The "New Or Slightly Used" Dilemma....

Getting time to upgrade and as I'm snooping around I notice many trucks on sites with just a few thousand miles and a new price. And I wonder....

Wouldn't you really lose yer ass dumping a truck with a few thousand miles, and what would cause that? So quickly?

Did they get the 44-44 transfer case hot in the mud trying to pull out their wife's Lincoln?

Is a few Grand worth the piece of mind?

I would think a "last year model" with even very low miles would have a far bigger discount to be worth the risk.

Just thinking out loud, but I wondered what you guys think?

It's a little early in the year, but a certified pre-owned '17 is your best bet. Previous owner ate the first year depreciation. Plus, you get the balance of the factory warranties PLUS additional time added from the pre-owned program.

It's a crap shoot.

I was in your situation 4 or 5 months ago. I've never owned a new vehicle in my life (56 years). I've always purchase used vehicles and most recetly certified pre-owned vehicle with 30-40k miles and place an extended warranty on it and drive it for 7-10 years. This time around I was in the market for a 2016 lightly used (6K miles) Laramie with a convenience package. I found one 700 miles away that fit the bill and was getting ready to pull the trigger. Then just for the heck of it, I did a search (cars.com) for the same truck but new. I found a 2016, also 700 miles away. While crunching the numbers, I learned by the time I purchased the extended warranty on the used truck, I was able to purchase the new truck for the same amount of money. With that said, there was probably some more wiggle room as far as negotiating the price of the used truck, but like you, I was concerned about what the previous owner did or didn't do to the truck.

Something else to consider: I'm not 100% positive but, because it's used, you might not be able to purchase the Mopar Lifetime Warranty for it. If you plan on keeping it for a long time and would want to place the mopar lifetime extended warranty on it...

I would suggest..... there is no wrong or right decision here. Do your research and get what you want and what you can afford and don't look back! The goal is to have no regrets!

init6 said:

It's a little early in the year, but a certified pre-owned '17 is your best bet. Previous owner ate the first year depreciation. Plus, you get the balance of the factory warranties PLUS additional time added from the pre-owned program.

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When I was in the market a few months ago, I made a couple of serious offers on slightly used 2016's sitting in Ram dealerships. For example, on a truck with an asking price of $37,500, I'd make an offer of $34,000 (via email), I wouldn't even get a reply from the dealership. This happened at least two times. Either the folks monitoring the emails were too busy, too incompetent or had too many folks at the dealership interested in the vehicle and couldn't be bothered with an email offer. I'm ok with that.... it's like fishing!

My point here is: the deals out there vary and change all the time. Ya just never know when and where the best deals are going to be. When I was looking the certified pre-owned opportunities, I had a tough time finding any deals out there like I've seen with other cars I've purchased. As a result, I ended up purchasing a new truck.

malatu said:

Something else to consider: I'm not 100% positive but, because it's used, you might not be able to purchase the Mopar Lifetime Warranty for it. If you plan on keeping it for a long time and would want to place the mopar lifetime extended warranty on it...

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You can. Price is based on mileage at time of purchase and goes up every 1000 miles.

It's going to vary a lot based on your needs/wants, and what's available. I wouldn't worry that much that a used truck was traded in because it was trashed. You can usually tell pretty quickly how well cared for a vehicle is. There are a lot of people that just get bored with their vehicles and are swapping around all the time. It's usually very unwise financially, but people still do it.

I bought a dealer demo. It was kind of the best of both worlds... the dealer ate some depreciation but the truck still qualified for factory incentives. It still had the plastic wrap cover on parts of the interior.

TTU14 said:

I bought a dealer demo. It was kind of the best of both worlds... the dealer ate some depreciation but the truck still qualified for factory incentives. It still had the plastic wrap cover on parts of the interior.

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Our 2014 Expedition was the Owner's demo. We bought it Feb 2015, it had 4300 miles on it and they almost paid us to take it.

I just had this dilemma in early January. I ended up going with a CPO '16 Big Horn with 14k. Mine was an off-lease truck. I looked at and drove several before I found one that I was happy with (condition wise).

I wasn't willing to spend the money to get into a new Big Horn. I decided I wasn't going to be happy with an Express (I wanted the power drivers seat), so I opted to just go the CPO route.

A month in...I'm still very happy with my decision. I got out the door for $5k+ less than I would have with a new one. It's just a great truck. I'm glad I opted to go used to get the features I wanted, rather than settle on a lesser equipped used one.

Edit: Could I have afforded a new Big Horn? Yes. That being said, I think I enjoy my truck even more because I didn't spend an arm and a leg for it.

I'm sure there are cases where new makes more sense (ex. If I hadn't been fixated on the power seat and rear sliding glass), but for me...CPO made sense.Just my two cents...

bubbagumpshrimp said:

I just had this dilemma in early January. I ended up going with a CPO '16 Big Horn with 14k. Mine was an off-lease truck. I looked at and drove several before I found one that I was happy with (condition wise).

I wasn't willing to spend the money to get into a new Big Horn. I decided I wasn't going to be happy with an Express (I wanted the power drivers seat), so I opted to just go the CPO route.

A month in...I'm still very happy with my decision. I got out the door for $5k+ less than I would have with a new one. It's just a great truck. I'm glad I opted to go used to get the features I wanted, rather than settle on a lesser equipped used one.

Edit: Could I have afforded a new Big Horn? Yes. That being said, I think I enjoy my truck even more because I didn't spend an arm and a leg for it.

