Quote:
Originally Posted by mich
You can buy used junk and pay $$$$ to keep them running or buy new and make payments, costs the same IMO. The difference in insurance is 4 a year... that is a minor repair nowadays. more if you buy a newer POS diesel, never mind the down time
Your insurance will go down at 21, 25, and if you buy a house, get married etc.
My opinion is drive what you want..... within your budget
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The best value for dollar is a 3 year old vehicle with under 75K km on it. It has depreciated where you should be able to get a deal and pay a third of sticker price new off the lot, but it still has lots of miles and life left, still under drivetrain warranty in all probability, and it sure isn't a piece of junk. I've done this for the last 20 years, paid $10k cash for a 2001 E150 for work (bought in 04) and drove it for 8 years. Had 124k km on it when I bought it, a bit high but fleet maintained. I drove it for another 150k km (all those kms were hard city miles, doing service work), and then sold it for $2500. Cost me $7500 to operate for 8 years, less than a $1000 per year. My repair costs were: rear axle and bearing, $400, brakes as wear issue, fan belt ditto, and an alternator that set me back $250. Also had to change the battery. The gentleman I sold it to (who still works for me) has been driving it for 2 years since, and only recently had to spend another $400 on repairs as a couple studs broke.
That is value for money, but it may not 'impress the chicks'. My cost to insure yearly was under a grand with full coverage. Doing math on what I saved by not buying 3 new trucks in that same time period (because most people who buy new replace every 3 years it seems like, and also the most popular leasing period) and paying double the insurance plus interest on payments, I figure I'm ahead about $100,000 at the minimum, money that has been sunk into paying down my houses, one which I live in and one which I rent.
You can be smart about your money, and get ahead in life, and still drive a perfectly decent reliable vehicle with modest insurance rates. Or, as you say, drive what you want 'within your budget', which for most young men I have met means the most truck that they can possibly afford on their income that will impress the girls and stoke their ego.
And that is why when the patch slows down, these are the first boys to lose all their toys, and get bad credit, and all the other associated problems. And us old, dull, smart guys just quietly get ahead in life.
Now having said that, I have bought new vehicles in my life. My first one was when I was 42, a Toyota Venza that I paid cash for. I treated the wife and I to our first new vehicle. We still drive it and love it. And I just bought a new Toyota Yaris for my wife and kids to use around town, the first vehicle I ever didn't pay cash for. But at .9% financing over 84 months (total interest of just over $600 in
7 years I couldn't give myself a good enough reason to pay for it outright with cash (which I could have). And yes, it is nice to drive new vehicles, when you can really afford it. My insurance on either of those is just over a thousand a year.