Want a tip for buying a great car at a discount?
Go contrarian – buy out of style cars
Here is what we did; we purchased an older car but with relatively few miles for it’s age but was out of favor at the time we purchased it.
This has varied over time depending on the circumstances which makes our car history quite varied and has almost always caused raised eye brows on our choice (we take that as a good sign).
At the time we purchased our last car, during a late stage bull market, luxury cars buyers certainly did not want an out of style luxury car that someone else drove in. The perception of “luxury” typically doesn’t pair well with “used”.
And economy buyers wanted the used cars rated highest for reliability.
This left few buyers in the used luxury cars market segment. And we really value safety features so we watched the market for a really safe used luxury(ish) car.
And those conditions means we were able to get our current rig at a much lower cost than one would expect.
Behold the Battle Wagon
Our current rig in all it’s glory:
Volvo Wagon – New to us!
Swedish steel! Best in class safety. Row boat like styling. Squishy seats. Impossibly thick paint. Odd brown stains on the ceiling of questionable provenance. Vintage!! Did you know they don’t even make this model any more? It’s true! And butt warmers!
Buy older cars with low miles to get lots of trouble free service
The Battle Wagon was ten years old with only 75K on the odometer when we purchased it. Net, we bought this unloved ride for 80% off the original sale price. It was fairly low cost. Indeed, once we sold the our previous battle wagonette and accounted for the ten years without cable savings the car was effectively free with years of pre-paid gas included. A brand new car would have absorbed all those savings and I would have been worried about scratching the fancy doors.
Right now electric cars are out of favor because of low gas prices
Right now non-Tesla electric cars are out a vogue and can be purchased for a song. With low gas prices they are really out of fashion. You can get one for a fraction of the cost of similar vehicles. Well, that is until gas prices go back up.
Want to be an environmentalist? Get a used electric car and reduce fossil fuel emissions *and* save a perfectly good car from going to the scrap heap. You are *so* green. More of a outdoors person? Wait until gas prices go back up to the $4 and $5 a gallon price range and get one of those gigantic pick-em-up-truck for half price.
Please check the safety rating on the model year and proceed!
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