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Did you buy your current bike New or Used?

  • New

    Votes: 9 37.5%
  • Used

    Votes: 15 62.5%

New or used?

2K views 26 replies 15 participants last post by  vanderlinden_j 
#1 ·
Did you buy your CURRENT bike new or used. What was your deciding factor? For me I can always get more bang for the buck buying used. My last new bike purchase was a Honda 1100f in 1983.
 
#3 ·
For those using Tapatalk and want to access poll:

90077
 
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#4 ·
Used i am very frugal or as my wife says cheap. If i can't do something cheap i can't do it . It is hard for me to justify spending a lot on a seasonal ride. My 1800 vtx i got for $4500 with 7000 miles and had for 10 years put 30,000 miles on it. Thinking i am not riding enough time for the amount tied up. The last 2 years i had the vtx i only put on about 500 miles. Decided to sell it thinking i was done riding. Sold it and the following weekend i found my classic. I thought for $2500 i have to ride again and have never looked back.
 
#6 ·
Post surgery and still on pain meds?
 
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#11 ·
My wife and I decided years ago we would always be making one car payment. I keep her in a new vehicle and when we are right side up on the loan, we get her a new car. Her vehicle is always under warranty and other than me doing oil changes, no maintenance. Works good for us. My vehicles are another story. I don't count the mustang, it's a play toy and not driven much. Bike is main transportation, buy bikes with low mileage (under 20k) used and will keep for a few years and sell when mileage starts to require major maintenance (75k usually). Just counted, on 11 bike since 1973. I've owned a blazer for many years (200k miles) which is my cage for those really bad weather days. The blazer gets less than 5k miles a year now and should be good for a while. It received new tranny, rear end and axles a few years ago, so other than regular maintenance I'll keep it a while longer. Did compression test last year and all was good. Still run 5/30w oil without any strange noises. I'm blessed being able to do all repairs on all my vehicles and normally enjoy working on them. Being in a non winter road salted area, rust isn't a concern.
 
#12 ·
Not many Blazers left around here worth fixing. Like most vehicles, the rusties usually get 'em long before any serious mechanical issues pop up, and if there are rust holes anywhere they won't pass the annual safety inspection. My brother had one he only drove occasionally but he ended up selling it while the body was still repairable, for someone who enjoys patching bodywork.
 
#14 ·
The only motorcycles I have ever bought new was when I was racing Moto X and riding Trials and Enduros (wow that was a long time ago), we would take them out of the crates, assemble the bike and put it strait onto a Dyno. Never even got to ride a completely stock YZ. Then it was load onto a trailer and go to a track and figure out what changed and what I needed to change .
As for street bikes I have never owned a new one , those lose so much value the second it hits the street it is just to the point of crazy, I have a friend I ride with who bought a New Heritage in January of this year, he is still upside down on his loan 11 months later.
 
#15 ·
Never owned a new motorcycle. It's my toy and only ride for pleasure. Can't justify cost of new vs used.

Cars & trucks I usually buy new. I keep them at least 10 years and try to take care of them.
Can't stand making car payments and have to pay for repair bills.
 
#16 ·
I tend to get what I want if at all possible, or I’ll wait for it till I can. All my bikes have been purchased new. As far as 4 wheel vehicles go, we do both. New & used.
Our main issue is having either the new warranty, an extended warranty or some sort of aftermarket repair warranty.
I just don’t like having a vehicle without warranty coverage of some type.
 
