How to Reduce New Car Depreciation

The easiest way to buy a used car is to buy a new one right out of the showroom, and then just drive it off the lot. Presto! Instant used car. There are few major purchases that suffer depreciation as readily as a new car – and it starts right away. Why do we put up with it? Mostly because it can be difficult to find a used car that’s in top condition, without hidden troubles, and without the new car price. Few of us have the mechanical skills to evaluate a used car in this manner, let alone the free time required to find one. We accept new car depreciation as an indirect but significant cost of buying a car we can trust to run reliably. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Tough Automotive is here to change the whole picture. As Australia’s long-established car wholesaler, we’ve built our success on great service and great pricing, operating with honesty and transparency to supply our customers with the excellent pre-owned cars they need – from a daily driver to a whole fleet. Contact us today on 13002TOUGH or reach out online.

All About New Car Depreciation

What Can You Do?

The way most people think of retaining value in a newly purchased car is to wash it and change the oil regularly, keep it in a garage or carport out of sun and rain, never smoke inside it, drive carefully to avoid accidents and body damage, and maybe park way across the lot at the store to hopefully avoid door dings. These are all good things to do, and they help a car hold its value – but even taken together they don’t begin to address the hidden losses due to new car depreciation. The highly effective answer to that is a great preowned car.

How Do You Want to Do This?

That should probably be your first question. The traditional way to shop for a car often involves spending your free time sorting through the ads, driving to check out disappointing prospects, dealing with dodgy sellers – and then if you find what you want, if it happens to be with a private seller there’s the issue of safely paying a large amount of money to a complete stranger. We all know the story. When you consider the true open-ended costs in time and cash that come with a personal search like this, it becomes highly attractive to consider engaging professionals to do it on your behalf.

It Looks Nice, But…

Shiny paint and a spritz of “new car smell” inside can hide a multitude of troubles. Exact colour-matched paints are widely available for virtually any finish you might see on a car. Many private sellers, who make a lucrative side hustle of flipping cars, have become quite skilled in spot-painting to hide sun damage, rust, and body rash. There is nothing wrong with making a car look nicer, but how willing is the seller to disclose the repair?

When the rust bubbles back out, or the touch-up paint fades a little differently than the rest of the car, the loss of resale value can be worse than new car depreciation. The same applies to mechanical issues – with the ever-higher cost of OEM-quality replacement parts, there is an incentive for a private seller to skimp on that cost with less durable lookalike parts, even when they may do a decent job of the repair. Again – how will you know?

How Professionals Do It

Professional car wholesalers and resellers have access to a country-wide and even global network of business-level sources for vehicles of all kinds. There is a constant and very large supply of legitimate, vetted pre-owned vehicles available to registered firms that deal in this all the time. These vehicles are not directly available to the general public – so if you don’t work with the pros to find your car, you have a much smaller chance of finding it at all. More people should know about this.

The Best Way to Reduce New Car Depreciation

The best way, and really the only effective way, is not to purchase new in the first place. If you are quite knowledgeable about cars and the preowned market, you can probably do pretty well finding something suitable on your own. However, if you’re like most of us, you will be much more satisfied with results by engaging with a reliable reseller. Finding one can be a challenge. Generally bigger is better – the volume resellers have little incentive to squeeze every dollar out of each sale, and they look forward to your repeat business and referrals, so customer service is a priority with them.

Another way to beat depreciation is with a car subscription, as depreciation is considered in the price of the subscription. At the end of your subscription, you trade in the car you have been driving for a new one and avoid the issue of selling your car for significantly less than you paid for it. Your best overall prospect is with professional subscription service or reseller who do a significant volume and can locate the car you want nationwide.

Tough Automotive Will Make it Happen

Tell us the car you want and let us do the rest. We’ll use our extensive network to locate that car, and we’ll negotiate the best price. All the vehicles we sell are thoroughly checked and inspected – so if we offer it to you, you’ll know you’re getting first-class value. You can also depend on us for a car subscription Brisbane wide or anywhere in the country. Reach out to us on 13002TOUGH or contact us online. Letting the pros do the legwork really is the better way.