Hertz partners with Amazon to sell used cars
The company announced it will sell used cars through Amazon Auto, the e-commerce giant’s auto marketplace.
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When considering whether to buy a new car or repair your current vehicle, for most of us it simply comes down to money and money.
That’s the decision this reporter faced earlier this year when he chose to spend the money and install a remanufactured engine in his 2010 Ford Fusion with a three-year warranty, rather than buying a new car. The cost of the engine was just over $7,900, including labor and additional work done at the time.
So far, this decision seems to be the right one. After all, the price of a new car remains a challenge for many consumers. According to Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for a new car in July was $48,841.
Sean Tucker, managing editor at Kelley Blue Book, offers some simple advice:
“Lean towards fixing the old.”
It’s not just the total cost that matters, but the average monthly payment, which was $756 in the second quarter of this year, according to Edmunds.com.
“Currently, you pay $9,000 a year in car payments. … That’s a ton of money for new shocks and belts,” Tucker said, referring to the general maintenance costs of keeping a car running.
Given the long lifespans of today’s vehicles, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to continue to be around, especially when you consider that the average age of a vehicle on the roads in this country is nearly 13 years.
Of course, sometimes these repairs can be problematic.
“If the annual cost of keeping your car running exceeds its value, you may want to consider a new car,” said Joseph Yun, consumer insights analyst at Edmunds.
He said cars that are 15 years old will likely have more problems needing repair, noting that the longer it takes to repair a car means the wheels may come off for a while.
Newer vehicles also come with new or updated features that older vehicles may lack. plus. It smells like a new car.
However, many owners who have owned a car for a long time tend to be attached to it.
“If you go into an area like that, who am I to tell you how much you should spend (to maintain operations)?” Ms. Yun said.
Both Yun and Tucker said it’s a tough market for car buyers, with prices and interest rates remaining high.
Unless the car you’re driving is in such bad condition that it doesn’t make sense to keep it, Yun said, “be nice to your mechanic and don’t try to get a deal that might not exist.”
Another consideration, Yun said, is the additional cost of insurance, which means it’s more expensive to insure a new car than an old one.
But leasing a new car is another option, considering that lease payments are generally lower than what you would pay for a new car.
Mr. Yoon chose this option more than ten years ago when his 1998 Lexus GS, which had 189,000 miles on the clock, needed an expensive repair that was beyond the norm at the time. He believed monthly lease payments were more manageable than paying thousands of dollars in additional repairs to keep the car long-term. He used the trade-in to pay for the lease.
However, ultimately it is a personal decision.
“Only you know your finances,” Tucker said, noting that it’s generally best to stay out of debt for as long as possible.
Contact Eric D. Lawrence at elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
