I'm new to the US and looking to buy a car for the first time. I'm looking for something reliable and still within warranty. I'm also planning to pay a large amount down to keep the monthly payments down (looking at putting $10-15K down). I can afford to pretty much pay the whole thing down, but would prefer to finance for the sake of building credit.
Looking at my overall budget, and other criteria, I've narrowed things down to two models - the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4. However, if I check autotrader to get an idea of going rates, I find that lightly-used cars (<20-25k miles) from the last 2-2.5 years are nearly as expensive as new cars.
For instance: used and new. There's some discount for getting a used car, but it seems to be under 10% in nearly all cases. If I look at certified cars, it's even worse, with only a few hundred off the price of a new one. What gives? Are there hidden costs for a new car that aren't covered in the sticker price? Are the prices on the used cars artificially inflated to force people to haggle?
I was given to understand that cars depreciate by a few thousand as pretty much as soon as you drive them off the lot, and by 20-30% by the end of the first year. That doesn't appear to jive with what my local market looks like.
At this point, why would I not buy a new car?
Submitted July 26, 2020 at 09:33PM by cgkanchi https://ift.tt/2X19K1r