#18 · (Edited)
for cars I think the way to get the most value for your money is to:
buy the car new
pay cash or pay loan off in short number of years
do all the maintenance and repair work that you can yourself
keep the vehicle till the wheels are literally falling off, then scrape it when its beyond repair (rusted frame is the usual end-of-life)

that has worked well for the last 35 year

this last spring my 15 year old saturn Vue rusted thru the frame and I had to replace it with a foul weather commuter car

Studying the listings and sales for a few months I came to the conclusion that with a bit of effort and patience you can either:

1. get a new car on a deal if you look around
2. get a car about 5 years old with about 50k miles on it for half the price of the same car when it was new
3. get a car about 10 years old with about 100k miles for 1/4 the price of when it was new

again you have to do your work to find one well maintained, but these seem to be where the prices settle out where I live

here is the thing: most new cars will go 200,000 miles easily with just maintenance, tires, batteries, brakes... maybe wheel bearings towards the end

so if you get #2 you pay half the price for a car with 75% of its life left:

and with #3 you pay 25% of the price for a car with 50% of its life left

if you went with #1 and the cost of the car price over its life is 10¢ per mile (just for the car sticker price)
then #2 is 6.67¢ per mile (50% more car for your money)
and #3 is 2.5¢ per mile (400% more car for your money)

I believe the curve is much steeper for a motorcycle than a car- I got my VS 650 with 9k on the odo, 8 years old for $3300
that is a base model Vstar bike

and I got my Royal Star with 24k on the odo, 18 years old, for $2900
that was a top of the line bike when it was new

If you want the best deal on a really nice loaded bike... get a used one 10 years old or more, with low miles

the one big difference between a motorcycle and a car: Ive never heard of a motorcycle frame or suspension rusting thru to where the wheels are in any danger of falling off - you do need to hit the maintenance on an older bike, for wheel and suspension bearings, shock seals, brake pad and calipers... but since a motorcycle is such a simple machine compared to all the components on a car, its not hard to keep it safe and ride it till the engine is worn out.

And things like the wheel bearings on a motorcycle are SO easy to replace, compared to the bearing assemblies fused into cars... its nothing to replace them.
 
#19 ·
I buy everything new at a low interest rate and then drive/ride for as far over a decade as I can get. It's worked pretty well for me so far. I don't like wondering whether the machine I'm depending on was abused by a previous owner. That's my hang-up and if I end up spending a little more in the long run for that particular peace of mind, I'm good with it.
 
#23 ·
One thing to consider on buying new verses used, parts failure. KCW is correct that new vehicles drive train are built to run many more miles than they ever have. But buying wear items like alternators, starters, coils, injectors, mass air flow sensor, water pumps, etc that will probably fail while owning the vehicle can be expensive. If you are mechanically inclined and do the work yourself it's no deal. But if are having to pay a shop to do the work, a used vehicle is not always all that much cheaper. Plus there's car rental while your vehicle is in the shop. Just a few thoughts to ponder.
 
#25 ·
Never bought a a new motorcycle, but none of them had a lot of miles on them either. My 2014 650 vstar had 22 miles on the odometer when I sat on it in a Honda Store's used bike section and it was already 2 years old. $3.5k, if I remember correctly. When I decided to look at 950s I found my current 2010 vstar south of town with 4k or 5k miles on it, no scratches, no noises, no problems, $4k, and I traded and never looked back. Lately you guys have got me thinking about trading up again to 1300 vstar, but so far, the cheap gene coupled with a rock solid 950 have kept me out of the show rooms.

I've bought 2 new cars. Hurricane Cindy got my first one (divorce). Put 300k miles on my 98 jeep cherokee over 16 years and it was totally reliable until the very end when things began to fail in quick succession. Since then I've bought solid, low miles cars for cash and they're all still on the road. '12 nissan frontier, '03 tbird, daughter's honda crv.. BTW, anybody interested in an 03 tbird? I'll make you a deal.

The 650 I drove up on and the 950 I left with:

90102
 
#27 ·
Used for all my stuff. After sometime away from riding I decided to by a bike I was aware of, CB900C, because the last bike we rode was a 500. Always have a check list you would like to see on your next ride. I did two years of research before buying our 1300T, but we didn't want to jump to far with power, we wanted to ride on the freeway and have more luggage with good passenger comfort as well.
 
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