[Need Advice] Is right now the best time to Purchase a Vehicle?

Never buy new. You are demonstrably poorer as soon as you drive the car off the lot.

Look at rental car sales, like Hertz. I bought from then once and got a good deal. However, don't go with their financing... or any dealers. Arrange it through your credit union or something.

 

Best time to buy is when you can pay cash, or pay it off very quickly. I paid off my last car in about 7 months.

 

Rental cars can be a risky proposition. People tear those things up, put the cheapest gas they can find in it (wrong octane), and who knows what else. I'm not saying you can't get a good deal, but...

 

Eh, that's sort of a myth nowadays. Most rental companies only sell the top of the line (top 5%) cars to the public. The rest they unload on the cheap to auto auctions.

I bought a car from Enterprise and drove it for 10 years without any problems.

I'm glad to see so many people suggesting buying used instead of new. Hell, I'll even go one step further and advise AGAINST buying a warranty. You have to get a LOT of work done before that pays for itself and chances are you won't need to before it runs out.

 

Totally depends on the car.

Look at the prices on 2006 honda civics. For 1000$ more you can just get a brand new one with full warrantee, peace of mind, and new car smell.

Same with the prius and most hondas and toyotas. The depreciation only affects luxury models a great deal.

Buying a new honda or toyota is a good move imo.

 

Stay the hell away from John Eagle. I gave them my keys so they could look at my old car for trade-in value, and it took me asking 6 times over the course of 2 hours for them to give me my keys back. In the process of them "negotiating" with me, they also called me a liar and tried to tell me how to go about buying a house. MF, I don't want a house, and now I don't want your F'ing car either!

 

holy s.

who was the salesperson?

 

Well, I've never actually bought a car from Carmax, but my sister and bro in law have bought their last 6 cars from them and swear by them. I SOLD a car to them last year and if that experience is any indication of what buying one from them would be like, I'll buy the rest of my cars from them because they were very friendly and professional etc. They also gave me 2K over bluebook value and never once even suggested I buy a car from them, FWIW.

While we were waiting for the paperwork to be completed, we went out to the lot and looked around and couldn't believe how many great deals we saw. Made me regret not going there first when I bought my new car in 2006. All the cars look brand new and are priced about half of what you would pay for one. And the prices are non-negotiable so if you're like me and don't like dealing with greasy car salesmen, it's a great way to buy.

 

Why is it that everyone says buying a car is bad because its value depreciates? Duh!? WTF? I just don't understand why you complain of the loss of its value.

So where did your usage go? You don't expect to sell something you've used for the same amount you paid, do you?

Say you buy, oh, heck, I don't know... a HONDA ACCORD today, and it costs 20,000 bucks, so you use it for, oh, heck, I don't know, 5 years. You pay it off. It has 45,000 miles, not a scratch or dent, but it is used, nonetheless, do you expect to sell it for 20,000 again? Of course not. Maybe 10,000? Sounds more like it. You've used it!

You sell used, you're getting less, end of story. Don't complain about "depreciation" when you've used something.

 

Well it started out with Patrick Torma (sp?) He was a really nice guy with whom I had no problems - but then he conveniently had to go to a wedding or something like that, so he handed me off to his brother and some other guy, who I unfortunately didn't learn their names.

 

The "holding of keys" is a common tactic among dealerships - it's a sales tactic. I've heard of people threatening to call the cops because they weren't given their keys back when asked. lol.

 

I'm a consumer lawyer. Losing your keys is a common tactic used by just about every dealer. On the same note, sometimes they need to photcopy your license and then "misplace" it for a few hours. It is all to wear you down.
In my humble opinion, leasing is always a bad deal.

 

It's the amount of depreciation of a new car that is the problem. Once the papers are signed, and you get in the car, even if you drive that car a mile, it will probably have depreciated significantly more than the use you got out of it. Meaning, as many people think, why not just buy a 1 or 2 year old car that has that depreciation already built into the price?

 

That's what it was coming to. I was standing up and I was going to walk out and call my parents to have them come pick me up and give me my spare set of keys. I was mid-sentence telling them "You know what? You can keep that set-" That's when they finally gave me my keys back.

 

People aren't "complaining".... we are just questioning the logic of buying a new car at full price when you can wait a year and get that same car for a fraction of the cost.

 

Oh they did that too on a separate occasion. The first time I went to John Eagle, that Patrick guy went to make the copy, we went test driving, I left. Never got the license back until an hour later when I went to pay for something at Hobby Lobby - the cashier was checking licenses against credit cards. That's when I realized and went and picked it up. He seemed genuinely sorry about it, so I went back to them a few weeks later to discuss a car in further detail... that's when everything went to ****.

 

I think leasing is a GREAT deal........for the dealership.

 

Yup, never lease unless you are filthy rich and don't care about money or you are the type of person who has to show off your new car even if you have to go without food.