Your car may be one of the most expensive purchases of your lifetime. For most people, it rates right up there with buying a new home or paying for a wedding. A brand new car is great. It smells clean and new and looks absolutely perfect. However, many people prefer to buy a gently used car.
There are a lot of good reasons to buy a used car, most of which involve saving money. From a lower sticker price to cheaper insurance and less depreciation, sometimes buying a used car instead of a new one just makes good sense. Rath Auto Resources understands that every customer’s situation is unique. If you’re trying to decide between buying a new car or a used one, we can help. These are four benefits of buying a used car.
It Cost Less
A used car will always initially cost less. Although it always feels good to buy a new car, and we think everyone should do it at least once in their lifetime, it’s not uncommon for a new car to lose thousands of dollars in value when you drive it off the lot for the first time. It’s exactly why you can buy a 2006 Porsche for the price of a 2012 Toyota. Someone probably bought that new Porsche for over $60,000 and now it can be yours for about half of that price.
Fewer Sales Tax
Before you buy a new car you should investigate the cost of sales tax for your state and county. Some dealerships try to gloss over the issue and then later you’re shocked at the cost. We don’t do that. We believe in disclosing all of your costs up front. Some states charge sales tax on new cars, but not used ones. Sometimes the cost of sales tax can be thousands of dollars, so research it ahead of time and plan accordingly.
Pay Less for Insurance
The main factor in the cost of car insurance is the market value of the vehicle. Because a used car is worth less than that of a new one, the cost of insurance is generally less. Also, sometimes you can save even more money by dropping some of the coverage, such as collision, or theft, once a car’s value declines to a certain point.
It Depreciates Slower
Many new cars decline in value another 10 percent during the first year. That’s on top of initial “drive-it-of-the lot” depreciation. That can quickly add up. You can avoid such rapid depreciation by buying a slightly used car instead of a brand new one. Sometimes it’s hard to find a one-year-old car, but two- and three-year-old used vehicles are not too hard to come by.
We know that purchasing a car is a big investment. You have a lot of choices, and we’re here to help you any way we can. Fortunately, we have a lot of great financing options, along with an extensive inventory of both new and used cars. We invite you to the dealership to find out for yourself.
Photo by Georg Sander | Licensed under cc by 2.0
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