CincyScott

Ok, I'm in the car buying market and wanted to see others' opinions on this. Take 2 cars:

'03 Car has 32k on the clock and costs 34k.

'02 Car has 65k on the clock and costs 23k.

Both cars cosmetically equal and need nothing. Here are the decisioning points:

1). I have car ADD, I'll likely not keep it more than 2-3 years.
2). I put 20k+ a year on a car between work and the fact that I live in BFE.

Which car makes more sense to own financially? It seems both cars would depreciate the same. The 66k car would be worth about $12-13k with 100k+ on it. The 32k car would be worth $22-23k with 65k+ on it.

It appears both are a wash, no? What say you guys?

jimq

where do you come up with a value of 12k with 100k miles? 23k is way cheap for that car. Has it been wrecked or abused?

CincyScott

It's not a 996TT or P-car, it's a hypothetical on any car. In this case, it's for a replacement Daily Driver.

leftlane

If all you're doing is piling miles on a car anyway, buy the one that's already depreciated the most. Otherwise you'll eat more depreciation yourself with the miles.

voodoojar

hypothetically speaking you should buy the one with slightly higher miles and a used toyota corrolla to drive to work everyday but friday.

jimq

sorry I misunderstood you wernt talking about turbos on a 996tt forum. Buy the higher mileage cheaper one and pocket the difference.

CincyScott

That's what I thought myself. But I have this lingering thought on the other one that a lower mileage example will be easier to sell for a potential premium (thus have a higher value), because all of the other examples will have high mileage. Clear as mud

Jimq, this isn't specific to p-cars, but it probably applies to them in a similar situation too!

I figure many of you have gone through the mental gymnastics on this one and come to some reasonable conclusion.

Macster

Depreciation is the biggest cost in owning a car so all other things being equal the less expensive car in your hypothetical cars is the best buy since it will lose less value to depreciation.

If you can invest the difference between what you would have paid for the more expensive car vs. what you paid for the cheaper car then you can even offset some depreciation cost of the cheaper car.

Sincerely,

Macster.

RogueM3

I think, in general, it would be better to buy the cheaper car with higher mileage, as with less expensive DDs, the depreciation seems to slow with respect to higher and higher mileage, and as was already stated by buying at a higher mileage you avoid as much of that depreciation as possible. People generally aren't more inclined to avoid the car when they hit a certain mileage.

This seems to be quite the opposite with the 996TT in particular where once they hit 70k miles, the prices drop quickly and time on the market is exponentially longer. Were you asking this question about the 996TT, the more expensive, lower mileage car would be the one to buy as your DD as so long as you don't put 35k miles on it, you will avoid the cliff at 70k miles.