I Have Cash For New Civic...Should I Buy An Old One Instead?

zillennial99

I felt like buying a new Civic was a pretty reasonable choice til I read this article. Now my whole brain is flipped upside down. Thoughts?

https://www.tripofalifestyle.com/money/average-cars-are-money-incinerators/

benjaminh

zillennial99 said:

I felt like buying a new Civic was a pretty reasonable choice til I read this article. Now my whole brain is flipped upside down. Thoughts?

https://www.tripofalifestyle.com/money/average-cars-are-money-incinerators/

That's a clever article, but my real world experience with used cars doesn't agree with it. Most of my used cars were maintenance and repair nightmares. They were cheap to buy, but expensive to own, and more than that they made my life a headache. When I finally added up all the repair bills I realized I could have bought a new car like a Honda, and if I kept it long term ended up with total costs maybe cheaper than a used car in the long run.

But even if a new car is slightly more expensive, well, a new car is usually better overall because it has the latest technologies. For instance, a 10 year old Civic doesn't have AndroidAuto/CarPlay, Honda's Sensing Suite (adaptive cruise, etc., etc.), and the body structure is not as strong (Honda's ACE body structure gets better with each generation). Plus the new Civic gets better mpg than a 10 year old one, and has significantly faster acceleration. Ten years ago the Civic took something like 9 seconds to go 0-60, which is kinda slow, while a new Civic will go from 0-60 in about 7 seconds.

A 2020 Civic EX has a list price of about $24k, and you might get 2k off of that.

One last thing—a 2020 Civic has about as much room inside as an Accord from the 1990s. A 4-door Civic now is almost a midsize car, and yet it gets over 40 mpg on the highway.

As you can tell, my advice is enjoy your life and get a new car. If money is really a worry, make yourself keep it for ten years. If you've taken good care of the car, it'll probably even have some decent trade in value.

Just my 2 cents.

benjaminh

And if you're really into saving money, you might consider the Honda Insight hybrid. It's the same size as the Civic, and an Insight EX has a list price of only about $500 more than a Civic EX. The Civic already gets excellent mpg, but the Insight gets c. 55 mpg in the city, compared to c. 32 for the Civic, which should save you about $300 a year—or $3000 over ten years. And compared to if you get a ten year old gas guzzler, you might save as much $1000 a year on gas comparing a 2010 car with a 2020 Insight.

qbrozen

If you wanna talk the economy of cars, get a GOOD lease deal. Using my own Hyundai as an example, I paid $159 at signing and will make another 35 payments of $159 ea. I'm also getting a post-sale rebate of $500. So about $5250 over 3 years, and will cost me $0 in repairs and nearly nothing in maintenance (1st year included, so about 4 oil changes and tire rotations for years 2 and 3, so maybe $250-$350). Works out to 15.27 cents per mile. No daily-driver vehicle purchase is going to GUARANTEE you such a low cost.

graphicguy

It looks like an article to promote a web site, so didn’t click. But, Civics, Corollas, and @qbrozen ioniq would be tough to beat for “cheap to own and drive”. So, OP...don’t be confused. Stick to those and you’ll be fine.

oldfarmer50

On a Civic I would buy new as they hold their value pretty well. The asking prices on used Honda’s is insane. Keep it forever and you’ll never miss the minor extra money you spent.

zillennial99

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I should have specified, my main concern here is the argument made in the article about letting the cash ride in the stock market while you own the much cheaper car. That seems to be where the massive lifetime difference (of a million dollars) takes place in the article. It was pretty compelling and a totally new way of looking at things.

qbrozen

zillennial99 said:

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I should have specified, my main concern here is the argument made in the article about letting the cash ride in the stock market while you own the much cheaper car. That seems to be where the massive lifetime difference (of a million dollars) takes place in the article. It was pretty compelling and a totally new way of looking at things.

The article is garbage

benjaminh

zillennial99 said:

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I should have specified, my main concern here is the argument made in the article about letting the cash ride in the stock market while you own the much cheaper car. That seems to be where the massive lifetime difference (of a million dollars) takes place in the article. It was pretty compelling and a totally new way of looking at things.

It's possible that the stock market, which is close to an all-time high, is going to have a correction in the next year or so due to the business cycle, corona virus, etc. But in general the idea of saving and investing obviously makes sense. Just be careful.

You can still have a new car and yet save and invest most of your money by leasing. Just make sure you get a car that has a good lease deal. One lease possibility might be a new 2019 Hyundai Sonata. Even in base form this is a safe car that gets good mpg and has some of the latest technology. Because the all-new 2020 Sonata is out, bargains can be had on a 2019 Sonata, making it cheaper to lease than, for instance, a new Civic. Hyundai's lease offer is $200 a month for the base model with a modest down payment. And at the end of 3 years if you like the car enough you can buy it for $11k, or you could turn it in and try for something new. You can probably do significantly better than this offer, but it can be a starting point for negotiations. There are of course other good lease possibilities too....

"Lease a 2019 Sonata 2.4L 4-CYL Automatic Transmission FWD(284H2F4P) for $199 per month for 36 months with $2,499 due at lease signing. Excludes registration, tax, title and license. Closed end lease for 2019 Sonata 2.4L 4-CYL Automatic Transmission FWD(284H2F4P) available from 2/4/2020 and 3/31/2020, to well-qualified lessees approved by Hyundai Motor Finance. Not all lessees will qualify. Higher lease rates apply for lessees with lower credit ratings. Offer shown based on $2,499 due at lease signing (includes $199 first payment and $2,300 capitalized cost reduction). No security deposit required. MSRP $23,580 (includes destination, excludes tax, license, title, registration, documentation fees, options, insurance and the like). Actual net capitalized cost $16,530. Net capitalized cost includes $650 acquisition fee. Dealer contribution may vary and could affect actual lease payment. Total monthly payments $7,164. Option to purchase at lease end $11,083."

https://www.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/offers/detail?model=Sonata&year=2019&offerType=LeaseOffer

kyfdx

Drive old cars your whole life, and save an extra $2K/year? Sure, you can extrapolate that out for sixty years, and help yourself become a millionaire. Great plan, if you don’t really care about cars.

But, plenty of people drive nice/interesting cars, and still achieve that goal. Plus, $3MM is the new $1MM.

qbrozen

kyfdx said:

Drive old cars your whole life, and save an extra $2K/year? Sure, you can extrapolate that out for sixty years, and help yourself become a millionaire. Great plan, if you don’t really care about cars.

But, plenty of people drive nice/interesting cars, and still achieve that goal. Plus, $3MM is the new $1MM.

And be damned lucky for 60 yrs that you never make one bad move and, for example, buy a cheap car that then almost immediately drops a transmission or engine, forcing you to buy yet another cheap car. That could completely kill the equation real fast.