When will be the right time to get back to buying new cars? When will the fact that the lack of new car buyers and therefore a drying up of saleable stock filter down to the nearly new sector, push up prices and drive people back into the arms of the new car salesman?
We’ll be keeping an eye on this phenomenon and with this in mind we decided to carry out an experiment. We took 10 new cars at random, varying from small and economical to sporty convertible and looked at the manufacturers list price against the best deals advertised for a brand new model (no pre-registered cars). We then took that analysis and compared it to the prices of a nearly new example of each of our chosen cars; less than 1 year old and under 10,000 miles on the clock.
It is easy to get caught up in the perception that buying new is a no longer a viable option and not actually do the comparison.
You can see from our list of cars that although there are some great deals being offered on new cars, nearly new just gets the nod. However if you are looking at a small economical choice, as in the case with our Fiat Panda (and probably more than a few others in this sector) the saving is obviously much less (or non-existent on the sale price in the case of the Panda!) and when you factor in that you get to choose the colour and model and have a brand new car which will be worth similar to your 08 example in 3 years time, then the decision would appear to be an easy one. However If you are looking at larger family cars like our 407 or Vectra for example then a year old example has still got to be the answer.
We will be looking at more examples in the coming weeks and months just to keep right up to date with what is really going on and how car makers and dealers look to incentivise and entice buyers back to purchasing new cars and not just relying on the headlines!
Deals on new cars:
| Make | Model | RRP | Sale | Saving | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Fiat | Panda 1.2 Dynamic | £7,605 | £5,100 | £2,505 |
 | Vauxhaul | Corsa 1.0 Life | £9,170 | £6,989 | £2,181 |
 | Suzuki | Jimny JLX + 1.3 VVT | £11,010 | £8,950 | £2,060 |
 | Ford | C-Max 1.6 Studio | £14,590 | £11,507 | £3,083 |
 | Vauxhaul | Vectra 1.8 VVt Exclusiv | £15,589 | £10,495 | £5,094 |
 | LandRover | Freelander 2.2 TD4 S | £20,877 | £18,578 | £2,299 |
 | Peugeot | 407 HDI 1.6S | £17,845 | £13,890 | £3,955 |
 | VW | Touran 1.9TDI S | £16,305 | £13,263 | £3,042 |
 | Lexus | IS 220D SE | £22,010 | £19,796 | £2,214 |
 | BMW | 320i SE Convertable | £30,660 | £27,495 | £3,165 |
| Make | Model | Trade Guide | Sale | Saving on New | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiat | Panda 1.2 Dynamic | £4,000 | £5,490 | £2,115 |
| Vauxhaul | Corsa 1.0 Life | £5,300 | £5,606 | £3,564 |
| Suzuki | Jimny JLX + 1.3 VVT | £5,300 | £5,899 | £5,111 |
| Ford | C-Max 1.6 Studio | £6,400 | £8,495 | £6,095 |
| Vauxhaul | Vectra 1.8 VVt Exclusiv | £6,000 | £7,995 | £7,594 |
| LandRover | Freelander 2.2 TD4 S | £13,500 | £15,685 | £5,192 |
| Peugeot | 407 HDI 1.6S | £7,000 | £8,999 | £8,846 |
| VW | Touran 1.9TDI S | £9,700 | £11,285 | £5,020 |
| Lexus | IS 220D SE | £14,800 | £16,990 | £5,020 |
| BMW | 320i SE Convertable | £20,100 | £24,995 | £5,665 |
Most commented