[Authentic Poser]

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.

KCW- I don't understand why you don't use a more scientific approach ?

 

[bevo1981]

my current bike is the only bike i've ever owned. i wanted it to be something no one else ever owned or rode. like adopting a puppy or having a kid. feels more special if you're the first and only owner.

 

[lesblank]

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.

 

[Deeksvstarclassic]

• As far as fixing my 20 year old trucks i do what i can and have a really good friend that does the rest because he loves doing it and is real reasonable. I know i am very fortunate for him.

 

[graybeard]

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:

 

[LS650]

I bought my 2014 in June 2015 as a new held over. I got it for about 25% below MSRP. 4.5 years and zero problems, so I am happy with my purchase.

 

[Jim MN]

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.