New CR-V or certified pre-owned

[Anonymous]

DH and I need a new car and have decided on a Honda CR-V. Now we're trying to decide what makes more sense: a new car (most likely we will wait until the 2020s come out and will buy a 2019) or a certified pre-owned coming off a three year lease. I was thinking a new car would make more sense because these cars are meant to last a long time so might as well just buy a new one and drive it for a decade. I also didn't think there would be much inventory of CR-Vs coming off three year leases with low mileage. But of course a used car would be less expensive.

It has been a long time since either of us have bought cars so there are probably lots of things we are not considering - would love some advice!

[Anonymous]

I personally think when buying Honda/Toyota, it's not worth buying a few years used if you're planning to keep the car for the duration. The price reduction of a few thousand isn't enough to justify the three years of lost use/little maintenance cost on the front end. Plus I would be very reluctant to buy off of lease because the car likely hasn't been well cared for by the owner.

[Anonymous]

When I was looking for used CR-Vs a few years ago, I found one online that was only a couple thousand less than a new one, without all the safety features I was able to get on my new one.

[Anonymous]

It depends on how much less but you will find, it’s not as much of savings as you hope. I’d go with a new but try to find a real good deal.

[Anonymous]

Do you have cash or do you need to finance? Rates on used cars can be much higher than new cars even if you have great credit.

[Anonymous]

Just buy new. Hondas don’t depreciate in value fast enough to make buying lightly used worth it.

[Anonymous]

Looked at this a few years ago. It had been drilled into me since a young age you always buy used and let someone else take the initial depreciation.

The math didn't make sense on the CRV. The couple year old ones were only like 3k-4k less than a brand new one, and the used inventory was fairly limited (was certain trim lines I wanted). Also, the safety and technology features change pretty quickly in these cars, so I wasn't willing to get one older than 2 years based on the features available.

I got my 2016 CRV new and have no regrets. Still love it 3 years later and easily expect I'll have it 10+ years. I think I paid around 30k all in and I could sell it easily today for 24k. The difference was affordable and worth it for my situation. I actually did have a big emotional hurdle to get over though, I felt really distressed at the idea of buying a new car but the old advice doesn't always work.

[Anonymous]

We got a used CRV and paid @ 19K. That’s a lot less than $30K. To state the obvious. Very happy with ours. We live in the city and car gets scratched up, so I’m extra glad we didn’t get the new one. ANd we got some “extras” at the price we paid (rims, sunroof, etc.).

[Anonymous]

We got a used CRV and paid @ 19K. That’s a lot less than $30K. To state the obvious. Very happy with ours. We live in the city and car gets scratched up, so I’m extra glad we didn’t get the new one. ANd we got some “extras” at the price we paid (rims, sunroof, etc.).

[Anonymous]

For Honda, I think buying new makes more sense if you can get a very low interest rate. The cars don’t depreciate much, and you won’t save that much and you will miss the there best years of the car.

[Anonymous]

I agree that with Honda’s and Toyota’s you don’t get much of a discount on used.

[Anonymous]

If you are going for just 2,3 years used it is not much of a savings.