Buying nearly-new

Magenta

I was going to save up and avail of the Scrappage scheme but on reading the fine print I've discovered I'm not eligible anyway.
I was thinking of saving up and buying nearly-new instead (09/08) in the hope of letting the first owner take the hit of the first year or so of depreciation.
At the same time I'm cautious. There's a lot of cars only a year or so old with as few as 9k miles for sale- is this a sure sign that the car is a lemon and the owner got rid ASAP? It would be nice to think that maybe the owner just decided they needed a bigger car etc but that's a bit naive I think...

What do you all think?

pullandbang

At this point in time (midway through 2010) an 08 car is not "nearly new" - it's 2.5 years old. Nearly new would be a 2010 demo car. A one or two year old car with low mileage could just mean an owner that changes every year, as a lot of people do. It doesn't automatically mean a lemon and it would still be under warranty anyway.

Atlantic Dawn

There could be lots of repossessed cars around that age too, I'd imagine the owners would have fairly driven the $hite out of them before handing them back.

marc1

Agree,

I change car every 12 to 18 months and usually buy 12 to 18 month old cars as they seem to offer the best value for money in my opinion - when buying and when selling!

Never had a problem. It seems that cars loose a lot of their value once they are 3 years old, so be careful of that if you are planning to change in another year as you will be taking a big hit as well. (Probably because model changes / facelifts launch every 3 to 4 years)

Magenta

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

There could be lots of repossessed cars around that age too, I'd imagine the owners would have fairly driven the $hite out of them before handing them back.

That's what I'm worried about. Or the owner could have lost their job and there could still be finance on the car.

marc1 wrote: »

Agree,

I change car every 12 to 18 months and usually buy 12 to 18 month old cars as they seem to offer the best value for money in my opinion - when buying and when selling!

Never had a problem. It seems that cars loose a lot of their value once they are 3 years old, so be careful of that if you are planning to change in another year as you will be taking a big hit as well. (Probably because model changes / facelifts launch every 3 to 4 years)

Out of nosiness, why do you change cars so often? You must get bored easily
I won't be changing in another year, will keep it for several years providing it's still in good nick.

marc1

Out of nosiness, why do you change cars so often? You must get bored easily
I won't be changing in another year, will keep it for several years providing it's still in good nick.

There seems to be a sweetspot when you buy a car that is 18 months old and has 30000 km and sell it at just under 3 years old with less then 60000 km. A nice golf looses about 2500 euro value if you negociate well. If you buy a nice golf and keep it it will cost you the same per year. 25000 euro / 10 years.

And yes I get bored easily ; -)