Quote:
Originally Posted by pylon
The best words of wisdom I heard when I came into the car business is, "You'll never know what your car truly costs, until you dispose of it."
If you pay $25,000 for a car you get $10,000 for in 5 years.
Or $35,000 for a car you get $22,000 for in 5 years.
Which car was really the cheaper one?
There is certainly examples this extreme out there, and even worse. The original sticker is just a small part of the equation. Buy one Korean car in your lifetime, and you will learn this lesson. At least with certain domestics, like full size trucks, you are safe. SUV's and cars? Imports are well worth the price long term.
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Expected time of ownership is also important here. If you are the type to buy a car and drive it into the ground (10+ years and 200k+ km) then cheaper domestics may still come out cheaper... Dropping a car off at the reyclers vs selling it on kijiji to a kid for $2,000 won't make up the $15K difference between some cars.
However, your example certainly holds true for some, shorter-ownership timelines.
I also disagree with a lot of the "imports better than domestic' lines in here that have 2 decades of senility to their logic train. I'll as you - What is the most american made car?
Answer?
The Toyota Camry. Bet you didn't know that.
It has nothing to do with 'domestic / import' but a lot to do with the specific car and where it is produced and it's historical failure rate. People who "only buy toyota because Japanese is t3h win" live by a pretty blind, dated rule. These cars are all made by third party suppliers and the same robots. The failure rates now between most brands is pretty much delta-zero.