The used-car dealer (sharkus voracious) is an all-too-well-known character in American society. Leisure-suited and unprincipled, his wares are equally notorious. His 35,000-mile, one-owner cream puff actually has 235,000 miles thanks to an expertly tampered-with odometer. That one owner was probably a Manhattan cab company. A quick squirt of paint might've given this heap a shine, but it's actually a reconstructed wreck assembled from the crashed remains of two cars that were stolen and disposed of in a lake.
Overstatement? Okay, but for most people, "used car" is still a term that ranks up there with "root canal" or "Roseanne Barr." But if we consider actions, not words, we discover that Americans buy 50 million used cars a year, according to Paul Taylor, the chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association. That's more than three times the number of new cars sold. So if they're so bad, why do so many people buy them?
In truth, they aren't so bad. This negative stigma was well earned in the sorry days of poor product quality, planned obsolescence, and lying, polyester-clad Joe Isuzu-type salesmen. Sure, lemons still exist, Joe's Used Cars is still in business ("No Credit Necessary--We Finance ANYONE!"), and there isn't much we can do about liars or polyester. But this scary scenario is being replaced with purchasing "pre-owned" in the mainstream used-car marketplace.
1974
Today's cars are of higher quality, so they last longer and are more reliable as used cars downstream. Major model redesigns occur less frequently (often on four- or six-year cycles), thus a two- or three-year-old vehicle isn't so quickly out of style. New cars and trucks are more expensive than they've ever been, so affordability is an issue for many. Most significant is the continuing increase in the popularity of leasing, which puts tons of two- or four-year-old cars, trucks, and SUVs--many in excellent condition with low mileage and some portion of the factory warranty remaining--back on dealer lots as those leases mature.
2004
As vehicle quality, performance, and feature content have increased over the years, so has the level of new-car pricing, which is only logical. But nearly every car depreciates, and it's often possible to get more car for the same money by buying used. For example, one of our editors went midsize-sport-sedan shopping a few years back. He narrowed his choices to a new, fully loaded Maxima or a three-model-year-old six-cylinder 5 Series BMW for the same price. The BMW had 22,000 miles on it, had just come off a 30-month lease, had been religiously serviced, and was immaculate. Guess which one our guy went for?