Buy used car late Dec or first week Jan?

Galwaytwinkle

Hi All

I need to buy a car in the coming weeks and as work are taking back my company car. My question is: Am I better buying this week or will garages/seller review price in Jan due to age of car? Also, will new stock, after people trading in, have an effect on price?

Thanks,

G

What sort of registration years are you looking at?

Galwaytwinkle

Was looking at a Volvo, from 2010 to 2014/5

bazz26

Used cars do not magically drop in value on 1st January. It can be difficult enough buying in January as all sales staff seem to be interesting is making new car sales. I'd buy the car now if the money is right and you need a car.

Galwaytwinkle

Galwaytwinkle wrote: »

Was looking at a Volvo, from 2010 to 2014/5

Won't make a blnd bit of difference then. Fire away and buy what you want.

colm_mcm

bazz26 wrote: »

Used cars do not magically drop in value on 1st January. It can be difficult enough buying in January as all sales staff seem to be interesting is making new car sales. I'd buy the car now if the money is right and you need a car.

On the other hand, the fresh stuff is in on the new year so if you can hold off till February you’re not just getting the stuff that didn’t sell in 2018.

BENDYBINN

Wait till Jan, car will be a year older and cheaper plus the market will be flooded with trade ins that the dealers will want rid of.

68 lost souls

colm_mcm wrote: »

On the other hand, the fresh stuff is in on the new year so if you can hold off till February you’re not just getting the stuff that didn’t sell in 2018.

Need to replace the OH car after an accident. She has a rental until first week of January, looking for a nice ex demo or similar nearly new. Are we better to go in now or first week of January. Probably looking at an Opel Cora or similar. Ideally German.

colm_mcm

Whatever you do, look at other cars than the Corsa. I’m more German than a Corsa and I’m not German.

What’s the budget and what did she have before?

68 lost souls

colm_mcm wrote: »

Whatever you do, look at other cars than the Corsa. I’m more German than a Corsa and I’m not German.

What’s the budget and what did she have before?

She had a Corsa for the last 7 years. I tried our shading closer to either a polo or potentially Skoda rapid. Not sure on budget but probably in the region of 15-20. I just changed to a Gtd recently and this wasn’t exactly planned

bazz26

You can do a hell of a lot better with 15-20k than either a Corsa or Rapid. The current Corsa has been on sale since 2006 and is prehistoric at this stage, and the Rapid is not a very popular car so could be hard to sell on. Both cars are being replaced in 2019.

Get a Polo or Golf if she wants something German.

Atlantic Dawn

If buying from a main dealer one part of me says buy this month as next month they will have so much new car sales they won't really care about offloading trade ins, other part of me says they might be desperately trying to offload existing used stock in January to make room for all the used stuff being traded in against new cars.

bazz26

bazz26 wrote: »

You can do a hell of a lot better with 15-20k than either a Corsa or Rapid. The current Corsa has been on sale since 2006 and is prehistoric at this stage, and the Rapid is not a very popular car so could be hard to sell on. Both cars are being replaced in 2019.

Get a Polo or Golf if she wants something German.

The current Corsa has been on sale since 2014.

colm_mcm

JayZeus wrote: »

The current Corsa has been on sale since 2014.

The current Corsa is a warmed over 2006 model.

68 lost souls

colm_mcm wrote: »

The current Corsa is a warmed over 2006 model.

Yep its the same chassis and roof but a reskinned and some updates to the interior.

What other cars would you be looking at in that class? Apart obviously from a Polo which is what I am suggesting.

She has a Yaris as the rental car and we both hate it. Its not a nice place to be, her Corsa was much nicer and a nicer drive.

colm_mcm

68 lost souls wrote: »

Yep its the same chassis and roof but a reskinned and some updates to the interior.

What other cars would you be looking at in that class? Apart obviously from a Polo which is what I am suggesting.

She has a Yaris as the rental car and we both hate it. Its not a nice place to be, her Corsa was much nicer and a nicer drive.

I’d be looking at the Fiesta, Rio, and Ibiza.

photosmart

There are very fresh seat leons ie 152 and 161 for similar money to the smaller polos and ibizas and they are worth looking at as they are a steal second hand because they depreciate very heavily in the first 2 - 3 years.


They are basically a golf so are more german than most cars

bazz26

JayZeus wrote: »

The current Corsa has been on sale since 2014.

It's the same car since 2006, it got a heavy facelift in 2014 but it's essentially the same car for almost 13 years now. There are much newer and superior alternatives that show up how old the Corsa truly is. The only ones who really buy them new these days are the car hire companies who get very generous discounts from Opel to take them.

bazz26

bazz26 wrote: »

It's the same car since 2006, it got a heavy facelift in 2014 but it's essentially the same car for almost 13 years now. There are much newer and superior alternatives that show up how old the Corsa truly is. The only ones who really buy them new these days are the car hire companies who get very generous discounts from Opel to take them.

They're very similar, in fairness, but that doesn't mean it's the same car. And the only people who think the difference is exterior panelwork and a new dashboard are either not considering the host of changes/improvements to much of the underlying technologies, from electrics through to engine choices and so on, or the type of poster who considers themselves to have some kind of understanding beyond the limitations of their ability to regurgitate what they read on the internet. Which they don't.

I wouldn't buy one myself as there are as several have said much better places to spend the money, but the E and D Corsa's are not the same car and that's what I'm pointing out.

Similar is not same and if you look in the engine bay of a 2006 Corsa D and a 2018 Corsa E, you'll see that clearly.

bazz26

I'm not getting into a big debate on the differences between a 2006 Corsa and a 2018 Corsa. But what's under the bonnet has little bearing as engines can be changed throughout the lifetime of a model or carried over from old to new. If people want to believe there are enough differences to call it a new model then so be it but to me carrying over the same chassis and structure as before doesn't make it a new model irrespective of how Opel market it.

Clareman

Most new cars will have been bought by now so the first week or so of the new year will be people collecting their new car and trading in their old 1 which means dealers will have alot more stock in a few weeks so you might get a better car

68 lost souls

colm_mcm wrote: »

I’d be looking at the Fiesta, Rio, and Ibiza.

Possibly narrowed it to a se Ibiza at 16,500 or a trendine polo at 15,300. Both with around 5,000km ex demo. Ibiza is 75 bhp 1L is 65bhp 1L what are people’s thoughts? Plan is to either sell after 5 years or run into the ground

colm_mcm

I drove the 1.0 75PS in a Fabia estate and it was surprisingly ok. Polo will certainly hold money better used, not an issue if keeping forever.

If keeping a long time then serious consideration should be had on warranty. Kia is 7 years.

How much are you actually saving vs a new one, ring a lot of dealers for their best new price, for example aren’t seat giving 23% off their new cars?

68 lost souls

colm_mcm wrote: »

I drove the 1.0 75PS in a Fabia estate and it was surprisingly ok. Polo will certainly hold money better used, not an issue if keeping forever.

If keeping a long time then serious consideration should be had on warranty. Kia is 7 years.

How much are you actually saving vs a new one, ring a lot of dealers for their best new price, for example aren’t seat giving 23% off their new cars?

Test drove a fabia with the tsi engine and it was surprised by nice power from it. Back seats weren’t as comfortable though and a few small bits where you can see the money saving. Based on the older chassis then the polo and Ibiza it was a bit cramped. Kombi is off the cards as she hates the look of them

They didn’t know the price on the new Ibiza yet, had 3 in stock and said they would do them for 19950 or so. If they were more they would take the hit on the difference. Although that was just one of the dealers