Buy New Car vs Buying Used Car

Originally Posted by Rambo

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Don't the Germans tend to have more reliability problems when they get up there in mileage?
Not really, but if there are problems, they tend to be very expensive fixes. I once put well over 200,000 on a BMW 5 Series and well over 100,000 on both MB and BMW vehicles. I had few problems with them.

yeah thats the problem, don't want an expensive fix...

i think i'd like a used car for a temporary while (2 years lets say) until a new design comes out that i rather enjoy

In your situation, I'd go with an Infiniti G-series or Acura TSX, in that order. Not as refined as BMW, but not as expensive to own, either.

Or just say "screw it" and get an E46 M3 Competition. I passed a black one today on my morning run - quite nice.

What about a used 350Z... they are relatively inexpensive in terms of their peer cars

go with whatever allows you to live in a place of your own.

my neighborhood is full of 30 year old guidos driving beamers and living in the parents basement, which isn;t cool, even if there's a separate entrance.

I think too many people make a bigger deal out of gas mileage than it really is; ok, a Prius vs. an S600, understandable, but V6 Japanese cars that are perceived to have good mileage really don't return great mileage for being lightweight cans, and V8's are often maligned for having 8 cylinders and that alone. I had a BMW 540i in college back when gas was moderately expensive, and it was more the 80 liter tank that hurt the wallet more than the frequency of fillups; I had an A4 1.8T afterwards and it still took close to the same kind of money to fill up and returned just a few mpg more at most, and served me with half the displacement and thus generally half the power, and equal reliability.

If I had to buy a used car on the American market? Something CPO, something German (probably) and something maligned by people based on perceived fuel efficiency by people who have no real idea what they're talking about. If you feel classy as **** but aren't a gearhead, E350's have average reliability and build quality, and are always to be found on ebay for surprisingly good prices, especially now that there is a model turnover soon.


PS, if you put 25K miles a year on your car, resale value really isn't much of an issue; your car will not be worth much once you've bought a used card and tacked on another 100-150K miles, so you might as well find something that will go with you the distance. Mercedes Benz and BMW are pretty reliable in this department, and RWD cars in general tend to be so, rahter than the FWD Japanese econo cars.

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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go with whatever allows you to live in a place of your own.

my neighborhood is full of 30 year old guidos driving beamers and living in the parents basement, which isn;t cool, even if there's a separate entrance.

right - dont worry i've included that in my calculation
im just a semi small timer, but i have no debt, no kids, etc

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

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I think too many people make a bigger deal out of gas mileage than it really is; ok, a Prius vs. an S600, understandable, but V6 Japanese cars that are perceived to have good mileage really don't return great mileage for being lightweight cans, and V8's are often maligned for having 8 cylinders and that alone. I had a BMW 540i in college back when gas was moderately expensive, and it was more the 80 liter tank that hurt the wallet more than the frequency of fillups; I had an A4 1.8T afterwards and it still took close to the same kind of money to fill up and returned just a few mpg more at most, and served me with half the displacement and thus generally half the power, and equal reliability.

If I had to buy a used car on the American market? Something CPO, something German (probably) and something maligned by people based on perceived fuel efficiency by people who have no real idea what they're talking about. If you feel classy as **** but aren't a gearhead, E350's have average reliability and build quality, and are always to be found on ebay for surprisingly good prices, especially now that there is a model turnover soon.


PS, if you put 25K miles a year on your car, resale value really isn't much of an issue; your car will not be worth much once you've bought a used card and tacked on another 100-150K miles, so you might as well find something that will go with you the distance. Mercedes Benz and BMW are pretty reliable in this department, and RWD cars in general tend to be so, rahter than the FWD Japanese econo cars.

Yeah, i could care less about gas mileage, i spend a ton on gas already, the difference isn't going to big too much of a deal for me... i'm more concerned with looks + reliablity + price + a car that has some pep to it

gas mileage is overrated. i have one of those variable honda engines and it doesn;t make a ***** bit of difference.

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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go with whatever allows you to live in a place of your own. my neighborhood is full of 30 year old guidos driving beamers and living in the parents basement, which isn;t cool, even if there's a separate entrance.
QFT

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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gas mileage is overrated. i have one of those variable honda engines and it doesn;t make a ***** bit of difference.

Completely true, and at 12K miles/year of 'average' driving it's like a differential of a G in gas between the thirstiest and most miserly models, and cars can swallow G's a lot faster than that in a flash just by bad luck.

I don't know how other people feel, but I consider a 'bit of pep' to be about 350hp in the average weight sedan nowadays. Yeah, that's kind of sick, especially to anyone who grew up in the '90s or the '80's and the Porsche 911 made like 230hp and was scary, but nowadays, the Maxima probably has 300hp and I know the Infiniti G's have something like 330hp, so if you want something that has freeway passing power up around 90-100mph where the average idiot in a Pontiac cruises at, you want something like 350hp in a midsize sedan. My 540 never failed me when it came to having to get rid of guys in Dodge Rams who couldn't drive worth a **** but tried to cut me off at 90; spurting up to 110 or 115 in that thing was pretty easy and sounded glorious, and then it had enough braking to bring it back down right afterwards, which is where the Japanese cars can leave you cold.

speaking of the maxima, it's disappearance in crazy. seems like 8-9 years ago, every third car on the road was a maxima. i never see them anymore.

05 boxster

or if you want more horses E46 M3

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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speaking of the maxima, it's disappearance in crazy. seems like 8-9 years ago, every third car on the road was a maxima. i never see them anymore.

Yeah, the Altima has become so good for its price that it pretty much phased the Maxima out, despite it being a "lower" model.

As for the OP, I would buy used on any car. The only time I would buy new is if it is known for being a vehicle that everyone does mods to (eg - Lancer Evo / WRX ) as I want to ensure that I get a completely stock car.

I would recommend the Altima. Definitely get it with the 3.5L engine. I don't know if you prefer the coupe (it looks better imo) but it doesn't matter as long as you have a 3.5L engine.

I still say you need to just lease a very cheap new car. Gonna be just about the same or less then a second hand sports car but you can be assured to get to work every day.

You are getting alot of just really bad advice here. Seriously you are recommending a boxster to someone who puts 25k miles on a car a year? Guy is just trying to get to work.


This is like the conversation I had with my girlfriend. She wants a cayman. OK just keep the accord for going to work. She wants to drive the cayman to work every day. I tell her thats a terrible idea for so many reason. Putting 20k miles on a sports car is more expensive then using sports cars on weekends and driving cheap cars during the week. Extra $500 a year to insure the accord and having peace of mind that you won't wreck your 65k car commuting is a beautiful thing. Not to mention it's the only car we have with 4 seats.

Still haven't bought her the Cayman yet. But soon.