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It's always surprised me, when talking to Americans online, how many people seem to feel they don't have access to the secondary car market. Perhaps it's becau

It's always surprised me, when talking to Americans online, how many people seem to feel they don't have access to the secondary car market. Perhaps it's because I grew up around people who were good with their hands, but in my mind buying a used car isn't a scary matter - you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. And if you can't do this, you've got a cousin or uncle who can. But speaking to Americans, they make it sound like this kind of traditional working-class knowledge has been lost? A lot of folks seem positively scared of the second-hand market, and say that a $50,000 brand new car is going to save them money on maintenance. Crazy high standards of living, in a sense!

rsynnott 1y ago
I mean that’s probably more an excuse, because they want the shiny new car.
bravetraveler 1y ago
I'd guess perceived status. That, or, they want a tank: another arms race for Baby (Crushing|Saving) Machines. Modern cars keep growing. I've bought exactly one new: will drive it until the wheels can't be put back on. Before that, probably a dozen second-hand. I now make silly amounts of money, am American. All this to say: used cars are best cars. Terrible purchasing experiences await regardless. edit: "In for a penny, in for a pound", right? :)
IshKebab 1y ago
Can't you just buy from a second hand car dealer? They usually give you more guarantees than private sales (for a slight premium). That's how most people in the UK buy cars.
- ChiefNotAClue 1y ago
  You can, but it's usually a larger difference. A car that might be negotiated down to $5k or $6k on the private market, will probably be at $9k-$10k on the dealer lot. Plus they'll tack on document fees, and so on. In the end, you might be looking at paying double what you would otherwise for cars in similar shape and mileage.
  - mcv 1y ago
    Still a much better deal than new, and more accessible to people without technical car knowledge. This is how my wife buys our cars.
  - sottol 1y ago
    That does also basically erase any connection to the last owner - so you can't try to infer if they took care of the car or not. On top of that, afaik many second-hand dealers buy cars at auction and then often only do basic (bandaid-type?) fixes to get the car ready for sale.
csomar 1y ago
Two things in my opinion: Cars are now much more complex than 10-15 years ago. And the secondary market is more expensive. It’d make sense if the discount is big enough but if it is not, you are gambling. New cars require less maintenance and usually come with 1-3 years of warranty.
- lelanthran 1y ago
  Assertion #1 > And the secondary market is more expensive. Assertion #2 > New cars require less maintenance and usually come with 1-3 years of warranty. The more people who purchase because of Assertion #2, the less true Assertion #1 is going to be. So, yeah, as someone who has only twice purchased new (and regretted the financial hit both times), I actually am in favour of convincing more and more people to strain their finances to buy new, knowing that a lower demand in the secondary market means lower prices for me for the same used car. If more people purchased within their means and bought secondary, I'd be paying a lot more each time I bought a car.
  - Moru 1y ago
    Yes, this is very much the case here in Sweden. When people started thinking about environment and second hand became fashion, all the second hand stores suddenly became as expensive as buying new. I have always been buying second hand so I'm a bit miffed.
- Hamuko 1y ago
  You can get used cars with a warranty too, since a lot of manufacturers have certified pre-owned programs. For example a 2025 Mercedes-Benz C300 is $48,450 but a certified pre-owned 2022 Mercedes-Benz C300 is $32,820, and you get whatever is remaining of the original warranty + 12 months. I'd say that's a pretty decent saving, especially considering that it's still the same model (current generation is 2022 and onwards).
donw 1y ago
I can think of a couple of factors. One, there's a big urban/non-urban split in American culture. The former are far less likely to know anything about working on cars, nor are they likely to have a friend or uncle that can help. That cohort is very over-represented on HN. Second, there's a lot of shady stuff happening in the used car market, and you really do need to be on top of things to not get scammed. We're talking that's absolutely illegal, but also difficult and expensive to enforce, so if you get stuck on the wrong end of a deal, you're just going to eat those costs.
- aprilthird2021 1y ago
  I don't get this at all. I'm an urban know-nothing about cars. The current car I have I bought online from a private seller. I insisted on taking the car to a 3rd party mechanic for an assessment. Paid for the assessment, then bought the car. It is spending maybe $400-$500 to save potentially over $10000
sgt 1y ago
I don't know.. people have been buying used cars on Craiglist for as long as I can remember.
- crinkly 1y ago
  This is how I roll. Turn up next to the £100k EVs at the office in my 15 year old turd. I go on holiday 6 times a year for that money. The 15 year old turd seems to go wrong less and cost less to fix when it does as well.
  - sgt 1y ago
    For interest's sake, what type of car is this?
    - crinkly 1y ago
      Dacia Duster
      - sgt 1y ago
        O yeah I know it. Good cars I think. Light on fuel. I have a Land Cruiser, not bad but guzzles a bit, getting 15mpg (15.5L/100km)
demarq 1y ago
> round people who were good with their hands, but in my mind buying a used car isn't a scary matter - you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. This has nothing to do with America. The rest of the world has this problem too. Not everyone is a mechanic outside of America.
