Used or new car

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Used or new car

Postby Presto on Sun Oct 04, 2009 4:15 am

I am on a 3 years posting to a country in Central America and the price for brand new car is close to price in Dubai.

I am currently looking for a car here. With the lesson I learned in Dubai, resale value is an important factor in this buying decision.

I am tempted to buy a new car because I do not know how to assess an old car and is worried about the issues with buying a used car. However given I am only here for 3 years and the road conditions and driving habits are worse than Dubai, I am thinking of buying a used car.

Option 1
If I get Toyota RAV 4 which is about 4 years old, the mileage is about 100K KM.
The environment here is different from Dubai because there are not many expats here and people do not sell their cars because they are leaving the country. It is a popluar brand here.

Option 2
If I get a new car, I am looking at Hyundai Tucson. It is also quite popular here.

I need to get an SUV because the roads here are flooded pretty often.

I would appreciate some advice.
Thank you.
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Re: Used or new car

Postby root on Sun Oct 04, 2009 8:40 am

First question...where in central america? Its kind of a big area with many countries.

Secondly, you need to ask yourself what are popular brands in that country? You can normally judge that pretty easily by seeing what cars are popular, or picking up a classifieds over there.

Both options you mention say that they are popular brands. I would tend to go for something newer (option 2) than older (option 1 has 100k on it). Quality wise Hyundai is pretty good these days.
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Re: Used or new car

Postby Presto on Sun Oct 04, 2009 4:54 pm

Thanks for the reply.
I am in Panama.

From a dollar perspective, a new Hyundai Tucson is AED 63k, a new RAV4 is AED 92k and the 2nd hand one I am looking at is AED 36K. Although there is no apple to apple comparison on the specifications, because Tucson is a 2.0L and RAV4 is 2.4L. My concern is the reliability of the car. Therefore I should take a new car for the ease of mind. If the resale value of the car upon my exit 3 years later is 50% of the purchase price, I will lose AED 31K, AED 46k and AED 18K respectively under the 3 scenarios.

There is a lot of nails and screws on the road arising from the on going construction projects. As such the risk of tyres getting punctured is high. I was given the advise to get new tyres for safety reason. Besides reducing risk of skidding, new tyres wil also get punctured too or is old tyres more prone to getting punctured because the rubber is softer?

Thank you very much.
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Re: Used or new car

Postby T.N.T on Sun Oct 04, 2009 6:49 pm

Get the used Rav4, you are not going to spend much time there so no need to invest in anything more expensive.
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Re: Used or new car

Postby root on Mon Oct 05, 2009 9:10 am

Wow, Panama..that's supposed to be the Dubai of the Americas these days!

If you get Rav4 in good condition then TNTs suggestion aint bad. The Toyota SUVs are good for many years if not abused. There is however a 2.7l Tucson out this year - I guess it'll cost more.

My suggestion would be to go with a slightly used (like one year) car. That way you dont lose 50% off what you paid, and still have a fairly new vehicle under warranty. This goes for both the Rav4 and Tucson choice.

Aren't American jeeps and SUVs popular there? I would have thought so. The Jeep Wrangler should be a nice choice with the weather there - easier to carry the surfboard as well. Or is it a security hazard with a soft-top?
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