Old or new? What's the better deal?

[jthrockmorton]

I'm just curious if anyone has crunched the numbers when considering buying a 2011 or earlier 3 and the new skyactive 3 to figure out what's the better deal. Using the Edmunds cost of ownership calculator, a 2012 skyactiv hatch comes out to $37,277 over 5 years, and a 2008 s GT hatch at $32,479. But the majority of the new 3s cost of ownership comes through depreciation ($13,759), which I don't think is that big a deal if you're buying a car to have for a while.

I would think that the savings in fuel, maintenance costs, and insurance that a new 2012 skyactiv 3 brings would offset the roughly $6,000 difference in sticker price over a five year period. Plus, a new 3 would hopefully last longer than a used one.

Any thoughts?

 

[_Chris]

"New" cars are never a better deal than a 1-2 year older model unless they have changed a good part of the car and it now has more options or something that you like more to justify the added cost. The skyactiv gets better gas millage but its not a huge difference over the non skyactiv cars. So depending on what you are using the car for you may get a better long term deal with one or the other.

 

[AE_RSMV]

Similar to what Chris points out, the differences aren't vast with the exception of the SkyActiv design. SkyActiv is definitely a step up in fuel economy. Here's a quick breakdown of what you're looking at (for posterity, I included the non-SkyActiv 2012 and the SkyActiv 2012 in these comparisons).

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=31695&id=26373&id=24296&id=32057

What I would look at to really determine the value of the cars you're looking at is what kind of driving you primarily do and consider from there. If you're looking for a DD that gets good mileage and you're not going to mod it a lot, then I'd consider new. If you're looking for a car you're going to dog and, more importantly, mod, then you definitely want to go used. From a power standpoint, since you brought up the s GT, the SkyActiv engines don't lose much compared to your s GT in stock comparisons. However, I don't know which more readily and effectively can be modded. (Source: http://www.zeroto60times.com/Mazda-0-60-mph-Times.html )