- alex7o 1y ago
  Come to eastern Europe, nobody here buys a new car (people can't afford it unfortunately). For that exact reason most people have retained the knowledge of how to buy a used car, and choose one that is not awful, or at least the least bad one.
  - laurentiurad 1y ago
    I am originally from EE and there are reports every month on how cars cause accidents because breaks didn't work, or an entire wheel flies out of its place. Not to mention the gazillion cases of accidents caused by improper headlights. The only reason the second-hand market works there is because most of the used cars come from Germany, and they have strict laws for checking the cars periodically. Once they roll on the EE roads for a few years, then the cracks start popping up which cause horrible accidents. Just implying that EE is this amazing place where second-hand cars have no issues and Americans should follow the same model shows that you have no idea what you're talking about.
    - ViewTrick1002 1y ago
      So the issue isn’t second hand cars but a lack of oversight.
      - nradov 1y ago
        It depends on the country but some eastern European countries require an annual car inspection as part of registration. They check for basic stuff to ensure it's not falling apart. Thoroughness varies, and some inspectors can be bribed.
lm28469 1y ago
The average interest rate on used car loans is above 10%, they do buy used, but it's even more of a scam
- borispavlovic 1y ago
  Buy the car you can afford by paying in cash, or a small enough loan that even 10% will be manageable.
  - lm28469 1y ago
    This isn't the American way apparently, do you want to be a True American Patriot or some loser driving a shitbox I still remember the first thing my bank offered me as a student in the US, a credit card, 25%+ apr, give that to a 18 years old clueless kid and you'll set them up for failure. The entire system is setup to make you think these interests rate are normal and that being in debt is a proper lifestyle
- nradov 1y ago
  It's weird to refer to charging interest on a loan as a "scam". The default rate on used car loans is higher than on new car loans, and interest rates reflect that.
- ethbr1 1y ago
  If anyone is financing used cars for >10%, they're making the mistake of financing through the seller. It should be a lot lower. E.g. current rates: https://www.penfed.org/auto#cbs https://www.penfed.org/auto#cbs
ReptileMan 1y ago
>But speaking to Americans, they make it sound like this kind of traditional working-class knowledge has been lost? We don't have cars anymore, we have PlayStations with wheels. Even if you are able to properly diagnose the check engine, you may need to disassemble the whole engine just to replace a 20cent sensor inside.
- stinkbeetle 1y ago
  But you wouldn't buy a car with a check engine warning if you don't know how to read the code or fix it. For the most part you're not really looking for signs of mechanical or electrical faults that will develop, you're looking for signs it has been cared for. Service history, clean interior, tires with decent tread, oil and water levels okay and aren't contaminated, starts up and drives nicely from cold to warm. That's about it. Someone with very little auto mechanic knowledge can do that. Sure an O2 sensor might give out in the next few thousand miles, but you have to allow for some maintenance cost beyond scheduled services for older cars.
Hamuko 1y ago
>you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. And if you can't do this, you've got a cousin or uncle who can. You don't even need to do that. You can just find a mechanic to do a PPI on the car, so they'll check for any issues and read the errors codes to see if there's something funky.
lelanthran 1y ago
> Perhaps it's because I grew up around people who were good with their hands, but in my mind buying a used car isn't a scary matter - you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. And if you can't do this, you've got a cousin or uncle who can. You could do that, sure. Or you could get a respected independent assessor. Here in South Africa we have Dekra (and others) who wil do a test of the car more thoroughly than I can (road test till operating temperature is reached, examination of the car on a lift for chassis damage/signs of repairs, oil leaks, etc, examination of car for signs of accident repair, pulling of DTC, etc). If you go to this place - https://www.webuycars.co.za/buy-a-car/18C404984 https://www.webuycars.co.za/buy-a-car/18C404984 - you'll see a car that looks good for its age on the surface with only a few easily fixable things (tail lights, brakes, etc). But the attached report shows that the chassis is twisted and that there are oil leaks. These two problems are terminal faults that I, even with a background as a mechanic, will not spot because I cannot put the car on a lift when I go to view it. It's not perfect, but at least I don't waste time test driving a car with terminal faults (chassis damage, transmission DTCs or problems, engines without compression, etc). It means when I look for a car, I can dismiss dozens of cars based just on the attached Dekra report, and spend more time examining the remaining ones for faults that Dekra might have missed.
- nbadg 1y ago
  Additionally, a lot of people who would otherwise be in the used car market for price reasons in the US cannot afford to purchase even a used car outright, and getting financing for cars sold on the private market is, to my knowledge, not really possible.
  - fleeting900 1y ago
    You can’t get a loan for a used car in the US? This is pretty common in Australia. All of the banks offer car loans or “personal loans”
  - lelanthran 1y ago
