Quote:
Originally Posted by mdosu
disagree, if there's a lightly used 2013 out there for $8k less than a new car (and it has less than say 8k miles)and it has everything you want, why would you buy a new car and eat the $8k depreciation in 6 months? 
You should buy the used one, the preowned in this case is literally a comparable car to the new car. This is also why the absolute worst financial decision to make in car buying is to buy a new car and sell it in less than a year.
In fact, the logic should be reversed. If you're spending over $50k on a car, you should STRONGLY consider preowned, as the initial depreciation is signficantly higher than a $30k Acura, and the depreciation dollar amount every year likely will continue to be higher than that Acura throughout it's life.
If you don't believe me price it out. A 2008 M3 with about 50k miles sells for say $38k. It lost about $30k in its life already, or 44%. A 2008 Acura TL is about $18k, it lost $12k over its life, or 40%. Percentage may or may not matter on a comparative scale, but fuck you lost $30k on the M3 on an absolute scale! I'd rather start with 10 cents and loose 9 cents, then start with $10 and loose $1, when the asset is depreciating and will be disposed, as there's minimum stored value in cars. At the end of it's life, ALL cars are worth between $500-$1000 to a junkyard. |
I agree that it makes sense to look for used M3s when you're looking to spend considerably less than new, and accept no/short warranty as well as higher mileage/wear-and-tear. If you're in the $40k range, used is the way to go for sure. Once you get over $50k I think you should really do some soul-searching as to whether or not to purchase new.
For example: you can do ED like I did, and your off-the-lot depreciation drops to roughly $0 (certainly nowhere near $8k) due to the reduced Invoice+ pricing of ED orders. Plus I get all 4 years and 50k miles of the warranty, not to mention a brand new car that nobody has ever beat on or mistreated. You also need to determine how long you plan on keeping the vehicle, once the warranty runs out on these cars, they become very expensive very quickly for dealer service (and yes I know, if we all wanted to turn our own wrenches it could be cheaper, but not all of us have the time/inclination to do so). Those costs can be as high as $3-5k a year out of warranty, so that is certainly something to keep in your calculations when considering a used M3 purchase.
In my personal opinion (and nothing more), with BMWs, you should consider buying new, and trading up every 3 or so years (with ED every time) so you can maximize resale value, due to being able to sell it privately with a year of remaining warranty, minimize depreciation, because the depreciation on E9x M3's accelerates above 50k miles (someone here posted a graph a while back showing that the E9x M3 depreciation rate nearly doubles after 50k miles), and maximize your enjoyment of the M-division.
Just some food for thought.