Our current car is in the shop. It’s fixable (and being fixed) with still a little more than a year before next shaken, but engine trouble tells me it’s time to replace the car sometime before shaken. The car was originally purchased new as a gift from my partner’s parents, and has been reliable (until now) for 15 years.
Unfortunately, Toyota doesn’t make the model of our car anymore, but we are pretty much decided on what we want for our next one. (We’re going for a very practical compact family car, but not Kei car).
Plan is to pay cash for it with our savings.
I’m usually all for buying used (personally have never bought a new car before) as usually that’s a better way to go for these type of investments. Yet I’ve been looking on the used market, and hybrids that are 2-5 years old (with under 30,000km) are around 215-240万, whereas new we’re looking at 300万 (no frills basic version, but we are ok with that).
Considering that the new car might have 4-5 more good years of driving it (compared to an older one), and perhaps recent updates in battery technology might mean that a new hybrid has a slightly more efficient battery, it almost seems as if new is the way to go. There’s also the consideration that a hybrid needs to have a decent lifespan of driving it to get any return on investment in gasoline. (We want the hybrid for environmental reasons in addition to economical).
What do you think? Am I missing something?
by irishtwinsons