Has anyone here considered something older and more interesting?
I know quite a few people that prefer to buy older cars. You really do get the pick of something that would have been completely out of reach new, but now can be extremely affordable. Granted, these sort of cars will cost more to run and maintain, but when you take the deprecation (or lack of) into account, they can make a lot of sense and provide much more fun than a mundane new hatchback.
You'll probably find a lot of enthusiasts will switch from buying a slightly older 'better' model and a newer one depending on what side of the bed they get out of and what their current requirements are. I know a few people who switch between the two and have seen plenty of that type of thing on the forums.
I think, using a sweeping statement which doesn't actually apply to me, that many car sales are done for ease of transaction and removal of as much risk as possible for the buyer.
Typical modern living really.
Walk into dealer, research online, go back to dealer and either complete the transaction when the figures are right or buy online and hey presto a spanking new car is ordered which has known running costs that can be budgeted for easily. I guess that works for a hell of a lot of people and they know they're getting something reliable, not been in a crash and will be fixed if something goes wrong without incurring a lot of excess bills.
Different things suit different people but I think the above is the most applicable to the majority of people that buy new, particularly younger people that live their lives on credit and have only ever known fairly low interest rates.
People in their 60's or older will have lived through different times so tended to save up for what they can afford as they grew up in post war Britain.
People in their 40's to 50's will remember massive interest rates under Thatcher and prior to that massive inflation, power cuts, strikes and other uncertainties so again will be more cautious with their money.
People younger than 40 will generally only know the fairly stage managed politics and banking of today, probably have little savings as property prices in most of the country are ridiculous, will generally have two full time wages coming in and have grown up in the Playstation generation of just live for the day. People are getting MUCH lazier.
