Buying a new vs. used car [2025]

Life Hacking
21

My first car was a used one and what a stroke of genius that was. It ended up costing me a small fortune in repairs, right when I could least afford it. Lesson learned: never again.

After that, I went for a new car. Kept it for fifteen years (still runs flawlessly) but my needs have changed, especially when it comes to space. The next one’s already ordered, brand new. This time, I’m going with Dacia.

And no, I don’t care about social comparisons or what people think when they see my car. I test-drove a 2025 Tiguan priced at 65K (high end trim), and its rear camera was one of the cheapest-looking things I’ve seen in years. Just goes to show price tags and appearances don’t always reflect quality. But they do a great job at feeding egos.

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22

Here is my experience in the 15 years I’ve been living here and probably done close to 1.5M kms without any major issue (touch wood!)

I always purchased second hand from a private sale, goal was always between 4 and 5 years old car with around 100k km on the clock. As soon as the lease was finished I buy it cash before the owner starts to go and offer it to garages.

I am not a mechanic but I know how to buy a seller. Furthermore, unlike other countries where a private car purchase can be tricky, in Switzerland is very rare to get stiffed by a private seller, the majority of Swiss wouldn’t sell something knowing there is a problem with it. There is also a law even for private sales where even though the guarantee is excluded, there is in fact a guarantee by default of major and hidden damage.

The most I’ve spend servicing was on a X5, the least I’ve spent on, believe it or not Discovery 4. I only go to the authorized garages even when I do the high mileage, yes it does cost a bit more but at least I know the person knows what he is doing and all the servicing timelines are followed.

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23

You think the person knows.

Need a big SUV, Dacia Bigster. The money you save compared to X5 once put in smart investment would yield approx. 54’677 CHF/ yr after only 10 years.

24

That’s exactly the thought I had: I’d rather have my money working for me than tied up in a car that sits idle 90% of the time.

Dacia’s TCO is really impressive. Of course, you can’t expect a car that delivers strong emotions, but then again, you don’t need a missile to drive at 30 km/h in the city.

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25

Do I understand correctly that you always buy from private people who leased their cars? You buy it from them shortly before their lease expires, so the lease is transferred over to you, you pay it off and then fully own the car? I’m not a car expert. What is the advantage of buying a used car on a lease over buying a used car that is fully owned by the seller?

26

Car leaser here: since I do not own the car it is mandatory to do the maintenance everytime the board compurer gives you the notification. I got a contract which includes all the services with my monthly payments.

Funnily, I even drive less than agreed in the contract. Not sure, if I should buy the car after end of contract or if I should switch to a leasing of an EV (e.g. Skoda Elroq RS).

Even if you get a leased company car, you can be (almost) sure that the maintenance was always made. Most company cars were mostly driven on the Autobahn, which is also more favourable for the (petrol/diesel) engine.

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27

Yes, unlike JEPG’s practicality I go for luxury cars on the cheap, what can I say, I understand his reasoning, but driving on average 100k km a year a premium brand with all the bells and whistles on board it really makes all the difference for me.

The positive by buying a leased car is that the maintenance was strictly followed as the car isn’t your property, so the user must follow the servicing protocol.

I never purchase the lease, I offer cash payment to own the car.

In most scenarios, once your lease is up and you either need to pay off the balance or give back the car, bar covid times and the next years after that, the user was always paying big bucks to give back the car, the leasing companies had a buyout price which was less than the market price and on top of that they were charging the user left and right to bring the car up to original specs, which meant thousands of CHF for the user just to give back the car at the end of the lease agreement.

Now you approach the private seller, the cheapest car on the market is 50k from a garage, him he owes 40k to the garage to own the car, if he gives it back he will need to pay 4-5k easily for parking damage and stuff, so you offer 42k cash to buy it out.

He pays the lease giver 40k, you pay him 42k, he just earned 2k and not having to pay 5k out of pocket, and you just purchased a 50k cash for 42k and everybody is happy.

During and post covid this got twisted because the car market got turned upside down. The used cars were going for much more at the end of the leasing period due to the car shortages but now everything is back to normal.

A side note, any garage out there buying and selling second hand cars are not spending a lot of time or resources on checking and making sure every and each car is perfect for a resale. Garages buy guarantees for each car they sell and if a problem arises the buyer simply uses that guarantee purchased outside the garage. There is no lemon law in Switzerland! No such thing as “bumper to bumper” guarantee like you can find in the US, I once had a Audi Q5 and I purchased it at the end of the factory guarantee, AMAG offered me an extension of the guarantee for 1800 CHF or something like that, when I went over the fine print, almost nothing that can actually break down was included in this guarantee! Hilarious.

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28

Except if they’re preparing this kind of exit you describe. During the lease there is no control that everything’s done correctly afaik.

29

As long as there is a option of the garage to buy out the lease at the end, which they all have, you need to follow the service intervals, which are free anyway for the first 100k kms (at Mercedes Benz for example but most new cars today come with the servicing included)

And even if you have a lease that you purchase in the end, you as a user you will always service the car, the maintenance is free anyway!

So there is absolutely no incentive for a user not to follow the service procedure on a new car.

Nobody will buy a car that has not been serviced at an authorized garage at this age

1 Like
30

My experience is that with certain dealers and manufacturers you will not be happy either buying new (you can bring the car but the problem will remain) or second hand (you will spend a fortune and the problem may also remain) unfortunately.

31

Which manufacturer?