Advantages/disadvantages of buying 2012 v with low mileage vs new v

When I test drive, I try to test a 3-4 yr old car. My logic is I will know how it is years after "newness" wears off. The '13 was fine, but when it came time to buy, it was a numbers thing. For an additional $8K we picked up 44,000 miles, 3 years newer, 2 additional years of warranty, and 3 years of free maintenance, so we went with the new '16. Being the end of the year and a leftover '16 they wanted to move out, they knocked off enough (almost 4K) to make the decision easier.

We drove it 80 miles for a few hrs. before accepting delivery on all kinds of roads, expressway, country and city, speeds up to 70 mph and found power was OK for our needs. The seat seemed like it had thicker padding in the seat, either it was designed to have more, or it wasn't broken it yet, either way it was better, it also seemed quieter and "tighter", I guess it would be because it's new. Although there was much less power than our 2003 Buick Century had, the ride and handling was very similar.

I hope the newness lasts.

 

$4,500 off MSRP. It was a leftover, and they wanted it gone by the end of the year. $28,199 MSRP vs Paid $23,737

Trade in value was negotiated 1st, then we chose the car, and dicked around some more.

Except for the 2013 OB we had for 5 months, we tend to keeps cars untill they die. Our 2008 prius has 145 K on it, and we are still keeping it.

 

Sage Advice?
Well....no...not me.

BUT...
My opinion when people ask about "Used vs. New" is this.

I think it should all come down to budget, affordability and what the person wants.

If you can afford it? New is better than used. New gives you an immediate warranty, and knowledge of the vehicles history from the very beginning. And Captain Obvious says....when you drive a new vehicle off the lot....everything on it is new.
Those are all nice advantages to being able to purchase new.

The drawback of course is immediate depreciation, and cost.

Used...always comes with risk. You can mitigate that risk with as much investigation and knowledge as possible about the vehicles history and current condition.
The advantage is someone else has already taken the new vehicle depreciation hit.
IMO newer Toyota's are good vehicles and if you get a used in good shape, you can expect many years of reliability.

I think of any vehicle with less than 40,000 miles as nearly being new. But that's just me.

You can save a lot of money buying a newer used vehicle, but the key is knowing as much as possible about it's history. The minimum to me would be a Carfax, and perhaps trying to locate service history records. Then you can climb the ladder of revelation with things like independent inspections, etc, etc....

I'm assuming you wouldn't be asking about New vs. Used if you couldn't afford new.

So the ultimate decision just comes down to what you really want?

Do you want to invest more....but start at near Zero miles, with YOU being the only owner?
Or do you want a 5 year old vehicle? And any risk that comes with buying that vehicle?

At 1/2 the cost of new?
I don't think either decision would be wrong.
That initial savings makes buying the used vehicle a worthy idea.

But only the purchaser...can determine if they want New...or Used.

 

You are correct, the biggest bang for the buck is used. My rule of thumb for the last 30 years was 3 years and 70,000 miles is 1/2 price of new. As of 1990 I tried to keep my cost for a vehicle to .10 per mile, (closer to .15 now) .10 for maintenance (tires, brakes, bearings, fluids, etc.) and .10 for fuel. At $8,000 for 44,000 miles works out to about .18 per mile without the hassle of maintenance (free 3 yr maintance). As it gets older there will be more maintenance, and at my age, I am not willing to do it myself, as I used to do all myself. My wifes 08 Prius (146,000 miles) has had about $3,000 in repairs since new (axles, bearings electrical), most after 50,000 miles, not including tires, brakes, and fluids , she used it as rural mail carrier vehicle, and that's tough on a car. It was still less repairs than any other vehicle we had. We plan on doing a lot of traveling and I just needed confidence 2,000 miles away from home.

Just my choice.

 

The other thing about new cars you don't just get another 40 or 50 thousand miles but you get the best miles the car has to offer in it's life time. Most reliable best smelling shiny paint and all. When I bought my car used I could afford it outright though barely I felt much more in the drivers seat instead of making the dealer, financing and insurance decide what my parameters are.

 

Don't know how the emergency automatic braking and adaptive cruise work on the v, as my 2012 v three didn't have them. But on my 2016 RAV4 limited both features work very badly, so we keep both turned off. The cruise maintains full speed until you get to the predetermined gap and then slams on the brakes hard. Good way to get rear-ended. And on three occasions, when pulling out onto an otherwise clear road with 3-4 inches of snow in the center left turn lane, the car came to a complete stop. Very dangerous. Dealer said to turn off feature when there is snow (all winter in Michigan). And you have to turn it off every time the car is restarted.

