When's the best time to buy a car?

kingstreet

michaels wrote: »

Nine forty-five

Nah. Quarter to ten has always worked better for me...

System

boliston wrote: »

the "sweet spot" to buy a new car is when the old one no longer works and is uneconomic to repair

This is what I do. I run them into the ground. My 2005 Peugeot doesn't cost me money in depreciation any more because it's worthless. Had a tough decision last year and ended up paying £1100 for clutch, flywheel etc. Glad I did it's been faultless since.

Lornapink

I for the first time just did contract hire which is something I'd never thought I'd do. Used to buy outright or with a cheap bank loan, but I spent a lot of timey analysing everything and CH just worked out the all round best deal IMO.


Went for an SUV for the first time & now it seems that market is getting saturated as manufacturers all pile in. Even Alfa. So I suspect good deals will be around given the saturation.

westernpromise

boliston wrote: »

the "sweet spot" to buy a new car is when the old one no longer works and is uneconomic to repair

Surely it's just before then as the car is at that point worthless?

GreatApe

Cars are also an interesting way the rich help the poor

If you take a straight 20% annual depreciation of a car and the average new car in the UK costs £22,000 you would find the rich who do the car buying and say hold for the first 3 years take a almost £11k cost

The poor who hold it for say the last 3 years of the cars life often years 12-15 only take a £1,500 depreciation hit

Motoring is very cheap in rich developed countries thanks to all the rich folk who seem to be willing to buy £22k cara and sell them three years later for £11k

Herzlos

I think any help for the poor is incidental.

It is a knock-on effect of this particularly British notion that a 3 year old car is "old" and needs replaced. Cars hold their value a lot better on the continent because a 3 year old car is regarded as new.

westernpromise

If a "British" notion why do car manufacturers typically facelift or replace models at 4-year intervals?

A 3-year-old car is old. One average it's an out of date model.

GreatApe

Incidental or not it is a big help to the poor

If the rich kept their cars from new to scrapping it then their own motoring costs would fall and the poor would have no choice but to also buy new (probably with credit) and hold until end of life and their motoring costs would rise.

Roughly 3 million new cars are sold annually and the average price paid is £22,000 so £66 billion annually. The rich take annual £33 billion hit and by doing so help the middle and poor lower their motoring costs. This is effectively a voluntary 'tax' for the rich to help the not so rich

Arklight

Herzlos wrote: »

Normally I trade in cars at 10 years old, which would be summer 2020.
That's about a year post Brexit.

New car sales are currently down quite drastically, thus in 2 years there will be less 2 year old cars than usual and so on.

I doubt I'll afford one outright so looking at a bank loan.

Do you reckon there will be a sweet spot? Should I buy a new one before prices go up, or gamble on cheaper Japanese imports or demand dropping afterwards?

If you use Carwow there are some really good discounts around at the moment for new cars.

Based on my mild haggling so far, an RRP of around £20k to £22k should fall to about £16k for Ford, Renault, and Hyundai’s dealers at least.

It seems that there is a price point by which dealers will not / aren’t allowed to discount below, presumably for brand protection. It seems it’s not possible get any kind of mid range family super mini for below £15500 so you are better off going for a higher spec as the end price will be almost the same.

It also might be cheaper to get 0% manufacturer finance for 3 years than a get a 3 year old car and an expensive car loan, at least for a while.

Having done all this research I will just carry on driving my 16 year old Nissan around.

phillw

westernpromise wrote: »

So I'd rent a car until that happens.

Anyone "buying" a new car on PCP is renting it. It's very popular...

boliston wrote: »

the "sweet spot" to buy a new car is when the old one no longer works and is uneconomic to repair

The "uneconomic" to repair is a subjective test. If you could repair a car for £1000 and it would cost you £750 to buy a similar one, then there is still a case for repairing it. There is the cost of spending time buying the car, switching car insurance, road tax & you might be buying a lemon.

Like all things, it's only possible to know the right time to buy in hindsight.