    > Additionally, a lot of people who would otherwise be in the used car market for price reasons in the US cannot afford to purchase even a used car outright, and getting financing for cars sold on the private market is, to my knowledge, not really possible. To me, that's the biggest reason for used-car prices to be low - the market is restricted to those who have cash. IME, the prices of cars that cannot be financed (older than 5 years) is severely constrained. I've seen a 5 year old model advertised for exactly twice the price as an almost identical 6 year old model, with similar mileage and similar condition[1]. I find that hard to reconcile with the other posters in this thread who observed that used cars are still too expensive. Maybe they are looking at used-cars that can still be financed (under $X years, for example)? ======================= [1] Condition of both was reported by the same independent assessor - see my posting upthread
Havoc 1y ago
Think people have a general aversion to buying secondhand. You see it in people building home servers too - preference for buying new even if eBay route would yield tangibly better bang per buck.
euroderf 1y ago
> you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. And if you can't do this, you've got a cousin or uncle who can. I had good luck with taking a used car for a test drive, and (with the knowledge of the seller) dropping it off at a garage and asking a mechanic to spend half an hour checking it over.
Notjoanbaez 1y ago
Could it be that, as we moved most of our consumption online the idea of visiting a dealer, garage or direct-seller, has become unnatural and intimidating ? Suddenly you are confronted with the messy, material and mechanical reality rather than the clean product pages, specifications and marketing pictures.
onecommentman 1y ago
If you’re working a regular job, you need a reliable car in the US. New cars should be, and nowadays are, more reliable than used cars with unknown provenance. Just donated a sedan I bought new 25 years ago that didn’t have a spot of rust and the motor was still great. Desert living… Just didn’t want to chase down exotic material failure modes at that point and wanted the enhanced safety features available on new cars to protect my old body. I don’t own a lift nor an air compressor. I’d feel like a damn fool if I got hurt working on my own old car. Fixing my broken old body would be much more expensive than having a professional with the proper tools repair my old car. Can pass that dealer-maintained car with a clean conscience to someone who has the tools and expertise. Nowadays, you can expect 20-30 years from a new vehicle, properly maintained. Especially in the desert. When you spread that buy-it-new premium over 25 years, it’s worth buying new just to know the exact provenance of the vehicle you’ll be driving over the next quarter century.
blueone 1y ago
[dead]
lylejantzi3rd 1y ago
Used car prices have skyrocketed in the past 10 years. You used to be able to get a decent, reliable car for under $5k. Now that number is closer to $10-15k, which is just as out of reach for most Americans as $30k. If you're going to go into debt anyway, why not buy the new car?
Eddy_Viscosity2 1y ago
The used car market got pretty crazy there for a while due to the covid supply disruptions. 3 year old corrolas with 100k mileage were selling as much as brand new ones! Why? Because you had to wait 9-10 months to get a new one. So a few years ago anybody who needed a car, whether new or used, was paying a lot. A few years later with more inflation in prices and none in wages, its not surprising to see some of these loans start to default.
- AnimalMuppet 1y ago
  Even before that. "Cash for clunkers" did a number on the used car market.
surgical_fire 1y ago
I don't think I can evaluate a second hand car. I understand very little of cars to measure its state. I can easily be fooled. It's not the maintenance costs that scare me is not being able to rely on the car working when I need it. Before I could afford to buy a new car I just didn't own a car.
Ancapistani 1y ago
If most of your interaction with Americans has been centered around the tech industry, then I can totally see you coming to this conclusion. Tech is largely made up of people from urban areas, who didn't grow up around people who worked on vehicles. Many of those people also don't have extended family outside the cities. That's not everyone, of course, but it's far more common in tech than HVAC for instance. My dad worked as an agriculture teacher for 30 years. He's now retired, and has a 40x120 shop building on his property that I have access to whenever I need it. As a result, I drive a 35-year-old GMC pickup. Before that, I had a 25-year-old Jeep that I'd driven since ~2012. Even with the necessary skills, I had a very difficult time performing basic maintenance on my Jeep when I lived in a city. My apartment complex didn't even allow oil changes on the property, and there were no garages around that I could rent space from. I ended up doing a lot of stuff in the parking lot of the auto parts store near me - from oil changes to replacing the entire rear axle at one point. The police were called on me from passers-by multiple times, to the point that they knew me by name. Bear in mind, that's with the permission of the shop. In short, urban America is fairly hostile to DIY.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
PleasureBot 1y ago
As an alternative I've paid a mechanic I trust (not a cousin or uncle) to inspect a car I was looking to buy. Cost like $75 and I had the peace of mind that I wasn't buying a lemon.
rchaud 1y ago
Covid constrained the supply of new cars, leading used car prices to skyrocket. It's not easy for the average person to evaluate whether a used car from a private seller is in good condition. A Carfax report is thin on details other than its crash history. Cars in good condition sell very fast, so I can understand why people choose to buy a new car that comes with a warranty, especially if they live in a town where cars are necessary to get around.