I'm sure there are cases where new makes more sense (ex. If I hadn't been fixated on the power seat and rear sliding glass), but for me...CPO made sense.Just my two cents...

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!

Yep, that's the key! Be happy with your purchase! There are no bad decisions except the one you regret!

i found with the discounts and rebates, the new truck was cheaper on leftover 16s.

In the last 4 years I have complete 10 transactions at the same RAM dealer, I tossed my 14 Ram Hemi 4x4 rcsb for the 15 R/T. Before I opened my flapper they had come off the sticker of 45,400.00 and said 35,000.00 to which I whittled a wee bit more off (hey I need to feel good about myself). Repeat business has its advantages but at the end of the day if you want to play PAY UP MISTER. If one is just throwing around play money and all your other ducks are in order why not, with no kids who do we leave our money to the SPCA?

bubbagumpshrimp said:

I just had this dilemma in early January. I ended up going with a CPO '16 Big Horn with 14k. Mine was an off-lease truck. I looked at and drove several before I found one that I was happy with (condition wise).

I wasn't willing to spend the money to get into a new Big Horn. I decided I wasn't going to be happy with an Express (I wanted the power drivers seat), so I opted to just go the CPO route.

A month in...I'm still very happy with my decision. I got out the door for $5k+ less than I would have with a new one. It's just a great truck. I'm glad I opted to go used to get the features I wanted, rather than settle on a lesser equipped used one.

Edit: Could I have afforded a new Big Horn? Yes. That being said, I think I enjoy my truck even more because I didn't spend an arm and a leg for it.

I'm sure there are cases where new makes more sense (ex. If I hadn't been fixated on the power seat and rear sliding glass), but for me...CPO made sense.Just my two cents...

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Exactly. For a lot of people, buying new would have been worth the extra $5k. When I bought my truck, I didn't save a crazy amount over what a new one was. But, the way I look at, after I'm done driving the thing in 5-7 years, the two would be worth pretty much the same. I don't have to worry about the first little ding because it already has a couple. And, somebody drove it for a little while so a lot of the little issues that only pop up after a few miles are already out in the open.

Unless your so wealthy that money is no object, NEVER buy new just to have it plummet in value when you drive it off the lot. Let somebody else eat the loss and buy used with decent mileage. Leased vehicles are good to buy. I bought my truck used from an individual and paid cash for it. When I was young and stupid I purchased anywhere from 15-20 new vehicles over the years until I figured it out. Wasted money that should have gone into my 401K and retirement accounts. Be smart and good luck.

If its a warranty your concerned about there are "aftermarket" warranties you can buy in any amount of coverage that are as good as the factory warranties.

If you are financing, sometimes new turns out to be the better deal over the length of the loan. I try to buy used with very low mileage. I like to haggle and make the salesman cry I got 33% off the MSRP on my 300C Luxury and it had about 2,000 miles on it ( older rich guy who was a very regular customer at the dealership - he gets bored easily). Not sure you can get that kind of discount on a RAM though - are they still offering 0% financing in the States? You can save thousands going that route. I also take my time when searching - took me almost 2 years to find my used SRT.

When shopping for a "new" truck, we ran into the same problem. I guess the market in Houston drives up prices for trucks, new or used. We wanted something in the 25k range, with low miles (obviously) and could hardley find anything that had less that 50,000 miles. We're talkin 2wd, no leather, express models i think, nothin fancy. Then we started entertaining the idea of a new one given the rediculous prices of the used trucks. Ended up with finding a hell of a deal on a new 2015 Lone Star 2wd with the hemi (we even considered the v6 to get a cheaper truck). The MSRP was a little over 42k, and our selling price was 30k even, with 0.0% apr for 5 years. That was in June of 2015 for reference.

IMHO, New all the way. Most 1500s can be found for $10k below MSRP in my neck of the woods.

Tray Burge said:

Unless your so wealthy that money is no object, NEVER buy new just to have it plummet in value when you drive it off the lot. Let somebody else eat the loss and buy used with decent mileage. Leased vehicles are good to buy. I bought my truck used from an individual and paid cash for it. When I was young and stupid I purchased anywhere from 15-20 new vehicles over the years until I figured it out. Wasted money that should have gone into my 401K and retirement accounts. Be smart and good luck.

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My train of thought is very much like yours until I had the opportunity to purchase a new 2016 Laramie 3.6L with convenience package for $36,300. That's when I purchased my very first new vehicle (age 56).

And for the record, I do believe that purchasing all those high mileage cars with cash and driving them for 7-10 years, allowed me to sock away cash into my 401k. It takes effort to wisely save money and as much effort to spend it wisely.

I respectfully submit........Never say never!

I would simply consider three things...

1. Is this a long term or short term vehicle?
2. How much time do you plan to spend in it?
3. Are you passionate about your vehicles or do you only care about getting from A to B?

superlubricity said:

IMHO, New all the way. Most 1500s can be found for $10k below MSRP in my neck of the woods.

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I have to agree. The price difference between new and slightly used isn't earth shattering.
The immediate depreciation on a new truck isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Those figures have been grossly exaggerated for years.

With a new one you're buying what you want. Not making do with what somebody else wanted.
You also get to maintain it, and treat it right from the start. Not wonder what someone else may have done to it every time you hear a new noise.

In my experience, trucks and compact sports cars are the two vehicles most commonly abused. There are a ton of Rams out there that have had the crap beaten out of them.

One other thing to consider.
If you ever do dealer financing, the interest rate is typically much higher on a used vehicle. New trucks can sometimes be purchased with 0% (or very minimal interest) financing.

If you're paying cash, then it's irrelevant.