Among all your big achievements in life, buying a car is another milestone after owning a house. Who doesn’t want to have a nice house and a fine car? But there comes the dragon of funding that can eat all your dreams out. After a lot of research, it is determined, though aversely, that a new car only smells good. But chasing this scent may lead you to a big financial disaster. Just check first hand that this scent is worth your chasing or investment. Or is it a total waste of time and money?
Top 5 Advantages of Buying a Used Car
It’s not about the sticker cost that makes a brand-new zero-meter car a waste of money, depreciation in value, associated charges, and subsequent costs are also included in it. The same subsequent cost will have to be paid in the case of a slightly used car, but it will let you have a fraction of the money in your pocket, that you might have spent on the purchase of a new car. My argument here is that buying a slightly used car will benefit you in both the short and long run; however, a brand new car only benefits in the short run — in the form of psychological satisfaction. Here are 5 logical benefits of buying a used car that you may disagree with but never be judgmental of them without giving a thought.
Sales Tax on New Cars
Sales tax is the biggest issue, especially in a country like Pakistan, where we face triple tax in most cases. For instance, if you’re a salaried person, first tax will be deducted from your salary, second, you’ll pay as sales tax while buying something, third could be the one from any unexpected thing. Either it would be in the form of a restaurant bill, transferring money, ATM withdrawal, or even on regular cheques. In this scenario, sales tax on brand-new items seems like an ordinary thing but for major products like cars, it’s a huge one. Trust me! And surely you can get rid of it if buy a slightly used car.
Depreciation Works
Even though an old concept, depreciation matters a lot. Let’s utter it in simple words:
Amount of 2 years depreciation of new car Amount to buy 2 years depreciated used car
The same car that’s priced at almost Rs.1,000,000 could cost you around 600,000 to 700,000 if used for one and a half years. A big saving it is! The same car would have depreciated over the period of time of course, but that loss would not be bigger than your savings.
New Car vs. Old Car Features
Getting an extra feature or even the regular ones in your to-buy new car, can bring up a hell lot of expenses. However, the same material can be from an after-market installer at much lower rates. You may want to add all the crazy features like protective coating, additional sensors, or pinstripes in your car, but make sure if these features add to the resale value of the car or not. Mostly they don’t add in re-sale value but only add in the cost of the car. Then the one buying a used car can have these features at zero cost.
Crazy Dealer Charges
While you might see a car priced at Rs.1,500,000, the super duper efforts the dealer would make to get you that car will make it around Rs.1,700,000. Now you can use your gut feeling and sense that the dealer would charge for every single document he gets you prepared. You’ll pay for documents separately along with dealer’s fees.
While buying a used car, you will not only get rid of this hustle of registration, doc preparation, legal issues, insurance, etc but also you won’t have to pay for all these things separately.
The Simplest Argue
Why spend a lot more when you can have the same thing or an alternative at a much lower price? Only in case you’re a landlord or business tycoon who’s fond of having new cars, it’s useless and irrational to spend your money for no reason. Buying a new car is not a necessity. With a little extra effort in the form of research and bargaining, you can have almost the same fine-tuned nice car for far less price than the huge one that the previous owner had paid for it.
Here you just need to test your own intellect. Buying an awesome thing for a high price is no big accomplishment but getting almost the same thing at a much lower price is what we call smart shopping.
