because we spent money on something we enjoy.

correct but i wouldnt enjoy driving and modding a car thats tens of thousands over retail or MSRP. who'd want to pay that monthly, GAP or no GAP, the difference if the car gets wrecked etc?! nothings that special or worth it. its already bad enough you drive off the lot and the car tanks like $5000. now you have a Supra thats $10k over or a vet thats $30k over a G wagon thats $225,000 over!!! HAHA good luck out there.

 

[zrk]

correct but i wouldnt enjoy driving and modding a car thats tens of thousands over retail or MSRP. who'd want to pay that monthly, GAP or no GAP, the difference if the car gets wrecked etc?! nothings that special or worth it. its already bad enough you drive off the lot and the car tanks like $5000. now you have a Supra thats $10k over or a vet thats $30k over a G wagon thats $225,000 over!!! HAHA good luck out there.

Cars might not be the hobby for you.

 

[zrk]

Cars might not be the hobby for you.

For the record, I'm being serious. Cars are a huge money pit. We spend insane amounts of money on shit that brings a single person (the owner) joy. We're paying for happiness, and we can't resell that, nor would we want to.

That's what car people do. It's stupid, we're all stupid rubber-burning morons (or whatever that one guy from a few months ago said), but it's fun.

 

[Davidpingu]

For the record, I'm being serious. Cars are a huge money pit. We spend insane amounts of money on shit that brings a single person (the owner) joy. We're paying for happiness, and we can't resell that, nor would we want to.

That's what car people do. It's stupid, we're all stupid rubber-burning morons (or whatever that one guy from a few months ago said), but it's fun.

Definitely agree with this. I live in a pretty modest house and do have to concur that I’d probably live in a much bigger place in a nicer area by now were it not for the thousands I’ve spent on cars.
I think it was you that said we could be dead tomorrow. There has to be a middle ground. There’s a saying that says something like “Live for today, plan for tomorrow”.
Life would be very boring if every decision we made was based on investment BUT some do have the means to accept throwing away more than others.
There’s certainly a limit I have when it comes to how much I’m prepared to lose on a car. If there wasn’t I’d probably be driving a Giulia Quadrifoglio right now and not waiting on a Supra

 

[mmspider]

For the record, I'm being serious. Cars are a huge money pit. We spend insane amounts of money on shit that brings a single person (the owner) joy. We're paying for happiness, and we can't resell that, nor would we want to.

That's what car people do. It's stupid, we're all stupid rubber-burning morons (or whatever that one guy from a few months ago said), but it's fun.

As long as you balance it out in financially you should be ok though. Cars are one of main my sources of motivation and happiness. So It takes high priority in the budget. I keep model cars on my desk to remind myself why I am working.

 

[romanLegion9574]

I looked at buying a Gallardo briefly. 90k and needed a new clutch. Come to find out that the clutch is 40k installed. I get not being able to pay for major super car problems.

I’ve « seen » a lot of street races and never even heard of one that left a bad driver busting off his rear bumper. More likely for it to be from a different driver. I don’t feel bad for the kid, but I sympathize

It's definitely the same car. I don't know the details either, but you can see the lack of a rear bumper and the wheel wobbling in videos people post on the local car-related facebook groups. It all appeared to have just happened between one sighting and the next.

 

[synolimit]

Cars might not be the hobby for you.

lol no im just not dumb and have always bought right.

 

[HoosierRN]

I'd say it's market dependent but if you're in CA then yes, availability. And whether you want it now.

I was looking at Supras last month. There weren't many on the lots and the few dealers who did have one wanted thousands in mark up. Paid MSRP for a low mile used one instead.

As for selling your Outback, get quotes from Carvana, Vroom and the likes.

This is exactly what I did. New asking price was 5-10k over MSRP and the only ones I could find weren't colors I liked. I paid msrp for a very low well optioned car that was in stock. No regrets.

