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Buying a new car... Honda or Mercedes

Someone does have to buy them I guess, but I'd rather let some other schmuck take the ass kicking on depreciation. There is no way you can make the argument that it's worth it from a financial standpoint. I can't imagine throwing away $150 a week just for a status symbol. Then people wonder why they have nothing in their retirement accounts. But I digress.
 
A.Nonymous said:
That's what I never understood. If you get a certified used car you pay a lot more than a regular used car, but you get a crappy assembly line mechanic's inspection plus a stealership that you can sue the bejesus out of when the car has problems.
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Fixed that for you.


I bought a certified used Toyota, and it has been a great car, but the certification is just an inspection. They don't generally sink a bunch of money into fixing the problem that a "problem car" has been traded for. I was lucky, but not everyone is. And you definitely pay a premium for the certified stamp on a used car. Senseless. Better to find a trusted mechanic to look over a used car from a reputable stealership. Or better yet get a wholesaler to buy a car at auction for the wholesale price and put some money into making it 100% after the fact. You would still end up on top.

Or just buy new. And suck up the cost.;)
 
A.Nonymous said:
Someone does have to buy them I guess, but I'd rather let some other schmuck take the ass kicking on depreciation. There is no way you can make the argument that it's worth it from a financial standpoint. I can't imagine throwing away $150 a week just for a status symbol. Then people wonder why they have nothing in their retirement accounts. But I digress.
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As long as they are financially stable and as far as I'm concerned (I'm not), people can spend their money any way they like. ;)

I'm personally saving up for an helicopter. :p
 
330D said:
Fixed that for you.


I bought a certified used Toyota, and it has been a great car, but the certification is just an inspection. They don't generally sink a bunch of money into fixing the problem that a "problem car" has been traded for. I was lucky, but not everyone is. And you definitely pay a premium for the certified stamp on a used car. Senseless. Better to find a trusted mechanic to look over a used car from a reputable stealership. Or better yet get a wholesaler to buy a car at auction for the wholesale price and put some money into making it 100% after the fact. You would still end up on top.

Or just buy new. And suck up the cost.;)
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That is just a great big, huge, gigantic cost to pay for no extra reliablity. For the extra cost, you get the right to say you have a brand new car. Do you get more reliability? No. Do you get better service? Not really. A two to three year old car may still be under warranty. The cost of repairs out of pocket is still much less than what you're losing in depreciation. You are paying a buttload of cash just to say that you have a new car. And in a few years, you've got a used car just like everyone else on the road. It's really quite ridiculous no matter how you look at it.

I've owned three used cars and one new car. By far the car that car that gave me the most headaches was the new car. It was a pain in the rear to get fixed and the dealer hassled me for everything even when it was under warranty. I remember they had a recall on the car at one point. I took it in, they told me they would have to keep it over night and flat out refused to give me a rental car. I had to borrow a car, ride my bike and beg rides from co-workers for like a week and had to threaten to sue them before they'd even give me my car back and that was just a recall. That was just the highlight. I had no option to go anywhere else lest I void my warranty too. Ugh. And on top of that, I took a bath in depreciation. Sold the dang car after 4-5 years for half what I bought it for.
 
YMMV.

But I digress. the used cars I have bought were always (excepting the Toyota) someone else's problem.

Sounds like you should have done a better job of shopping the stealerships. Good ones will take care of you. Once you give them an inch, they take a mile. You need to run a hard line from minute one with them.


But not to jack the thread, I won't argue this anymore. Everyone has a different experience, I was just giving my take on the matter. If you buy junk to begin with, you pay for it forever. Know what you are getting into from minute one.
 
As far as comments about certified pre-owned cars, they do come with an extended warranty (generally 3 years if I am not mistaken). THAT is what you are paying extra for. If anything goes wrong, it is covered under manufacturer warranty, like a new car.

As far as going with the Honda or the Mercedes, I would give them each a test drive. The Benz is on the lower end of their models, so I would expect you are getting mostly the same as the $27k accord, but you are paying that much more for the badge. There might be a few bells and whistles, but only you can decide if those bells are $10,000 bells and whistles. As for status symbols? Well, I guess it depends on whether a status symbol is worth it to you as well. There is a reason they charge a premium for the badge...
 
330D said:
YMMV.

But I digress. the used cars I have bought were always (excepting the Toyota) someone else's problem.

Sounds like you should have done a better job of shopping the stealerships. Good ones will take care of you. Once you give them an inch, they take a mile. You need to run a hard line from minute one with them.


But not to jack the thread, I won't argue this anymore. Everyone has a different experience, I was just giving my take on the matter. If you buy junk to begin with, you pay for it forever. Know what you are getting into from minute one.
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I've never bought any of my used cars from a dealership. Two of them were from people I knew. One of them was close to being a dealer. It's a company who buys cars from repo and other wholesale auctions and re-sales them. That's the car I currently have. It's an '05 that I've now had 1.5 years and has 27k on it. It was formerly a rental car, but the rental agency went out of business and the car got repo'd. In the 1.5 years I've had it, I've had no issues with it.

All that being said, people are certainly free to spend whatever they want on a car. I just think it's foolish to pay $150 a week for a status symbol. I'd rather just drive by the homeless shelter and toss $150 out of my window. I think that would be more entertaining.

I'm just mildly amused when I see people buying cars that they end up making payments on and then they lose money in depreciation on top of that then they turn around and don't understand why their portfolios are so meager. (Boy that was a long sentence.) There are people out there who are literally driving their retirement accounts to work every day.
 
TheBrit said:
I don't know how things are in the USA but in the UK it seems to work like this: the Merc is the better car but you will have a better ownership experience with the Honda because the Honda dealers work harder to provide good customer after sales service.
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Some of the reasons I got rid of my Merc was the terrible attitude of the dealer, poor quality issues and a bottomless pit when it came to charges. I now have an AUDI A4, beautifully put together (favourite of the Royal family it seems) , very reliable and great to drive. I do have it serviced by an independent dealer rather than a main one, which according to the on board computer only needs to happen every two years.
 
the new audis are very sexy.

but my parents are not familiar with that brand.. so they will not consider it. none of their friends have one.
 
Audi FTW. My sister has an 06 A4 and it is an amazing car. But, they are one of the most expensive cars to fix, and to maintain. They are not for the faint of heart LOL. And if they do choose that route, make sure you have a repair shop that knows how to work on them and is honest. I would not recommend using the dealership for repairs. A good enthusiast (tuner) shop will be better and cheaper than any dealer for maintenance. (In my experience...)

If they want sport and style, Audi is second to none. The Quattro system was banned from rally racing at one point because they were unbeatable. They are bleeding edge as far as technology. If you have real winters where you live an Audi will pay dividends.

I read that it is not an option, but they are superb cars, and your parents should at least drive one, and see...

As far as maintenance on an Audi, DO NOT SKIP service intervals.
 
audi is an awesome car.. when everything is fine.

once you have an issue.. they are more pain in the ass to work on.
designed like a big as puzzle. so many parts are inter locked with other parts, so that it is a bitch to do a simple task to replace things.

this of course helps in rigid body... but they just take it too far!!!
 
update:... they went with Mercedes.. because it is more fitting to their age. (my parents words)


details: Parkplace Mercedes in Bedford Texas
C330 with 18miles
MSRP: 37,700
invoice: 35,700 (confirmed with their paperwork and my internet)
purchase: 35,500 +TTL = $37,500
2.5hrs at dealership.. not bad experience

they are happy.. but I wish they gave BMW a chance.

thanks guys for the advice.
 
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