rsynnott 1y ago

I mean that’s probably more an excuse, because they want the shiny new car.

bravetraveler 1y ago

I'd guess perceived status. That, or, they want a tank: another arms race for Baby (Crushing|Saving) Machines. Modern cars keep growing. I've bought exactly one new: will drive it until the wheels can't be put back on. Before that, probably a dozen second-hand. I now make silly amounts of money, am American. All this to say: used cars are best cars. Terrible purchasing experiences await regardless. edit: "In for a penny, in for a pound", right? :)

IshKebab 1y ago

Can't you just buy from a second hand car dealer? They usually give you more guarantees than private sales (for a slight premium). That's how most people in the UK buy cars.

ChiefNotAClue 1y ago
You can, but it's usually a larger difference. A car that might be negotiated down to $5k or $6k on the private market, will probably be at $9k-$10k on the dealer lot. Plus they'll tack on document fees, and so on. In the end, you might be looking at paying double what you would otherwise for cars in similar shape and mileage.
- mcv 1y ago
  Still a much better deal than new, and more accessible to people without technical car knowledge. This is how my wife buys our cars.
- sottol 1y ago
  That does also basically erase any connection to the last owner - so you can't try to infer if they took care of the car or not. On top of that, afaik many second-hand dealers buy cars at auction and then often only do basic (bandaid-type?) fixes to get the car ready for sale.

csomar 1y ago

Two things in my opinion: Cars are now much more complex than 10-15 years ago. And the secondary market is more expensive. It’d make sense if the discount is big enough but if it is not, you are gambling. New cars require less maintenance and usually come with 1-3 years of warranty.

