Who the hell is buying new cars?

Sales in February are up 33% on February last year. The actual number of cars remains tiny, but still, up is up. I've never understood the new car mindset and - unless I win big on the lottery of course - I'll never, ever buy a new one. It's sheer idiocy and I'm sure I don't need to explain why. So, I guess I have two questions:

1. Are people really so gullible they'll fall for a "scrappage scheme" that still has a bog standard Opel Corsa at 11 grand? 11 grand ffs! For a Corsa!
2. Where the hell are these people getting the money? Do they really believe that the recession is over? Is it not gullible they are at all, are they just plain thick?

adam

A guy I know gets a new car every year. The dereciation on his trade in is less than the interest on most car loans.

Some people will always have money adam. if they want to send it on cars, good luck to them

I bought a new car last October. The way I look at it, I'm only going to buy two or three new cars in my entire life. I was 25 when I bought the car, a 2009 Honda Civic, brand new, and I hope to drive it until I'm 45. My last car was a 1986 Honda Civic. I figure that it'll be cheaper in the long run to buy a new car and maintain it properly myself than buy ten to fifteen year old cars and fix them up along the way, which is what I've been doing for the past seven years, when I started driving.

everyone knows the reasons we shouldnt buy a new car but its a good feeling and something i think everyone who can do should do at least once. I bought brand new a year and a half ago. Im with CR on this one.

We'll be buying new when the car is eligible - no one's taking trade in's against second hand cars, or giving you peanuts (which is all you'd get with a private sale). If it was staying the car would need a good bit of work on it (timing belt etc coming due).

Loan will be from the credit union, as always. Part of the aim will be to reduce the running costs by getting an A rated car for the tax, and fuel efficiency, and a few years of low maintenance to get us over the hump. It's the "second" car, so while we might not be aiming for 20 years out of it, but we'll be looking for it to do another 10 years at least.

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Originally Posted by Macy

no one's taking trade ins against second hand cars

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Not true; the motor industry is screaming out for (good quality in particular) trade-ins. There's no cars to sell out there at the moment because people aren't trading in.

"Giving you peanuts", as you say, may be happening too, but the value of used cars dropped across the board with the VRT changes. Cars are cheaper to buy now, but that cuts both ways.

I don't understand this "It's a good feeling to buy a new car" milarky, but I suppose that's just my approach to money.

On the increase in general, I have a notion that fleet and hire companies took it easy last year with new cars, but are replacing more this year, which is helping put figures up. I know a couple of people who replace their cars every 3 or 4 years and were due to replace last year, but who skipped that and replaced this year instead. In that case, you'd imagine next year will be down again, all other things being equal. But there's still less than 10000 new cars in Dublin this year I think, which is about a third of what you used to have at this time of year, so the industry's still fecked.

Same here. You can buy "new car smell" air freshener like! :)

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Not true; the motor industry is screaming out for (good quality in particular) trade-ins. There's no cars to sell out there at the moment because people aren't trading in.

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For cars that are at, or coming up to, the scrappage age? Wouldn't be my experience, last year. Must admit I haven't tried recently as making sure we get the low motor tax rate and efficient car more of an issue now.

Not sure about older stuff (hence qualifying by saying "good quality"), but I think my post still holds there too.

I know last year a fair few of dealers suddenly had way too much stock and were making big losses on them, so to stay liquid, they had to reduce their stock quite a bit. Now stock levels are manageable, but no-one's selling any cars, so there's no cars to sell.

Yer man who won the Irish Apprentice must be some salesman;)

Next to no one was buying last year. I'm sure that means that there are more people who have strong reasons to buy this year - the cars people got one more year out of need a lot of work or have failed NCTs or whatever. With such a small baseline, that makes a big difference.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

I don't understand this "It's a good feeling to buy a new car" milarky, but I suppose that's just my approach to money..

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I understand why people are reluctant to buy new cars but i couldnt get a loan for a used car when i got here and surprisingly i got one more easily for a new car a while later. And trust me, driving the car out of the shop was a nice feeling despite the fact that it lost a quarter of its value when i did so. But Stu, i suppose you would need to have actually bought a new car in the first place to understand the "malarkey", something im guessing you havent done.

Im just glad it wasnt a Toyota i bought... :)

out of interest, does the government there have any incentives for purchasing fuel efficient/hybrid cars??

Surely you need people buying new cars in order to ever have second hand cars. New cars have to exist for 2nd hand cars to come on the market. So while you made describe it as stupidity, that stupidity allows you to go and buy a decent car 2nd hand.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

out of interest, does the government there have any incentives for purchasing fuel efficient/hybrid cars??

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lower emission cars have lower car tax, there was talk of dropping VRT for any new hybrids bought, but I don't think it ever came in.

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Originally Posted by NeilMcD

Surely you need people buying new cars in order to ever have second hand cars. New cars have to exist for 2nd hand cars to come on the market. So while you made describe it as stupidity, that stupidity allows you to go and buy a decent car 2nd hand.

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That's why there's so many used imports at the moment. Garages are importing cars from England to replace the 09-Ds and 08-Ds that they're not getting from trade ins. Apparently, when the speed limits changed, pre 2005 cars (still in miles) lost a couple of grand overnight. Now there's so many imports that it doesn't really matter any more whether your car's calibrated in miles or km.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

And trust me, driving the car out of the shop was a nice feeling despite the fact that it lost a quarter of its value when i did so.

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I think I can find better ways of spending thousands, to be honest. I have a (5-year-old) car, it goes where I want it, the end as far as I'm concerned. Don't understand the concept of cars as a social show-off good. And I work in the motor industry, and have never been tempted by all the nice new cars sitting right in front of me.

I've always been far more tempted by a 10 year old luxobarge or supersaloon - that cost 100k and now sells for 10k - than a shiny euro/jap yawn-on-wheels. Never got it. Myself and my wife actually point and laugh when '10 Micras go by. I mean, why?

NeilMcD's point is of course a truism - like, duh - but I didn't ask people to stop. I just don't get it.

Some people buy second hand clothers, some buy designer clothes...

Just because you don't enjoy the idea of a new car, surely you can accept that others will

I didn't say I don't accept it (as retarded, obviously), I said I didn't get it. Right there above your own post.

(Designer clothes are retarded too. Most of them even look retarded. And the opposite of designer clothes isn't second-hand.)

I was responding to pineapple, not yourself adam (I got delayed before posting it)

The point I was making is that people make different choices based on what they want. Some want new things, others want value for money and functionality. Not too much to "get" really

There's taste and there's flushing money down the toilet.