Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
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- Oct 9, 2007
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iFlyNothing
Yeah same here for the most part. ( I always say “for the most part” because someday I might be tempted to burn money, but haven’t yet. Ha.)
I thought the article was fascinating in that if your lucky/smart/got the right vehicle, new ... it’s worth about 35% of what you paid for it, in only 5 years. On the BEST vehicles out there for depreciation.
At average mileage (12,000 a year), that’s only a 60,000 mile vehicle!
We put way more than average miles on a vehicle (close to 20,000 each) per year, so buying new is literally lighting a large pile of money on fire in the back yard.
With today’s prices a very large pile of money. Losing 70% of a typical new car price over five years is ugggggly.
Which is fine if that’s what someone wants to do. But we’re not fans. We’ve purchased some very nice cast offs by single owners who had to have new... to keep up with whoever their Jones’ are.
Both the Yukon and the Lincoln were purchased around 60,000. Both still looking and driving like new. One was actually owned by the owner of the car dealership. (The Lincoln). The other was owned by an insurance agent in Colorado Springs. (She left her business card and some other paperwork in it and it was clear she was the owner not just someone’s insurance agent. The dealership missed taking the paperwork out of the glove box. Ha.)
We’ve put roughly 100,000 miles on both of them and the only major maintenance has been the stupid cam phasers on the Ford / cough / Lincoln. It also had a heater core leak and the steering wheel has to come off to remove the dash for that nowadays so I let a shop deal with that. The kids there actually thought that was “fun” and took photos of it with the dash out. Haha. I’d just be cussing and angry the whole time that the dash has to be removed to replace a heater core in a modern pickup truck, so best to let the kids have their fun. Hahahaha.
But if you remove consumables like tires and brakes and such and just count things breaking, the Lincoln has cost an additional $4K over its well-discounted price we paid for it, and the Yukon has needed nothing but a fuel pump.
I do need to sell the diesel. It’s just sitting out there depreciating, most days. But it runs so well I hate to give it up.I’m also torn on whether I should repair the fifth wheel hitch (couple of bolts went missing during its last tow, very odd) or just remove it (its cosmetically old and a little rusty) and whether to fix a small hole in the driver’s seat and peeling paint on one of the wheel bump outs, but I suspect none of those things really matter selling a 2001 in 2017. It’s mechanically sound other than the aforementioned bolts and those would be easy to fix, but I doubt I’d do anything but break even on fixing the hitch. It’s just “the right thing to do” so someone doesn’t try to tow with it like that, even after being warned.
I get why people want to buy new. But like you, I don't see the finances making sense except in a few rare cases, like my Ram. Even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I'd be unlikely to go buy something new. I'd be more likely to retire and then spend more time working on my cars, and building up my shop so I have a nice place to do so.
Those kids were probably lying to you. When I was one of those kids, we absolutely detested any dash removal for the heater core/evap core. Worst job ever. Trash the car.
