Older vs newer car

[carshopper]

Is it worth paying the extra for say a 2018 car instead of a 2013 car? I'm weighing up depreciation vs maintenance I think. Better to spend savings on a newer car and maybe trade it in before it's old, or keep savings gathering interest / for rainy days and run an older car? Thank you.

Too many variables to make a decision on build year alone.

In a similar vein I think, I’ve wondered what the ‘sweet spot’ is and whether if you own a car outright it’s best to trade it in before it gets too old and servicing gets more expensive, or if it’s more economical to run cars ‘into the ground’.
eg I have a 2018 Yaris hybrid bought outright in 2021. Do I later exchange now/soon? Or hold onto it and keep it’s really old and not worth much?

*part exchange

Age just isn't enough to go on. You need to factor in mileage and also the type of car as a minimum. BMWs and Audi's for example are notoriously expensive to service and repair no matter what their age, while fords and vauxhall are on the cheaper end. Mileage comes into play due to the wear and tear on parts that will need to be replaced. Also consider mpg as over the life of the car it could play a huge part in overall cost if you do a lot of miles.
For myself I chose an 8 year old Volvo. It's mpg were excellent (I do around 15k a year) and mileage quite low. Overall it is known for safety and reliability of machinery so even though parts weren't cheap (in the middle of my earlier examples) I felt confident I perhaps wouldn't need to replace parts as often.
I tend to keep my cars until they start to turn unreliable (e.g. 2/3 trips to the garage in a year) - if they are in working order then I keep them.

Very often the first few years of a cars life depreciate fastest.

This is useful:

https://caredge.com/depreciation

A 5 year age difference is significant but you have to compare mileage/condition.

Financially (numerically) you should of course run an older car and get good intrest on your savings rather than put your savings into a depreciating asset.

Even if inflation is eroding your savings by 5% (if inflation is 10% and you get 5% interest) that’s likely better financially than buying a car that depreciates by 15% a year.

But life can be boring without nice things so you have to weigh up your priorities… when it comes to money we all have our own decisions to make.

I would though be more likely to buy a newer car the nearer we get to the cut off point for ICE cars.

Thank you, lots of food for thought there.

Also consider where you live and whether you’re going to drive frequently in a low emission zone. We have a 64 plate diesel and we have to pay to enter most low emission zones. Not currently a huge factor but when the ulez comes in it will mean £ every time I visit my brother and family which is a couple of times a month

Personally I would always go with the newer car, BUT it would also have to be low mileage, full service history etc etc.

Then there is the issue of whether to buy an electric one or not.

We're looking at petrol, can't afford hybrid.

I might have to change my username as I've just realised that for our second car a 125 scooter might be a much better option, just enough to get to local work or the train station and so much more economical to run!

Or an ebike.

Bangernomics is more than possible. You just need to get the right car. I have a 2012 focus diesel.

The thing to remember is most people will go on about how much it costs you to repair the car per year, without factoring in the depretiation you would pay if you bought something new, or the insurance costs.

For example a new car can easily lose 1-2K per year in value, which buys a hell of a lot of repairs on an older car.

The disadvantages are the older car might not be quite as safe (although any cars from the last decade are likely to be pretty safe) or quite as reliable.

The best ones to buy are ones that are relatively cheap to repair. Think Ford etc. Any garage can do these and the parts are relatively inexpensive and readily available. The Japanese cars tend to be more reliable, but hold their value more as a result and the parts are more expensive than Ford. Avoid the German cars, 4x4s and luxury cars like the plague. These are incredibly expensive to repair and not very reliable.

My diesel is that it only costs £20 a year in tax. Of course if you live in the new emission zones, its not good, but I hardly go into cities where the zones are set up.

Cars last an average of 13 years these days, obviously some last a lot longer, typically up to 20 years. It's not just low mileage you need to look for, a full service history is essential preferably from a dealership garage (not a random back street grease monkey). The older they are, the more important to do a long test drive to get the feel of the suspension, gear box, clutch, steering, etc., to make sure it "feels right". Even low mileage cars may have been driven badly, i.e. regularly mounting the kerb etc which can cause excessive wear and tear on steering and suspension, and poor driving can cause clutch and gear box to wear out sooner.

As for whether at 13 or 18 is better, how long is a piece of string. If the 13 one has low mileage, FSH and has been well driven, it could well be in a better state than the 18 one.

One of our cars is a 15 year old Citroen C3 and it's still in immaculate condition, FSH, and in excellent mechanical condition, never broken down and no repairs other than routine servicing issues, i.e. tyres, brake pads, spark plugs, a battery, timing belt, etc. Still drives like a dream, clutch, gearbox, steering and suspension still feel smooth. You see an awful lot of C3s on the road from between 2003 and 2009. As a PP said, it does depend also on the make and model - some cars are a lot cheaper and easier to maintain than others. And also the "simplicity" of the car - the more bells and whistles, the more there is to go wrong. If I was buying an "old" car, say 10 years or so, I'd steer clear of top of the range models and stick with a car that's simple, basic and popular so that there's less to go wrong and more likely to get cheaper parts etc.

My car is 15 yes old, but am glad I didn’t buy an expensive newer one. I’d estimate I spend around 300 on repairs each year but it was so cheap I paid cash up front and so don’t have finance etc. insurance is cheap, no ULEZ charge. I think the only circumstance I’d buy a newer car in is if the car had a full repairing warranty with few exclusions or was a PHP jobby. But then I do not care at all about car prestige or newness.