do agree with you there, buying brand new is a waste of money.
think the best strategy is this, but at demo or 2 years old and sell at 5 when the big troubles really start;
so in my case brought 2010 car in 2013 drove if for 2 years almost, and now at exactly 5 years want to upgrade to something bigger...
next car will buy demo, drive it for 3-4 years until the plan runs out and sell;
not a bad strategy then espcially if you buy a car that falls apart after the warrenty goes;
not talking about something like a citigolf or tazz that goes forever......
Yeah spend more money buying new cars than you would have spent on keeping a good one running.
If a car gets to 5 years without drama, it will probably get to 10 or 15 without drama too.
Just don't buy a too good to be true deal again.
Your problem wasn't age, or mileage. Your problem was buying a lemon.
My 2000 Opel Corsa was 14 years old when I sold it in December. Third owner and it was a rental car originally with 165000km when it went.
Only reason it was sold it because I ride a bike and my wife drives the GTI it was standing and rusting away in the driveway and when I needed it the battery would be flat.
In the five or so years that I owned it and the five or so years before that, that my mother drove it the biggest job on the car was a head gasket. Original clutch and original everything else. Battery was changed recently and that was that.
My car now is a 2008/9 Golf 5 GTI bought in 2011. So I've had it four years and it's seven years old in total. Bought at 98000km and now at 157000km or so.
Bear in mind this is a high performance turbo charged car. BUT it has a full service history and was bought from a dealership. In immaculate condition at a reasonable price. It's a DSG a well.
Many other examples were cheaper and utterly nasty. If I was you and wanted to save a few grand I would have bought those...and suffered the consequences.
I've spent about 15k on the car in the 60000km that I've had it. Front suspension and discs+pads all round being the biggest items and not unexpected. Only strange thing has been PCV replacement.
That's R3750 per service or per year if you like. Those items will last another 100000km though so it will get cheaper and cheaper to run.
The car is paid for. That annual service cost is about what you will pay PER MONTH on a new lesser car.
It's also about what a new Polo will cost you to maintain or to purchase the service plan for the same mileage.
