Buying a brand-new car is a profoundly strange thing to do.
                   The question of why people spend a huge amount of money  on a new car when they could spend
                   a lot less on the same car after someone else has run it in has never been satisfactorily answered.

                    Nor do the arguments trotted out by those who spend their money on a new car withstand much
                    scrutiny. Yes, you can choose the specification yourself but, unless you’re dealing in the esoteric,
                    you’ll be able to find the same car with the same equipment on the second-hand market.
                    Worried about the car being stolen, or clocked? Buy from a franchised main dealer and
                    the chances of receiving such a car are minimal.

                    You don’t like the idea of someone else having run it in? Cars are now built to such fine tolerances
                    they need minimal running-in and are so strong that they have to be thrashed repeatedly from stone
                    cold before you’ll do any damage.

                    Concerned it will break down? Shop in the nearly new market and buy close-to-new-car reliability,
                    miss the teething problems, enjoy the remainder of the manufacturer’s warranty and still save yourself
                    a packet.

                    Even so, 30% of all cars sold this year will be brand-new. For the rest of us, the nearly new
                    market offers conspicuous bargains. The temptation to go for the fastest-depreciating thing
                    on wheels is clear but to be resisted — no car ever lost its value quickly without a reason.

                    On the other hand, buying a used version of the best car in the class is also likely to cost you
                    proportionally more used than when new. What’s needed are good cars that, for some reason
                    unrelated to quality or reliability, lose their value more swiftly than they should.

                    Take a Ford Focus: a great car and still the most fun “shopping” cart on the market. Yet
                    because there are so many around and it’s about to be replaced, second-hand prices are rock
                    bottom.

                    It works with family cars, too. The Hundai Elantra has been replaced and woe betide
                    anyone who has just spent $17, 295 on a new 2.0GL. In little more than a year it will be
                    worth less than two thirds that amount despite still being a good car with near-as-dammit
                    guaranteed reliability. The issue here is image: it’s just not cool to drive a Hyundai.

                    And, as a very broad rule of thumb, the more expensive the car, the bigger the bargains. Even
                    the best names incur savage depreciation. A new $ 61,600 Lexus GS300 will be worth just $ 39,900
                    after 18 months. To save you the maths: if you buy new that’s more than $ 278 a week, every week
                    down the drain in depreciation. If you sell it after 18 months, the person who then buys it will incur
                    perhaps half the depreciation in the next 18 months.

                    Or how about really pushing the boat out. A new $ 95,450 Audi A8 Quattro is not a car
                    we’d recommend to anyone since it’s no match for the Mercedes S-class and will be replaced before
                    the year is out. But buy a 2000 model with less than 30,000 kliks on the clock and you’ll save
                    yourself $ 40,000. The maths here is somewhat easier: when new it equates to more than $ 2 a Km
                    in depreciation. So if you drive your kids five Km to school and collect them at the end of the day,
                    the trip will cost $ 20 in depreciation alone.
 
                    Sports cars, because they are desirable, are more resistant to depreciation but none is immune.

                    It should be stressed that cars do not depreciate because they are bad cars. They are
                    good cars that depreciate heavily despite their inherent strengths. Anyone can pick up a Daewoo
                    Nubira on the second-hand market for next to nothing, but that means it is merely cheap, not a
                    bargain.

                    So what’s the best nearly new of them all? It has to be the Oldsmobile Alero. As a
                    $ 29,695 new car, you should keep far, far away from it. But leave it just one year and pick up the
                    same quick, comfortable, refined and lavishly equipped executive sedan for not much more than
                    half the money. That is what I call real value.