Used
Cars
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friend of mine once told me that there was no
feeling like driving a brand new car off the showroom. I argue that it feels even better to drive a
very similar car away, only after somebody else has driven and owned it for two
years and, say, twenty thousand miles.
If not for the driving experience, which will be indiscernible, but for
the costs. It’s much cheaper!
There are those who would
disagree. Many consider a used car not
to be “pre-enjoyed,” but rather, “abused.”
Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to this - if a car has been
abused, it is not always possible to tell.
Depreciation
There are a few ways to think
about depreciation. Some people don’t
even bother – step forward Citroën owners – whilst other people think of little
else – step forward all those Which? readers who bought a Golf
1·6S.
The truth is that depreciation can
be as big a deal, or not, as you want it to be.
If you want to buy a new car every three years, then you’re going to
suffer a lot in the depreciation stakes.
If, however, you buy your cars when they’re ten years old and you
usually sell them when they’re twelve, you probably don’t “spend” much in
depreciation.
I’ve detailed some more thoughts
on depreciation here.
Are New Cars Better Than Used?
Not necessarily. Many people think that used cars are
exchanged because there’s something wrong with them. This may be the case, but more often than
not, people change their cars because they’re bored, they want something quicker
/ with more toys / cheaper to run / “better on petrol” or perhaps because they
have more money than sense.
Lets not forget that new cars can
suffer from teething problems - all manner of teething problems as it
happens. In various company car fleets,
I’ve experienced Mercedes Benz turbodiesel engines failing, numerous oil leaks
(especially from Alfa Romeos), battery problems, electrical gremlins (in
a Volkswagen), loose wheelnuts, faulty back boxes, switchgear coming loose
(Audi, very much a Friday afternoon Audi at that) and a complete engine
failure owing to an oil problem (step forward the Alfa Romeo 156 again, heh). All of the above happened to cars during
their first year of ownership. For most,
the second year was bliss in comparison!
A Perfect Used Car Age?
Is there a perfect time to pick up
a used car, in terms of age and mileage?
No, there isn’t, although this will depend on what you want, what you
need, what you’re prepared to pay (both in buying it and in keeping it
maintained).
However, “nearly new” cars are
effectively as good as “new cars,” with a few exceptions (mainly a reduced
warranty and more miles on the clock).
Ex-demonstrators can be a veritable bargain, but be careful you don’t
overpay for those options the dealership ticked.
Two or three year old ex-lease
examples are often great value, too.
At the other end of the scale, you
can pick up an early 1990s “fleet car,” such as the early Mondeo, for a pack of crisps and three pints (almost!).
For more information about buying
a new, used or nearly new Ka, see here.
Company Cars
I would, however, recommend a keen
look at ex-company cars. Yes; there’s a
good chance that they’ll have been driven hard over their tenure with somebody
who doesn’t pay the fuel and tyre bills.
And, yes, although it should have been serviced on schedule, it is
possible that the dealership in question missed bits, and of course modern
service schedules may well be more concerned with reducing the running costs of
the car rather than keeping it in absolute perfect health. Many cars are leased these days, and the
leasing companies do take any complaints about the dealership network very
seriously - however, by the same token, they do insist on work being carried
out when either needed or when scheduled.
If a car tyre gets a puncture with just 3mm left, where perhaps the
private motorist would replace both tyres, the leasing company may well insist
on replacing the one tyre until the other is down to just 2mm. Perhaps.
However, you may also get the
opportunity to buy a car from a commercially owner fleet manager (although
sadly, these are a dying breed).
Sometimes, ringing up a company that you know run their own company car
fleet can reap dividends.
The disadvantage of picking up a
car from such a company can be mainly cosmetic - the cars are usually simply
sold as they’re dropped off by their drivers, so you may well have some dirt to
shift. However, this is usually reflected
by the price!
You may also have the opportunity
of picking up a high mileage bargain.
Although some fleet managers do try to limit their fleet car’s mileage
over the three year period - i.e. swapping cars between different individuals
over the period - sometimes, the odd 150,000 mile, three year old cars do slip
through the net. And since nobody seems
to want a high mileage car, they are sold on for effectively peanuts. Writing of the odd one that slips through the
net, I do know of a three year old BMW 328Ci that slipped through the net
simply because the company director who used it was not prepared to give it up
for any other machine in the fleet - so he put on approximately 160,000 miles
in three years. And almost all of these
miles were on the motorway. The
gentleman driver was not especially concerned with performance, but insisted on
something “with a bit of poke for overtaking” combined with an automatic
transmission, climate control and CD stacker system. It went for a song, no, actually a verse.
Service History
A car’s service history is
important. At the very least, if a car
has been serviced when due, and if something has needed to be done it’s been
done, this is a very positive pointer.
With correct servicing, most engines will easily outlast the bodywork (at least, in the
Mileage
High mileage doesn’t scare me, not
in the slightest. Why? Well, if a car has managed to cover 50,000
miles a year, the vast majority of these will be on the motorway. Motorway driving is kind to the car. If, however, the car has covered just 5,000
miles a year, there is every reason to suspect that it’s been city-bound. A city is a harsh place to run a car - endless
stop / go traffic, changing from first to second, perhaps third, then back down
to second, then on the brakes again to stop, back down to first again... That’s hard on a car!