What the book says…and what you can actually deal may be two different things.
I bought my 05 4runner in 06 from a Toyota dealer.
Their initial price of the 05 was only bout $3k less then brand new. After over an hour of negotiation…I bought the 05 for more then $8k for what they would be willing to sell me a new 06 for. And I was able to talk them down significantly on the price of the 06.
Pesky, I don’t think you should add those two costs. The TCO accounts for buying and selling the vehicle.
Pesky,
That $2535 comprises what particular costs? Other than the selling price of the car, I can’t think of anything that would greatly increase the cost of ownership of a 2012 vs. a 2010. Insurance, maintenance, etc. should be very similar. Unless that True Cost is factoring in depreciation over the 5 year period. But if you are keeping this car for 10 years, the depreciation is a moot point. Only if you are planning on selling the car in 5 years would depreciation be a large factor, because the car loses much more of its value during the first 5 years than it does during the next 5 years. If you only want to keep the car for a few years, then don’t even look at a 2 year old car, look at a 5+ year old car.
If you’re going to keep this car for a long time, I think the most important two numbers to look at are the actual selling price of each vehicle.
Look at the total cost over 5 years and ignore everything else. That tells you how much more a new car will cost than an older one. The new Corolla LE will cost 6% more than an equivalent 2010. If the 6% means a lot to you, then buy the 2010. BTW, 6% amounts to a bit more than $2000, so it isn’t chump change.
Thanks for all the advice. I’ll think it over. I haven’t decided yet.
Buy what you want,Toyotas are good,but I wouldnt pay a premium for one,don’t buy a used one if new is about as cheap thats several miles you will never get out of it.I followed a 900S up a 9% grade today in my Wifes Honda civic(had a few, dont like eorupean cars-can’t afford them) stick with Asian-Kevin
One out of every five cars I’ve bought, have been new, the rest used. The ONLY reason I bought new was that I could not find the make, model or features in a used one…or color when it was wife’s car…she has that "color me beautiful " mentality and her car has match her eyes and skin tone…nice valid reasons to buy new. That’s it !
Forget the cost to own figure. Just look at what they want for the '10 vs a new '12. For $1,300 less I think the '10 is a bad deal. Go to several Toyota dealers and get the best price quote you can on a new one.
Heaven forbid that the wife would want a practical color,but if she is paying for it,she rules(even if she isnt paying for it)had a friend around who always bought cars with 100k on them.Good looking vehicles ,you could imagine he got super deals on them.Anyway $1,300 for a new vs 2 yr old, that really doesnt even warrent much thought,the Dealers make more money off of used cars however.My wife is pretty good about overpaying for a used car.If you buy it the miles mean nothing,however if you go to resale"gosh thats a lot of miles"-Kevin
With the very high prices of used cars in the US (due to low production and sales since 2008), it is more advantageous to buy new if you can swing it. It used to be that cars depreciated to 55% of new in 3 years; in those days it paid to buy a 3-4 year old, low mileage used car.
I will just add that you should not assume that a low miles used car that appears to look, run, and drive like new is problem free. It should be closely inspected before the purchase.
Low miles cars may have been through a flood or may actually be a rebuilder after suffering a major collision.
Just as bad, it could also be the car was a lease vehicle in which the driver of that car (knowing they will be surrendering it in the future) has no intention of doing any maintenance on it; including oil changes.
Don’t forget to factor the $500 rebate for a 2012 Corolla into the cost comparison.
My thoughts are almost identical to most of those above… but here’s an extra 2 cents:
The average vehicle lasts about 15 years (might be up to 16 now, the 15 mark is a few years old). That accounts for those totalled in accidents as well as those that rust/breakdown… So if I’m going to buy used, I want to see more than 1/15th of the value taken off for each year (or 15,000 miles or so) of use. In fact, I want it to be highly nonlinear - so the first year you might get 1/8th taken off, the next year another 1/8th, etc… the repair costs are likely to be loaded towards the end of life, so I want significant depreciation to make up for that. So if I see a Corolla that would cost $17k new going for $14k at two years old, I’m seeing only an 18% discount for a vehicle that is ~13% used up. That difference is too small to justify, IMO. Now if at two years old they were selling them for $12k, so it would be a 29% discount for a 13% used vehicle, then we’re talking. But those two percentages shouldn’t be close to each other, IMO.
Even worse, though, was when I bought my Mazda - and several non-negotiable dealers were selling them 1 year old with 35k on the odometer for $1300 MORE than I ended up paying new… in those cases, it is an absolute no brainer.