Since new car will always depreciate, when is the best time to sell a car? How many years in ownership and why?

5 year

Before
5 - warranty ends
10 - buyer still can get loan
15 - parts getting difficult to find
20 - after this better keep till 25 apply for classic / vintage category reduce road tax. :lol

lease / rent f so scared depreciation.

This post has been edited by matrix88: Jul 6 2023, 08:52 AM

After you can break even your loan balance with the trade in price and age < 10 yrs old.

Everyone has their own priorities and preferences but I think is the most crucial factor would be dependent on the financial capabilities of the person. If selling the old car, that will mean committing to a buying a new car. Hence, the question of "When is the best time to sell the OLD car" can be rephrased as when is the best time to buy a NEW car, which I suppose is the same thing unless the car that's going to be sold is an excess car which can be sold without the need of replacing it with a new one.

For me, it used to be 5 years after the loan was completed, particularly since the car was able to fetch a rather high resale value even when traded in to the 2nd hand car dealer (New around RM115k, after 5 years sold at RM62k to 2nd hand dealer). For my current car, I am hanging on to it longer since it has poor resale value and for the fact that I enjoy the drive and performance of the vehicle. However, after 8 years the car started to give problems with high maintenance and frequent visits to workshops so it's going to be soon.

In summary this is what I think regarding the best time to sell your car:-
1. When it can still fetch high resale value and you have the interest of getting a new car
2. When the car starts giving you problems with high maintenance repair bills and frequent visits to workshop

Thanks all for the reply. So prefer to sell car before finish loan or after finish loan? Does it matter if car bought loan/cash for resell?

Actually true, sell because it doesn't return good value anymore. However, value is all relative to the current situation. Like now... RM going down so bad, not sure if selling is worth it or not since need to topup more for replacement.

The other thing is that, as a car age, things cannot avoid like,
depreciation,
car problems,

More like it is a balance between depreciation<>car problem. Even then I think if there is no car problem, depreciation should not be a big deal, since resale value is almost always 50% of new (excluding hot selling vehicle) and ease of use.

Maybe keep buying a new alza and resell every 1 or 2 years will make a lot of financial sense? since RV so high, and 2 years, can get a new alza. Or something like that (hot item car).

there is no best, depending on individual. Some may not even sell it and rather keep it as spare car, some die die sell just to up keep with neighbours new pedestrian ass normal traffic, the race of mediocrity.

if your concern is depreciation, purchase used instead. Ofcourse do own homework & due deligence is the trade off.

theory of buy new then sell 1 or 2 yrs, you still need pay remaining loan at the norminal rate, dont think you save the remaining years of interest to the bank and they eat it.

Well, as most have known cars are a depreciating asset, people don't actually plan on it too much in terms of making a "financial sense". If want to minimise losses, there are other ways such as buying cheaper cars, buy cash or take the short 2 year loan etc. rather than buying expensive cars, paying a small downpayment and stretching the loan to 9 years etc. One can focus on other areas such as investing in property or FD etc. to counter balance the "losses" in the sale of your vehicle.

if want to calculate depreciation, easiest is to buy the car on cash, you save quite a lot in interest.

I only buy vehicles this way. Either I can afford it outright, or don't buy it.

Old car - high maintenance fees and unreliable driving due to aging parts
New car - just pay the loan, low maintenance fees under warranty. Reliable ride and get the 'wow' factor.

Personally, 5-7 years years is within the good range of years to fetch reasonable resell value and get new ride.
Either way, you still have to pay to own the car, no such thing as finish car loan then no more car commitments.

This post has been edited by eikozai: Jul 10 2023, 05:14 PM

There is no escaping that. Need to balance between time and covinience.

Depends on your usage also. If you need to travel long distance (inter state etc) then you need a car that is reliable, hence maybe change earlier. but if your daily travel commute around town area then keeping the car longer is not a problem as the car mileage is low and with proper service per recommended by manufacturer, can keep the car longer.

Edit: Another factor is ofcos you want to upgrade to a better car with better features, safety level or your need defer (need mpv, 7 seater or prefer sporty drive etc)

This post has been edited by kitman: Jul 11 2023, 04:27 PM

I've learned my lesson watching my brother keeping a 2008 accord. From 200k km onwards, lots of problems, high maintenance cost.

If intend to keep, really need to change all the aging parts. I have replaced an old sentra's radiator, suspension items, hoses and water pump, alternator, drive shaft, full AC system, fuel pump. If the costs are bearable to you then compare it with buying a new car and decide.

thats when people start learn about car.

Between 200k km and 270k km mileage, total spent on keeping running was RM80k...

Good call. I would go even 1 more step further, in my personal circumstances. I don’t take loans to buy my cars and I will never buy a car worth more than 10% of my annual income … which means, every year, if I don’t pull the trigger to buy a new car, that sum gets rolled over to the next year and so on and so forth.

This helps me practice delayed gratification as well as fiscal discipline because a car is almost always a depreciating asset

I wonder what he did?

80k can replace whole engine and gearbox already plus AC and suspension items.

include fueling kot. big cc makan

Usually after 10 years, a lot of problems will come out even though u maintain it properly

Last time I sold off my car in 3.5 years . The outstanding loan was lower than market value. I used the different as downpayment for new car. I never take 9 year loans so that's why can get this

not far off actually, including wear and tear items, service.

This post has been edited by mystvearn: Jul 16 2023, 03:18 PM