[Huck]

Well, for those of us who never buy new cars, this is good news. My '91 Mercury Capri XR2 has 148K miles on it. I hope to have it for a while longer, but sooner or later I'll have to replace it. Nice to know there will be plenty of used cars to choose from at good prices.

[Alberta's Child]

Interesting article, though I'm not sure how many people who purchase new vehicles give much thought to the vehicles resale value (except as an indication of the vehicle's potential longevity).

[TontoKowalski]

Interesting analysis, not sure if I understand all of it, though. I need to study it more.

However, one thing is for sure. For buyers like me, who intend to own the same care for 20 years or so, it's a good deal.

I've got an 88 Volvo that just keeps on ticking. Body is getting a little beat up now, but I don't care. I intend to drive it till the wheels fall off.

When getting our mini-van in 98, I told the wife to be sure of what she wanted, because she'd be driving it for 20 years. We got the Toyota Sienna.

I hate a car-note worse than anyone else in the world.

[Flyer]

Yep, you're upside down as soon as you drive off the lot.

---

[Damocles]

Goodie. I'm looking for a good used minivan right now. I guess I can beat the price down a little more during negotiations now.

[miyamoto]

Not a reason to get mad at 0% deals or to lobby against them.

Whatever bad decisions in auto buying you've already made is "sunk cost" and from now on we have to be smart consumers and armed with this information from this article if one wants to optimize his/her "auto purchasing power" one should keep what's still working and buy only what we need.

[Larry Lucido]

So, low retail prices are resulting in low resale prices. Guess we will now need government price supports for used cars sellers, for the children of course.

[RightField]

After 35 years of car ownership, it seems that there is no way to ever profit from the experience. At best, you just hope to pay a reasonable price for transportation.

We never buy new cars anyway. Usually, we go for the very late model lease returns, and then drive them until they die. Case in point ... We just got rid of a 1992 Explorer which had 198,000 miles on it, and was becoming unsafe to drive. We replaced it with a lease-return 2001 Expedition, loaded with everything except leather seats, for $23,500. We'll probably drive it for 8-10 years and then repeat the process.

[mewzilla]

We never resell our cars. We drive'em till they fall apart. We've got 190,000 on one right now, it's ten years old, with only a starter, alternator and head gasket repairs on it. Why keep buying new/er cars?

[Phantom Lord]

One case in point is the 2000 Ford Taurus SE, which had a sticker price of $19,440 but now is worth only about $8,300.

One of major reasons that Fords values drop like bombs is that they are the largest "Fleet" vehicles out there. Especially the Taurus. Ford always advertised the Taurus as the "Best selling car in America." But if you removed the sales to "Fleets" the Taurus wasnt even in the Top 10 in sales. And fleets are rapid turnover leases, that flood the market and auto auctions.

The Ford Exploder, I mean Explorer is another whose value drops like a bomb. When I was selling cars all of the salesman would run and hide when someone pulled up in an Exploder. We knew they were so far upside down that there was no way they could trade out of it.

Saturns were cars we were torn on. The value was nothing and thus hard to trade out of, but the owner always wanted the hell out of it, and fast.

[Aquinasfan]

The sport-utility vehicle's average two-year-old 2000 model has lost 48% of its value

Crazy to buy new. Then again, I hope not to be in the market for a while. My '89 Toyota pick-up is still going strong at 150k. Doesn't burn a drop of oil between changes. I'm hoping to get five more years of "free" driving thanks to the good people of Bondo. 8-) Hate to put money into a depreciating asset.

[Wolfie]

Right, as opposed to the huge ROI you got on a new car before 0% financing.

[Hacksaw]

By the time I am done driving my cars they have over 100K on them, so I don't exepect to get much out of them anyway.

[Mr. K]

This article is true (but with an idiotic title). A freind of mine was recenlty searchihg for a car- I told her to look for a one or two year old used vehicle instead- she got the car she wanted, like new, with less than 20K miles on it (nothing nowadays) and saved $12,000.

I won't tell you how she thanked me for the advice but it was worth it. 8)

[Poohbah]

Someone told me, straight-faced, that a car was an "investment."

I asked him how many investment instruments he bought KNOWING that they would decline in value.

[eleni121]

One of our cars is a 1987 Nissan Pathfinder - the first year they came out. It has about 200 thousand miles on it and is still chugging along fine with repairs of course. Funny thing: its value seems to be holding steady or rising as it gets older. Anybody know why?

On the other hand we got rid of a 1997 Ford Expedition a couple years ago. Bought it at about 30,000 thou and could only get about 16,500 from the wholesaler 3 years later. Never again!

[Salgak]

For those who feel driven to buy a new car every few years, it's a problem. For those of us who buy a car, drive it until it dies, and donate the corpse of the car to charity, what's the big deal?? A car isn't an INVESTMENT, it's a UTILITY. . .

[js1138]

Doesn't bother me. I drive 'em 'till they drop. My youngest has 150k.

[Vic3O3]

So, just drive it until it's paid off! (happily still driving a 12+yr old Chevy C/K1500 p.u.!)

[HamiltonJay]

I think this guy is overstating something that was true even before the 0%. Used cars lose between 1/3 to 1/2 of their retail in the first 2 years of ownership... trade in is nearly always about 1/2 of retail 2 years down the line unless very low mileage and pristine. This happens regardless of 0% or not. Comparing what a dealer will pay you trade in (wholesale) against a sticker price (retail) is a ludicrous comparison to begin with.

I buy houses at anywhere from 25-60% of their retail value, and fix and mark them up to make a nice profit, car dealers do the same thing, only generally with not quite so much of a swing. My brother is a wholesaler, he sells things for as little as 25% of their retail price at times routinely... comparing trade in to retail is insane.

Also, he is blaming glut of 2 year old cars on 0% financing, there has been a glut of 2 year old cars available for years thanks to short term leasing and rental car companies rolling over their fleets every 2-3 years... and guess what cars generally make up most of those fleets? That's right Detroit models.