TAKE care when you see huge discounts being offered against the price of new cars.
You could well discover that the offer isn’t quite as you may think.
The new car experts say there are huge discounts available from brokers of as much as £4,000 on some cars.
I don’t think that’s true – I think the average saving is around £2,500, about £1,000 less than typical first year depreciation.
To underline the point, I recently discovered that some new car brokers are not actually offering the really massive discounts on new cars at all - but instead are offering the deals on pre-registered models.
“Pre-reg” is a euphemism for the dealer registering the car in their name, effectively buying it, making them the first owner. So really it’s a used car, with you as the second owner, albeit with less than 100 miles on the clock in most cases.
That means when you sell it on, the next buyer is actually the third owner and that can put off potential customers.
Also, like all used cars, you can’t choose the precise specification you want with pre-reg cars.
So with that in mind I still think you will be better off buying a ‘proper’ used car.
If you shop around on UsedCarExpert.co.uk for a six to 12 month old car, the condition will be almost exactly the same as the pre-reg but all of the first year’s depreciation will be gone.
For example a Mazda6 2.0 TS has a list price of around £19,000. A genuine new car via one of the discount brokers on NewCarExpert.co.uk is about £16,500.
A pre-reg car I found via NewCarExpert.co.uk which has 25 miles on the clock is £14,900 whereas a used version from 2009 is on UsedCarExpert.co.uk for £13,995 with just 9,180 miles.
For my money, the used car is the better deal as it will lose less money. But if you really want a car that is ‘just so’ then I would buy a new one via a broker for £16,500.