lelanthran 1y ago
Assertion #1 > And the secondary market is more expensive. Assertion #2 > New cars require less maintenance and usually come with 1-3 years of warranty. The more people who purchase because of Assertion #2, the less true Assertion #1 is going to be. So, yeah, as someone who has only twice purchased new (and regretted the financial hit both times), I actually am in favour of convincing more and more people to strain their finances to buy new, knowing that a lower demand in the secondary market means lower prices for me for the same used car. If more people purchased within their means and bought secondary, I'd be paying a lot more each time I bought a car.
- Moru 1y ago
  Yes, this is very much the case here in Sweden. When people started thinking about environment and second hand became fashion, all the second hand stores suddenly became as expensive as buying new. I have always been buying second hand so I'm a bit miffed.
Hamuko 1y ago
You can get used cars with a warranty too, since a lot of manufacturers have certified pre-owned programs. For example a 2025 Mercedes-Benz C300 is $48,450 but a certified pre-owned 2022 Mercedes-Benz C300 is $32,820, and you get whatever is remaining of the original warranty + 12 months. I'd say that's a pretty decent saving, especially considering that it's still the same model (current generation is 2022 and onwards).

donw 1y ago

I can think of a couple of factors. One, there's a big urban/non-urban split in American culture. The former are far less likely to know anything about working on cars, nor are they likely to have a friend or uncle that can help. That cohort is very over-represented on HN. Second, there's a lot of shady stuff happening in the used car market, and you really do need to be on top of things to not get scammed. We're talking that's absolutely illegal, but also difficult and expensive to enforce, so if you get stuck on the wrong end of a deal, you're just going to eat those costs.

aprilthird2021 1y ago
I don't get this at all. I'm an urban know-nothing about cars. The current car I have I bought online from a private seller. I insisted on taking the car to a 3rd party mechanic for an assessment. Paid for the assessment, then bought the car. It is spending maybe $400-$500 to save potentially over $10000

sgt 1y ago

I don't know.. people have been buying used cars on Craiglist for as long as I can remember.

crinkly 1y ago
This is how I roll. Turn up next to the £100k EVs at the office in my 15 year old turd. I go on holiday 6 times a year for that money. The 15 year old turd seems to go wrong less and cost less to fix when it does as well.
- sgt 1y ago
  For interest's sake, what type of car is this?
  - crinkly 1y ago
    Dacia Duster
    - sgt 1y ago
      O yeah I know it. Good cars I think. Light on fuel. I have a Land Cruiser, not bad but guzzles a bit, getting 15mpg (15.5L/100km)

demarq 1y ago

> round people who were good with their hands, but in my mind buying a used car isn't a scary matter - you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. This has nothing to do with America. The rest of the world has this problem too. Not everyone is a mechanic outside of America.

alex7o 1y ago
Come to eastern Europe, nobody here buys a new car (people can't afford it unfortunately). For that exact reason most people have retained the knowledge of how to buy a used car, and choose one that is not awful, or at least the least bad one.
- laurentiurad 1y ago
  I am originally from EE and there are reports every month on how cars cause accidents because breaks didn't work, or an entire wheel flies out of its place. Not to mention the gazillion cases of accidents caused by improper headlights. The only reason the second-hand market works there is because most of the used cars come from Germany, and they have strict laws for checking the cars periodically. Once they roll on the EE roads for a few years, then the cracks start popping up which cause horrible accidents. Just implying that EE is this amazing place where second-hand cars have no issues and Americans should follow the same model shows that you have no idea what you're talking about.
  - ViewTrick1002 1y ago
    So the issue isn’t second hand cars but a lack of oversight.
    - nradov 1y ago
      It depends on the country but some eastern European countries require an annual car inspection as part of registration. They check for basic stuff to ensure it's not falling apart. Thoroughness varies, and some inspectors can be bribed.

