Used cars are a tempting option.

There’s a wide variety, you can have your pick of discontinued cars that you think are better than their replacements, you’ll be able to actually get a ride without going completely broke…

The list goes on.

But wait.

Things are seldom as rosy as they first appear, and when something is too good to be true, you know the rest.

Take a look at the flip side of buying a used car and find out why perhaps buying a new car isn’t such a bad idea after all.

Now, for those who aren’t familiar with the main number in the used car game, it’s all about depreciation in this segment.

Simply calculated, it’s the price you pay for a car minus the PARF rebate (but if you do prefer to go down that road) at the end of ten years then dividing this value by the number of years left.

That gets you the simple, straight-line depreciation over the remaining lifespan of a car.

Bearing in mind that COE plays a large part of this, because well, if the last owner paid $80,000 for COE, it just means that each year the car will lose $8,000 over the ten-year span.

It’s common knowledge that COE premiums were higher than they are now over the last couple of years – in fact COE premiums have dropped to what has been the lowest in almost a decade since the end of 2018, which means that you definitely save on COE depreciation buying new now.

Of course, COE is only one aspect of depreciation, you have to consider the PARF value and market values of the used car in question.

But overall, new car depreciations especially in the entry segment have been at their lowest in a long time, so it’s worth considering a new car if you’re planning to drive the car for the long term.

Haggling with used car dealers can be quite the pain the neck.

Trust us, especially since this writer just came off a shall we say, less than positive experience with one.

Many used car dealers are small time players that don’t have the same resources as big new car distributors, and customer experience is really not a concern for them.

To insert a caveat – some pre-owned dealers do place emphasis on professionalism and generally pride themselves on offering as good if not better service than a new car dealer, but these are often restricted to the larger firms with more established reputations.

But it typically comes at a cost – the car usually will cost more, because in the end, there’s no free lunch.

It cannot be said that used car dealers don’t provide a pleasant sales experience, neither can it be said that buying a new car will surely be a bed of roses.

But overall, most people generally agree that the new car buying experience is typically a plusher one, with swankier showrooms and amenities that the brands expect of their dealers and a customer service manager you can whine to if things don’t go your way.

Good luck with any of those things buying a used car.

Barring cars that are still fairly new, many used cars are way past their warranty periods.

Afterall, buying a used car is typically an option for those who wish to save money, and the older the car the cheaper it becomes, which means that warranty could be out.

All new cars bought from reputable dealers whether they be authorised dealers or parallel importers come with some sort of guarantee, and due to the fierce competition these days, even luxury makes are offering longer and better warranty terms than ever before.

Buying a German car these days is almost guaranteed to come with at least five years of warranty, whereas if you bought one that was first registered five years ago it would have been out of warranty two years ago.

Think carefully whether you really need to drive that luxury car that’s at the same price as a brand new albeit entry level Asian car, because if the luxury car breaks down, you’re going to have to foot the repair costs whereas you can be sure that the dealer will take care of most of the faults that happen within its warranty period.

Which then brings us to our next point.

Most new cars on sale today are packaged with a certain level of service packages, ranging from at least a year all the way to ten years.

This significantly reduces the running cost over the next whatever number of years, something that you can’t expect from buying a used car.

And even if the used car in question did have a service package assigned to the original owner, not all dealers allow the package to be transferred, effectively nullifying any savings on maintenance you might have thought was valid.

Used cars are well, used, so you can expect wear and tear as well as even problems caused due to misuse or abuse from its previous owner.

Not everyone takes good care of their cars – some merely treat it as a means of transport from A to B, which means that you could end up with a less than loved vehicle buying used.

And you’d never know too, provenance is hard to determine with used cars, no matter what the dealer may tell you.

If nothing else, this is the most important point, at least to this writer.

Imagine the smell of fresh leather, untouched plastics and getting to peel off all the protective plastics on your own.

The virgin experience is second to none, and you will rest assured that no one else has violated your precious new purchase and you can get to know it inside out without ever worrying what unpleasantries are hiding under the carpets or in the seat cushion gaps.

Plus, if you watch enough movies, television and online videos, it’s not hard to imagine the creative things people get up to in their cars.

You don’t want to be sat on unseen bodily fluids now do you?

So take into account all of the other points, and you’ll find that perhaps an entry level little hatchback is a safer bet, and that might just be the one thing that will make you give up thinking about that rear-wheel drive executive sedan.

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