Which is better: a cheap new car, or a better-quality used one?
Our expert recommends a used Toyota Aygo X as a cheaper alternative to the new Dacia Sandero - Richard Parsons
Dear Alex,
We are in our seventies, drive about 5,000 miles a year and hope to do so for a few more years. We have sufficient funds to buy a new small Dacia. But would it be more advisable to buy a better quality used car instead?
– IG
Dear IG,
If we’re talking purely objectively, with nothing but the financial aspects in mind, then it makes far more sense to buy a nearly new car, say a year or two old, than to buy one brand new.
That way you don’t have to stomach the huge depreciation that always occurs in the first year of a car’s life – typically between 15 and 35 per cent of its list price.
It’s true that buying new gets you a full warranty – of three years, or up to 60,000 miles, in Dacia’s case. But by choosing a used car from a brand that offers a longer-than-average warranty, you’ll get the balance of that warranty left over, offering you as much if not more peace of mind as you’d get with a new Dacia.
The trouble is, buying a car isn’t purely an objective decision. If what you really want is a seat that nobody else has sat in, a gearbox that nobody has yet crunched, your choice of colour and specification, and a car with its whole life ahead, then the heady thrill of a brand spanking new car might be worth the significant cost of its first-year depreciation. Just make sure you go into it aware of that cost
If you deem it to be too much, there are some good used options. For the same price as the most basic new Dacia Sandero, for example, you can get a nearly new Hyundai i20 – similarly sized with a bit more equipment and a punchy turbocharged engine. I found a 2022 example with 23,000 miles for £12,530; it will have three years of Hyundai’s five-year unlimited mileage remaining.
Or how about a Toyota Aygo X? It’s slightly smaller than a Sandero, but I found a 2023 1.0 VVT-i Pure with 5,000 miles – practically a new car, without the depreciation hit – for £13,000. The best part is that if you use a Toyota dealer for servicing, you could keep this car in warranty until 2033.
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