lm28469 1y ago

The average interest rate on used car loans is above 10%, they do buy used, but it's even more of a scam

borispavlovic 1y ago
Buy the car you can afford by paying in cash, or a small enough loan that even 10% will be manageable.
- lm28469 1y ago
  This isn't the American way apparently, do you want to be a True American Patriot or some loser driving a shitbox I still remember the first thing my bank offered me as a student in the US, a credit card, 25%+ apr, give that to a 18 years old clueless kid and you'll set them up for failure. The entire system is setup to make you think these interests rate are normal and that being in debt is a proper lifestyle
nradov 1y ago
It's weird to refer to charging interest on a loan as a "scam". The default rate on used car loans is higher than on new car loans, and interest rates reflect that.
ethbr1 1y ago
If anyone is financing used cars for >10%, they're making the mistake of financing through the seller. It should be a lot lower. E.g. current rates: https://www.penfed.org/auto#cbs https://www.penfed.org/auto#cbs

ReptileMan 1y ago

>But speaking to Americans, they make it sound like this kind of traditional working-class knowledge has been lost? We don't have cars anymore, we have PlayStations with wheels. Even if you are able to properly diagnose the check engine, you may need to disassemble the whole engine just to replace a 20cent sensor inside.

stinkbeetle 1y ago
But you wouldn't buy a car with a check engine warning if you don't know how to read the code or fix it. For the most part you're not really looking for signs of mechanical or electrical faults that will develop, you're looking for signs it has been cared for. Service history, clean interior, tires with decent tread, oil and water levels okay and aren't contaminated, starts up and drives nicely from cold to warm. That's about it. Someone with very little auto mechanic knowledge can do that. Sure an O2 sensor might give out in the next few thousand miles, but you have to allow for some maintenance cost beyond scheduled services for older cars.

Hamuko 1y ago

>you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. And if you can't do this, you've got a cousin or uncle who can. You don't even need to do that. You can just find a mechanic to do a PPI on the car, so they'll check for any issues and read the errors codes to see if there's something funky.

lelanthran 1y ago

> Perhaps it's because I grew up around people who were good with their hands, but in my mind buying a used car isn't a scary matter - you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. And if you can't do this, you've got a cousin or uncle who can. You could do that, sure. Or you could get a respected independent assessor. Here in South Africa we have Dekra (and others) who wil do a test of the car more thoroughly than I can (road test till operating temperature is reached, examination of the car on a lift for chassis damage/signs of repairs, oil leaks, etc, examination of car for signs of accident repair, pulling of DTC, etc). If you go to this place - https://www.webuycars.co.za/buy-a-car/18C404984 https://www.webuycars.co.za/buy-a-car/18C404984 - you'll see a car that looks good for its age on the surface with only a few easily fixable things (tail lights, brakes, etc). But the attached report shows that the chassis is twisted and that there are oil leaks. These two problems are terminal faults that I, even with a background as a mechanic, will not spot because I cannot put the car on a lift when I go to view it. It's not perfect, but at least I don't waste time test driving a car with terminal faults (chassis damage, transmission DTCs or problems, engines without compression, etc). It means when I look for a car, I can dismiss dozens of cars based just on the attached Dekra report, and spend more time examining the remaining ones for faults that Dekra might have missed.

nbadg 1y ago
Additionally, a lot of people who would otherwise be in the used car market for price reasons in the US cannot afford to purchase even a used car outright, and getting financing for cars sold on the private market is, to my knowledge, not really possible.
- fleeting900 1y ago
  You can’t get a loan for a used car in the US? This is pretty common in Australia. All of the banks offer car loans or “personal loans”
- lelanthran 1y ago
  > Additionally, a lot of people who would otherwise be in the used car market for price reasons in the US cannot afford to purchase even a used car outright, and getting financing for cars sold on the private market is, to my knowledge, not really possible. To me, that's the biggest reason for used-car prices to be low - the market is restricted to those who have cash. IME, the prices of cars that cannot be financed (older than 5 years) is severely constrained. I've seen a 5 year old model advertised for exactly twice the price as an almost identical 6 year old model, with similar mileage and similar condition[1]. I find that hard to reconcile with the other posters in this thread who observed that used cars are still too expensive. Maybe they are looking at used-cars that can still be financed (under $X years, for example)? ======================= [1] Condition of both was reported by the same independent assessor - see my posting upthread

Havoc 1y ago

Think people have a general aversion to buying secondhand. You see it in people building home servers too - preference for buying new even if eBay route would yield tangibly better bang per buck.

euroderf 1y ago

> you visit the private seller, you look at the vehicle, you check for the things one needs to check for, and you know if it has problems or not. And if you can't do this, you've got a cousin or uncle who can. I had good luck with taking a used car for a test drive, and (with the knowledge of the seller) dropping it off at a garage and asking a mechanic to spend half an hour checking it over.

