Money is the object, obviously. According to Consumer Reports there is a possible cost savings upward of 32% buying a used vehicle in the first five years instead of new.
Overall, depreciation plays the biggest role in used vehicle savings. It has been explained that 45% of depreciation comes within the first five years, the biggest depreciation coming within the first 12 months of a new car purchase.
Consumer Reports estimated that, assuming gas is $4/gallon, a consumer could pay for fuel for roughly 5 years with the savings accrued from used car buying, and have approximately $2500 remaining.
You do the math. What’s more affordable?
One word could describe the most obvious.
Duh.
GAS MILEAGE ENLIGHTENMENT
When considering gas mileage, there’s more to the story than meets the mind. Gallons per mile is really the true way to figure the cost of operating your vehicle. Most people, when questioned, seem to be unaware that miles per gallon is sometimes misleading when calculating operating costs. For instance, when questioned about the greater savings on 10,000 miles of operation, at a gain of 34 mpg to 50 mpg, versus 18 mpg to 28 mpg, most people said the greater savings would be on 34 mpg to 50 mpg. Actually, jumping from 18 mpg to 28 mpg saves twice as much gas (198 gallons), versus improving from 34 mpg to 50 mpg (94 gallons). You see, 18 mpg changes to 5.5 gallons per 100 miles and 28 mpg becomes 3.6 gallons per 100 miles. At today’s prices that would save the consumer $6.65 on a 100 mile trip. In 10,000 miles that would become $665.00. On the other hand, the 34 mpg to 50 mpg example would only save $3.29 in 100 miles, and $329.00 in 10,000 miles.
So, you see, some of the panicky trading and bailing out attempts to lower the expenditures for gasoline, are not very wise decisions when examining the complete picture. WOW!