 

[mmspider]

Maybe its my area but you can pretty much order (from dealership) any mass produced car right now and buy it at sticker price. Before I bought my new supra I was looking at mustangs and BMWs. Both dealerships said I can order and car will be priced at MSRP. My boss just ordered a brand new BMW M8 with a March build and its coming in April at MSRP.

I won`t drive a supra if I had to overpaid, that`s just me though.

 

[bittermelon]

I’m buying my GR86 from them, and they will deliver it for free. Put my deposit down in September. They told me end of the month,

Talking with someone from there right now, they're talking about a deposit. So what, I just pay them $500 and give them the spec I want and they'll call me when I get it?

 

[SD_MK]

Cars are a huge money pit. We spend insane amounts of money on shit that brings a single person (the owner) joy. We're paying for happiness, and we can't resell that, nor would we want to.

That's what car people do. It's stupid, we're all stupid rubber-burning morons (or whatever that one guy from a few months ago said), but it's fun.

A FUCKING MEN TO THAT. For as long as the world still sells something with 4 wheels, couple of seats and a motor, guaranteed money will be dumped into it by us CAR GUYS. It's our lifestyle, always has and always will be. Doesn't matter if the car was $5000 or $50000.

 

[SupraBAD]

I personally think there is no advantage to buying used in this market but seems to be only a slight advantage to buying new depending on the vehicle/circumstances. I haven't been shopping since I traded my Supra for my brand new '21 M2 Comp that I equate to finding a needle in a haystack. That haystack being in CO and having it shipped as part of the trade/deal (local sale/trade in AZ for Supra and shipped from CO for the M2). I was able to get the M2 at MSRP due to extremely low stock for a last year model with an extremely rare 6-speed option (no longer accepting orders at the time) and due to me having a trade-in (they always win on your trade and this was another way for them to make more profit). Every M2 was pretty much spoken for off of pre-orders, and the 1-2 I found that were not, were marked up like crazy. Used ones were going for as much, if not more, than what I paid for mine.

Despite this, I was able to use a few things to my advantage. In AZ/CO, they have a trade-in tax credit and I was able to save about $3-4k in taxes. On top of that, I got about a year and a half of free car registration due to an MVD error (don't ask but they definitely F'd up). Plus I got my registration credit back from my Supra because I had just paid it before getting rid of it. Overall, a lot of things fell in my favor and was happy with the end result.

To add to what others have said, cars are a money pit. I've only owned a few where I have gone out and spent a few hundred on small accessories but most are in the thousands. I am more of a visual mods person with new cars that are under warranty but I have spent thousands on wheels and visual mods and accessories to individualize them. Already I've spent around $6k on visual mods/accessories (wheels/exhaust) on the M2 but being a car enthusiast is one of my main hobbies and rarely have regrets with what I spend.

Just do whatever makes you happy but also try to exercise some patience to avoid overpaying in this crazy market. Also, do what I and a lot of others do and look outside your local market because other neighboring states may be more willing to deal and not overcharge.

 

[Jakester]

If i live that shit state called california where gas is $5 a gallon, I wouldn’t even look for a Supra. You’ll probably get a ticket for the stock exhaust in sport mode from the nazi police who work for mrs. Skeleton up in SF.

One of the many reasons I left that drama state.

 

[Patina]

FWIW.

I was looking at a 2021 Supra (March '21 production date) with 1200 miles on it from Carmax that was being listed for 60,999. They offered their MaxCare warranty for an extra $2,150 to cover the vehicle for 150K total vehicle miles or 5 years, whichever came first. $50 deductible plan. In comparison a Camry's warranty plan was like $1,700~

Talking to the salesman, it seems that Carmax hasn't "caught" onto the fact that these should be treated as a BMW in terms of offering the warranty and could definitely be worth buying used. In comparison a dealer here wanted me to pay $5K markup on a 'leftover' 2021 car.

Pay $63K~ for a new car @ 3.95% APR or pay $63K for a "used" car with 1,200 miles and @ 4.25% APR but with a warranty up to 150K mi/5 yr...

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