4 ms·

> By comparison, the average new car in the U.S. today sells for about $33,000. That may be the mean but I'll bet it's nowhere near the median.

by teach 10y ago

gremlinsinc 10y ago
yeah, and maybe they should factor in the average car bought and sold, there's still a LOT of car owners/buyers that stick to the used lots.
- Gibbon1 10y ago
  You can buy a fairly low mileage used Nissan Leaf for approximately $10,000 right now. Look on Craigslist take your pick. For the life of me I cannot imagine why you wouldn't be able to buy the same cars for $5,000 five years from now.
  - ourmandave 10y ago
    The warranty on the battery pack is 60 months / 60,000 miles. A replacement battery costs $5,500 plus taxes and labor. I wonder how many on Craigslist don't want to write that check.
    - Gibbon1 10y ago
      A fair number of vehicles on Craigslist at the $10k price range have 20-40k miles on them. More than likely the battery will last 100k/10 years. Unlikely someone selling a leaf with 25k miles on it is doing so because they fear the replacement cost of a new battery. Also, replacement battery costs are dropping year by year. So if one bought a used leaf, drove it for five years and replaced the battery you wouldn't pay $5500.
white-flame 10y ago
I wish I had saved a link to it, but a study on affordability marked an average earning household of about $35k/yr as being able to afford an $8,000 car. In order to be able to afford the "average" $33,000 car took a $90k/yr income.
- foobarian 10y ago
  My household income is way more than that and I still found it painful to buy a $20k car. I find it hard to understand why people buy cars at such high relative prices.
  - white-flame 10y ago
    It's easy to understand why people overextend themselves on vehicle purchases that they really can't afford: One is to feel "safer" in having a newer vehicle, especially if it's still under warranty. The second is simply peacock presentation of showing they've spent more money than you'd think they could afford otherwise. I guess some might simply be a mega-fan of a particular car model and go for it even when it's outside of their financial means, but I haven't seen that very often out of people in average income brackets.
  - eric_the_read 10y ago
    For the vehicles I've been looking at recently (minivans, light trucks), buying a 2-3 year old vehicle with ~35k-50k miles doesn't make sense-- I was seeing savings of at most $2k-$3k, and over the (minimum) 10-year lifespan of the vehicle for me, having a warranty and complete service records was much more appealing.
  - overcast 10y ago
    People, like myself, don't want to buy into someone's problems. Sure you pay a bit less, but you also have a bit less car. 35,000 miles into a car, how long before you need to buy just another used car? I buy new, and then run it into the ground after the warranty runs out. Typically by then, normal defects have been covered. Change your own oil, filters, tires. Keep up with things like alignments, wash/wax, and keeping things clean. You'd be surprised at how long a new car will last if you take care of it. Conversely, who knows how the previous guy treated it, because most definitely do not care. This will be the seventh year with mine, and it's immaculate.
    - clarry 10y ago
      A bit less, or maybe a lot less. If you're buying an used car, you take your time to look for signs that tell about how well it's been taken care of (or abused). And of course you take it for a test drive. I don't think there are that many critical (as in very expensive / impossible to repair) defects that you can't spot by looking, feeling, smelling, and listening. In my case, I got my newest car just a few weeks ago. For the price of a battery and a tank of gas to drive it home. It's only 20 years old and runs great, has 230k km on it, and will likely last at least double the kilometers, possibly much much more, up to around 1000k. I could get a dozen used cars in the $0 to $1000 range and still have $15k or more for repairs before I've spent as much as the average new car costs.

> By comparison, the average new car in the U.S. today sells for about $33,000. That may be the mean but I'll bet it's nowhere near the median.

by teach 10y ago

> By comparison, the average new car in the U.S. today sells for about $33,000. That may be the mean but I'll bet it's nowhere near the median.

gremlinsinc 10y ago

yeah, and maybe they should factor in the average car bought and sold, there's still a LOT of car owners/buyers that stick to the used lots.

Gibbon1 10y ago
You can buy a fairly low mileage used Nissan Leaf for approximately $10,000 right now. Look on Craigslist take your pick. For the life of me I cannot imagine why you wouldn't be able to buy the same cars for $5,000 five years from now.
- ourmandave 10y ago
  The warranty on the battery pack is 60 months / 60,000 miles. A replacement battery costs $5,500 plus taxes and labor. I wonder how many on Craigslist don't want to write that check.
  - Gibbon1 10y ago
    A fair number of vehicles on Craigslist at the $10k price range have 20-40k miles on them. More than likely the battery will last 100k/10 years. Unlikely someone selling a leaf with 25k miles on it is doing so because they fear the replacement cost of a new battery. Also, replacement battery costs are dropping year by year. So if one bought a used leaf, drove it for five years and replaced the battery you wouldn't pay $5500.

white-flame 10y ago

I wish I had saved a link to it, but a study on affordability marked an average earning household of about $35k/yr as being able to afford an $8,000 car. In order to be able to afford the "average" $33,000 car took a $90k/yr income.

foobarian 10y ago
My household income is way more than that and I still found it painful to buy a $20k car. I find it hard to understand why people buy cars at such high relative prices.
- white-flame 10y ago
  It's easy to understand why people overextend themselves on vehicle purchases that they really can't afford: One is to feel "safer" in having a newer vehicle, especially if it's still under warranty. The second is simply peacock presentation of showing they've spent more money than you'd think they could afford otherwise. I guess some might simply be a mega-fan of a particular car model and go for it even when it's outside of their financial means, but I haven't seen that very often out of people in average income brackets.
- eric_the_read 10y ago
  For the vehicles I've been looking at recently (minivans, light trucks), buying a 2-3 year old vehicle with ~35k-50k miles doesn't make sense-- I was seeing savings of at most $2k-$3k, and over the (minimum) 10-year lifespan of the vehicle for me, having a warranty and complete service records was much more appealing.
- overcast 10y ago
  People, like myself, don't want to buy into someone's problems. Sure you pay a bit less, but you also have a bit less car. 35,000 miles into a car, how long before you need to buy just another used car? I buy new, and then run it into the ground after the warranty runs out. Typically by then, normal defects have been covered. Change your own oil, filters, tires. Keep up with things like alignments, wash/wax, and keeping things clean. You'd be surprised at how long a new car will last if you take care of it. Conversely, who knows how the previous guy treated it, because most definitely do not care. This will be the seventh year with mine, and it's immaculate.
  - clarry 10y ago
    A bit less, or maybe a lot less. If you're buying an used car, you take your time to look for signs that tell about how well it's been taken care of (or abused). And of course you take it for a test drive. I don't think there are that many critical (as in very expensive / impossible to repair) defects that you can't spot by looking, feeling, smelling, and listening. In my case, I got my newest car just a few weeks ago. For the price of a battery and a tank of gas to drive it home. It's only 20 years old and runs great, has 230k km on it, and will likely last at least double the kilometers, possibly much much more, up to around 1000k. I could get a dozen used cars in the $0 to $1000 range and still have $15k or more for repairs before I've spent as much as the average new car costs.