Surge in indebted consumers

zululami said:
In fact, buying a new car which is within all the warranties and maintenance plans will save you a lot of money and frustrations down the line...
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This is the biggest load of cock and bull.

This is what the car manufacturer want your to think, but if you do some math on those "service plans", you'll notice that its actually overpriced. There is no way, you will actually spend that amount of money servicing a new car for 5 years/100k km. And if something does go horribly wrong, thats where the warranty should cover you (not the motorplan). These schemes are designed to make you smile while handing over your hard earned cash.

People would be better off putting that money into a savings account.
 
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RoosTa said:
This is the biggest load of cock and bull.

This is what the car manufacturer want your to think, but if you do some math on those "service plans", you'll notice that its actually overpriced. There is no way, you will actually spend that amount of money servicing a new car for 5 years/100k km. And if someone does go horribly wrong, thats where the warranty should cover you (not the motorplan). These schemes are designed to make you smile while handing over your hard earned cash.

People would be better off putting that money into a savings account.
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I've only ever owned second-hand cars, always paid for in cash. When I have an issue I just pay for it to be fixed or try to fix it myself if it's not too technical. I don't worry about motorplans and warranties and all that rubbish. The money I've saved from buying second-hand and not borrowing money has more than made up for the odd times I have fork out for a major repair.
 
The self righteousness is strong with this thread
 
RoosTa said:
This is the biggest load of cock and bull.

This is what the car manufacturer want your to think, but if you do some math on those "service plans", you'll notice that its actually overpriced. There is no way, you will actually spend that amount of money servicing a new car for 5 years/100k km. And if something does go horribly wrong, thats where the warranty should cover you (not the motorplan). These schemes are designed to make you smile while handing over your hard earned cash.

People would be better off putting that money into a savings account.
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Even though I bought a new car, at no point was my motivation cost saving due to a service/maintenance plan. I agree, that is a load of bollocks.
 
creeper said:
Regarding the argument to buy a new or 2nd hand car, read this

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-soapbox/new-car-vs-used-car

Financially, it makes sense to buy 2nd hand, but we tend to forget. We make decisions emotionally.
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Its a great read and I agree with it, but not always applicable to everyone. I have looked at preowned cars recently and found that the dealerships are putting on quite a bit of profit, especially for popular brands.

In my case, my car loan set me back an additional R11,000 worth of interest. My company pays my insurance, so that cost is not there. The service plan compensates for a portion of the R11,000. I save on fuel due to fuel efficiency of a new car. And I get to drive a new, undamaged and clean car. I looked at used cars before I bought, and found a lot of damaged and filthy ones, people really don't look after their cars. I was happy to pay the extra few grand in exchange for a brand new vehicle.

I also heard some horror stories about bank repo and rebuild cars, sometimes you just don't know what is hiding under that bonnet.
 
I agree. It doesn't apply to all. The important thing is to follow the same methodology and comparison before buying a vehicle. At the end, you want to save money.
 
Few extra grand.. hmm
One of my cars cost me probably less than 10% of what with original owner paid for it in 1999 (without taking inflation into account, I'm talking rand for rand).
The other one probably 25% of what the original owner paid in 2003. Anyone know where one can see list prices of vehicles as they were in the past?
 
The_MAC said:
Its a great read and I agree with it, but not always applicable to everyone. I have looked at preowned cars recently and found that the dealerships are putting on quite a bit of profit, especially for popular brands.
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It's much better to buy a second-hand car through a private sale. The dealerships will just rip you off. Obviously you need to make sure you check out the car properly before you buy it, but you're much more likely to get a good deal through a private sale than through a dealership.
 
Sinbad said:
Few extra grand.. hmm
One of my cars cost me probably less than 10% of what with original owner paid for it in 1999 (without taking inflation into account, I'm talking rand for rand).
The other one probably 25% of what the original owner paid in 2003. Anyone know where one can see list prices of vehicles as they were in the past?
Click to expand...

See if the cars you're talking about are listed here, it gives the retail price at the time of sale, though I'm not sure how accurate they are.

I paid 45% of full retail price for my Accord. I know this because the SOs family bought their Accord new in 2006. Plus you need to take into account that the 45% I did pay now (around R120,000) is worth less than R120,000 in 2006.
 
TehStranger said:
See if the cars you're talking about are listed here, it gives the retail price at the time of sale, though I'm not sure how accurate they are.

I paid 45% of full retail price for my Accord. I know this because the SOs family bought their Accord new in 2006. Plus you need to take into account that the 45% I did pay now (around R120,000) is worth less than R120,000 in 2006.
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Thanks, found the 2003. Paid 30% in rand for rand terms, or 18% inflation adjusted using Renier's calculator
 
New A4 R405 000.
I bought it 1 year old with 20 000kms for R295 000.

Saved R110 000 on a new one and still had 4 years of maintenance plan remaining. I need to extend the maintenance plan by 1 year for around R20 000 so I'm still up R90 000 for exactly the same thing as if it were new.

There are bargains out there.
 
RoosTa said:
This is the biggest load of cock and bull.

This is what the car manufacturer want your to think, but if you do some math on those "service plans", you'll notice that its actually overpriced. There is no way, you will actually spend that amount of money servicing a new car for 5 years/100k km. And if something does go horribly wrong, thats where the warranty should cover you (not the motorplan). These schemes are designed to make you smile while handing over your hard earned cash.

People would be better off putting that money into a savings account.
Click to expand...

My car, I10, was bought during a time when service & maintenance plan was not a standard option on class A cars.

So I took a maintenance plan to cover the risk. I guess I'm lucky in that the plan was basically paying for my services upfront so no loss.

The downside is my I10 would have cost me R2500 at the dealership for the last maintenance if I had to pay. Same week our Atos went for the same service at my neighbour (qualified senior mechanic with references) for R1000.

And you know what, the dealership f up my service and did a k k job. The Atos has never run this well.

So from now on my next cars will not be bought with extra maintenance or service plans. Will rather use that money as a deposit.
 
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