This depreciation is depressing

I've noticed that most people I know, but not all, follow a trend that their parents set. If the parents only leased cars or bought new, they did the same. My dad only bought used cars, and I understood the logic in it. The tradeoff of course is the risk of mechanical problems and inherited physical condition but the savings usually covers that risk with extra to spare.

I always buy used and here's my formula. I look at vehicles that are between 2 and 5 years old and run every site that has them listed. I usually see a drop off point between a year where the prices fall the most. After that year they seem to trickle down. So the first big drop is the year I usually go for. I have always bought high miles cars as long as I can see a great maintenance history. That tells me so much more than "low miles". The market seems to think differently, to my benefit. My Lexus LS400 had 339k miles when I decided I wanted something else. I bought my 2010 Ford Raptor with 90k miles and at 120k now have only replaced 1 seat heater element. And my 2013 Volt with 105k has been perfect for the couple of months I've owned it. Unless you absolutely can't live with your Volt or a major repair out of warranty exceeds the value, keep it and drive the living daylights out of it. Stop looking at the sales. And remember you are making up that depreciation year after year in fuel savings.

Steverino said:

Keep driving it. No loss in value then.

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Exactly, the "value" has only gone down if you need to cash in I get my money's worth by keeping my cars maintained and getting over 12-15 years from them.

I know that doesn't work if you need to have the latest and greatest but depending on where you live you have no choice* unless you want to bleed money on cars.

* Canada (sounds like things were worse for the European Ampera, wonder why it didn't sell? ;-)
-No federal rebates
-Provincial only in 3 provinces and will never be seen in the oil producing "red neck" provinces, where I live
(your $7500 + 2500 rebates mean an extra ~CDN $13500)
-Exchange rate poor at the moment
(add 30+ %)
-To add insult to injury we pay a premium even on big 3 cars made in Canada and sold back to us)
-I'm not going to get into lease prices since I don't know much there, but I can guarantee the ones I've are 2X+ what I've read on the forum.

I find depreciation is a fact for any vehicle, so I buy the vehicle I need and that has the lowest operating costs.

I do my own maintenance between my 2008 city Golf(MK4 chassis) and 2006 hemi ram 2500. The volt is so new I don't have too, but then again, when one checks the owners manual, what maintenance will there really be?!? It has the lowest maintenance schedule of any vehicle I have ever looked at!

My spouse had a BMW 3 series, and I was seriously looking at getting her a used one. I just couldn't justify the maintenance schedule a BMW requires, it requires specialize BMW service on the newer models, which runs thousands of dollars every 20-30K. Since I put a fairly high amount of km on vehicles the volt is hands down best. Now because it is new, I am paying monthly for it above the other two vehicles which are paid for. The Golf is the lowest costing maintenance vehicle I own for the mileage I put on it, and the truck is by far the highest. However the drive and forget it factor of the volt is great. Wife really likes not even having to think about putting gas in it. The other vehicles it was weekly, but she is well within the volts daily range so has added gas once herself since we owned the car last Aug, and that is only because I am deployed to the middle east and wasn't there to fill it. She likely will not need to add gas as I will be home in Apr to fill it up lol.

Basically buy your vehicle and keep it until it is so used up it's too expensive to maintain or has broken beyond repair, which with regular maintenance, can be a very very long time. Most people buy vehicles out of "want" not "need".