Notjoanbaez 1y ago

Could it be that, as we moved most of our consumption online the idea of visiting a dealer, garage or direct-seller, has become unnatural and intimidating ? Suddenly you are confronted with the messy, material and mechanical reality rather than the clean product pages, specifications and marketing pictures.

onecommentman 1y ago

If you’re working a regular job, you need a reliable car in the US. New cars should be, and nowadays are, more reliable than used cars with unknown provenance. Just donated a sedan I bought new 25 years ago that didn’t have a spot of rust and the motor was still great. Desert living… Just didn’t want to chase down exotic material failure modes at that point and wanted the enhanced safety features available on new cars to protect my old body. I don’t own a lift nor an air compressor. I’d feel like a damn fool if I got hurt working on my own old car. Fixing my broken old body would be much more expensive than having a professional with the proper tools repair my old car. Can pass that dealer-maintained car with a clean conscience to someone who has the tools and expertise. Nowadays, you can expect 20-30 years from a new vehicle, properly maintained. Especially in the desert. When you spread that buy-it-new premium over 25 years, it’s worth buying new just to know the exact provenance of the vehicle you’ll be driving over the next quarter century.

blueone 1y ago

[dead]

lylejantzi3rd 1y ago

Used car prices have skyrocketed in the past 10 years. You used to be able to get a decent, reliable car for under $5k. Now that number is closer to $10-15k, which is just as out of reach for most Americans as $30k. If you're going to go into debt anyway, why not buy the new car?

Eddy_Viscosity2 1y ago

The used car market got pretty crazy there for a while due to the covid supply disruptions. 3 year old corrolas with 100k mileage were selling as much as brand new ones! Why? Because you had to wait 9-10 months to get a new one. So a few years ago anybody who needed a car, whether new or used, was paying a lot. A few years later with more inflation in prices and none in wages, its not surprising to see some of these loans start to default.

AnimalMuppet 1y ago
Even before that. "Cash for clunkers" did a number on the used car market.

surgical_fire 1y ago

I don't think I can evaluate a second hand car. I understand very little of cars to measure its state. I can easily be fooled. It's not the maintenance costs that scare me is not being able to rely on the car working when I need it. Before I could afford to buy a new car I just didn't own a car.

Ancapistani 1y ago

If most of your interaction with Americans has been centered around the tech industry, then I can totally see you coming to this conclusion. Tech is largely made up of people from urban areas, who didn't grow up around people who worked on vehicles. Many of those people also don't have extended family outside the cities. That's not everyone, of course, but it's far more common in tech than HVAC for instance. My dad worked as an agriculture teacher for 30 years. He's now retired, and has a 40x120 shop building on his property that I have access to whenever I need it. As a result, I drive a 35-year-old GMC pickup. Before that, I had a 25-year-old Jeep that I'd driven since ~2012. Even with the necessary skills, I had a very difficult time performing basic maintenance on my Jeep when I lived in a city. My apartment complex didn't even allow oil changes on the property, and there were no garages around that I could rent space from. I ended up doing a lot of stuff in the parking lot of the auto parts store near me - from oil changes to replacing the entire rear axle at one point. The police were called on me from passers-by multiple times, to the point that they knew me by name. Bear in mind, that's with the permission of the shop. In short, urban America is fairly hostile to DIY.

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PleasureBot 1y ago

As an alternative I've paid a mechanic I trust (not a cousin or uncle) to inspect a car I was looking to buy. Cost like $75 and I had the peace of mind that I wasn't buying a lemon.

rchaud 1y ago

Covid constrained the supply of new cars, leading used car prices to skyrocket. It's not easy for the average person to evaluate whether a used car from a private seller is in good condition. A Carfax report is thin on details other than its crash history. Cars in good condition sell very fast, so I can understand why people choose to buy a new car that comes with a warranty, especially if they live in a town where cars are necessary to get around.