 

Something is very wrong with your RAV4 if the adaptive cruise control slams on the brakes when overtaking another vehicle. Slowing down has been gradual in our Prius v and other vehicles that have DRCC.

I don't understand how your RAV4 could come to a complete stop on its own since the "all-speed" system was not available on the 2016 RAV4. Something is malfunctioning if this is happening.

What are you having to turn off every time the engine is restarted? Are you talking about turning off PCS with the push button switch you have to feel for underneath the dash or are you talking about turning off Traction Control using the push button on the dash? I've never seen a vehicle made by Toyota where PCS could not be permanently turned off but traction control must be turned off each time the engine is started if its intervention is not wanted. The only times I've turned traction control off has been when driving in deep snow. I'll bet that I've turned traction control off and on over 25 times in just one hour of driving in deep snow.

 

Glad the prius v system does not slam on the brakes when you come up on a slower car, but the system on my RAV does. What i have to turn off every time i restart is the pre-collision braking system. You have to go into a menu to do it, there is no simple switch. And it defaults to on every time the car is started (according to the owner's manual and the dealer). The dealer said "snow packs up around the bumper" and makes the system, as well as the front parking sensors, malfunction. There is a dash switch for traction control, but i have never had to turn it off.

 

Interesting. I didn't realize that it was necessary to turn PCS via a menu on some or newer Toyotas and that it resets back to "On" when the engine is restarted. The newest Toyota we have is a 2014 Sienna and it, like our Prius, has a two position push button switch under the dashboard for turning PCS off and on. I never thought the button was a good idea since it is right next to and the same button type as the TPMS reset button. It's easy to inadvertently turn PCS off and leave it off when resetting TPMS. The "PCS Off" warning in the instrument cluster isn't very eye catching.

I've heard people complain about snow on the bumper affecting the parking sensors but not PCS and DRCC. The owners manual says the following about cleaning the radar sensor:

"If the front of the radar sensor or the front or back of the front grille emblem is dirty or covered with water droplets, snow, etc., clean it. Clean the radar sensor and front grille emblem with a soft cloth so you do not mark or damage them."

I know the above action is easier said than done when it's really cold like it was two weeks ago in central Iowa: -14 degrees Fahrenheit with a -31 degree windchill index. It was all I could do to get our luggage loaded in a hotel parking lot that was like an ice rink - there was no way I was going to open the hood and clean off the radar sensor in a situation like that.

Do you get some kind of warning message when the radar sensor is too gunked up with snow to work? (i.e. a warning other than it malfunctioning.)

I find it hard to believe that Toyota thinks it is acceptable to turn off PCS all winter.

 

Wow. Using the prescribed procedure, it could take an hour to disable the TCS 25 times, let alone any driving!

 

It was in RWD Lexus LS sedans that I did this. They have physical buttons for turning Trac and VSC off and on like most vehicles made by Toyota except, of course, several hybrids including the early Prius v and early Lexus CT200. The most memorable occasion was when was driving home from work in the evening in about 12 inches of fresh snow which was/is a huge amount for Kansas City.

My normal one way drive to or from work is only 11 miles but that time I drove 25 to 30 miles searching for streets that weren't blocked by abandoned vehicles including countless abandoned AWD and 4WD vehicles. On that particular Lexus, Traction Control and VSC were linked - both turned on and off at the same time with one button press. Since I wanted VSC on as much as possible, I turned Trac (and VSC which was linked to it) off whenever I needed to generate wheel spin in deep snow. That was an "interesting" day. I encountered only a handful of non-emergency vehicles in all that driving on city streets. I was lucky that I had just replaced my snow tires with new Bridgestone Blizzaks. I nearly got high centered on snow over and over but was always able to "power" my way out.

On most current vehicles made by Toyota, Trac and VSC can be turned off separately ... press the button once to turn off Trac and press it again to turn off VSC. It apparently took Toyota a long time to understand the importance of de-linking VSC from Traction Control.

 

Just last week I traded our 09 Prius Touring on a '12 Prius v 5. It had gotten to the point where the 09 sat in the garage for long trips because the kids couldn't recline the rear seats. We were putting more miles on my Rav4 than the Prius. I think the v will work out well.
I got a good deal on the trade and did an "as is" deal (except for clarifying that I had the 30 day warranty on major stuff). Now, I'm screwing around with alignment trying to eliminate a pull to the left. If I get that sorted out, I'll be thrilled with the trade.