What is the best time to purchase?

[WillCO]

Everywhere I looked wanted damn near new prices for 1 year old tahoes and only 10k off 2 year old tahoes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I found the same. The used pricing on 1 year-old trucks was only a few thousand lower than the discounted price of new. Factor in the inherent risk of buying a vehicle that finds itself for sale after only one year, and I decided to do new.

In the BMW world, leasing is pervasive. So there is a broad selection of preowned cars coming off lease at 2.x years old and 2X,*** miles. A lot of them are pristine because BMW pays for all the maintenance in that period. It's a great secondary market. Less so for Chevrolets IMO.

 

[AZCreeker]

How many miles? 4x4 or 4x2? Prior rental or Uber vehicle?

I know when I was looking at new vs. used, it made more sense for me to purchase a new LS rather than a used LT Suburban with 45,000 miles or so. The new LS was only a few thousand more and had no idle hours on the engine. If it was an Uber type vehicle, please keep in mind that it may have a lot of idle time if the driver sat and waited for his fare. We see this in downtown Washington DC where they sit outside the hotels waiting for their fares to return in order to complete the round trip.

I think you are spot on. I looked at getting a new LS, and I would have LOVED to get the 9 passenger version, as we actually put tons of people often in our 8 passenger LT. Our Suburban was an ex Enterprise rental. I looked at about 30 ex rentals and inspected interior, paint defect and respray, etc..
Now most people always told me to never buy an ex-rental but I think that if one does their homework and spend literally hours researching and inspecting examples, then some good deal can be found.

Here is a bit more about ours,
Paint: White, not too many defects, to an enthusiast weekend warrior detailer, it's crap, to most everyone its look perfect.
orange peel, tons of surface scratch for rental abuse activities and going through the cheapest and dirtier rental wash bay.
That being said, nothing a good 5 hours detailing wont bring back to great shape.

interior: wear on leather and touch-points minimal indicating this was not idled for long time and being used as a UBER or other transport service.

transmission and engine: nothing to note.

Noise and vibrations: nothing, not even the dreaded buffeting, and that's with shot 18 stock fuel assurance tires

A pretty good tell-all was going in the navigation trip history and find out that the trip history has been never deleted since in Service, I found out that for most of it's brutal rental life, my suburban went from LAX to Disney, from LAX to Pheonix, etc...

Anyways, Our budget did not allow to spend 50 or more for a new LT and we are more than pleased with ours, 5 months after

 

[AZCreeker]

I found the same. The used pricing on 1 year-old trucks was only a few thousand lower than the discounted price of new. Factor in the inherent risk of buying a vehicle that finds itself for sale after only one year, and I decided to do new.

In the BMW world, leasing is pervasive. So there is a broad selection of preowned cars coming off lease at 2.x years old and 2X,*** miles. A lot of them are pristine because BMW pays for all the maintenance in that period. It's a great secondary market. Less so for Chevrolets IMO.

Totally agree, we had mostly german cars in the past and certified used was where it's at. Less of that with large traditional body on frame luxo barges, but a good eye and some research can overcome these things a bit, that and the maintenance can be a bit cheaper than audi/bmw/etc...