With the value of cars depreciating so quickly, buying a used car makes sense to get a good value for your money. Let’s share our exprience about the Pros and Cons of buying used cars.

Advantages :  Second-hand cars are not necessarily second-rate. Used cars offer good value for money. This is especially so for relatively new models. Nearly new cars are thousands of dollars cheaper than the same car available at a new car dealer. Cars typically lose about 45 percent of their value in the first three years, compared with 25 percent over the next three.

And ironically, used cars can be more reliable than new cars. As most cars will have teething problems in the first few years, used cars will have had these problems sorted out and still offer years of reliable motoring.  Today’s cars if proprly maintained can easily go webeyond 120,000 km and many vehicles can even go past 240,000 km without having a major failure.

Also, a used car’s value will not go down as rapidly as a new one’s. Those who buy new cars suffer the biggest hit in depreciation. Also used cars can make luxury affordable. For the price of a very small new car, you can buy a much luxurious used vehicle with myriad of features.

Disadvantages: You must be however careful in buying a used car. There is always the risk that you’ll buy a worthless car. To minimize this risk, you must check if the vehicle was  abused by its previous owner or had any serious damages which are not disclosed. A thorough inspection of the car by a qualified mechanic can usually detect most such problems. Our team of qualified mechanics makes sure that the cars we sell are of very high quality.

There is another risk that the car may be a stolen or crash-damaged one, or has finance owing on it. There is also the risk of cloaking where the dealers wipe miles off from the car’s mileometer. Legal protection is also very limited when buying a car privately from a member of the public. At Shiotsu Autotrade we check all the paperwork and we have a reliable network of dealers, so you will not face these risks when buying a used car from us. 

As used cars are not covered by warranty, owners will have take care of repair costs from their own pocket. Most expenses, however, will often be for replacing high wear parts such as brakes, tires, or a battery - that are normally not covered under a warranty. if you consider the overall savings from buying a second-hand car, the cost of replacing such items would still be relatively low.

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