Topic: Should I buy/lease Mazda 3 GT Sport or used Europeans?

[chaser]

I’m new to the forum and I’ve a few questions about whether I should buy/lease a new Mazda 3 Sport GT or an used European (with less than 50000km on it)?
I’m going to buy a car for my next 2 years’ use. So, what matters me is “how much I need to spend in these 2 years?”.  If I bought a 40G car and managed to sell it for 30G after 2 years, that’s a pretty good deal (spending 5G per year).
When I went to a Mazda dealer in TO, I got a quote of a Mazda 3 Sport GT 5MT w/ A/C, moonroof and leather for $29313 (including Freight, PDI, air tax, gas tax, paint, doc fee, GST and PST). If I lease it for 24 months, I’ll end up spending $13368 in 2 years, which is almost 46% of the car price.
I realized that any new car depreciates the most in its first 2 years on the road. So, should I lease the Mazda 3 Sport GT or should I buy the car and sell it after 2 years?  If I sell the car (assuming it has been under normal driving with 60000km on it), can I sell it for around $19000?
Or, should I consider buying pre-owned such as 2001-2003 BMW 3 series coupe or 2002-2003 Audi A4 1.8T.  I haven’t done much research on the Europeans yet.  If I buy the used Europeans, can I sell them at $10000 to $12000 off of their purchased price after 2 years?

Please advice. If there’s anything I didn’t make clear, please ask. Thx }

[ovr50]

Well, the simplistic answer is that if you're only going to have it two years, those two years should NOT be the first two as dep'n is heaviest in those years. However, resale value at end of year 2 comes into play. I'm not an expert on resale values for Europeans, but my guess is this might be your best route. Others will help more.

[johngenx]

Look into leasing a 3-4 year old lease-return BMW.  You then have your costs controlled and have the depreciation nailed down, if you're definitely going to ditch the car after two years.  I think BMW, know Mercedes, will finance or lease pretty much any car of any age sold through an authorized dealer.

IMHO, dealers want WAY too much for 2 year old BMW's, but 3-4 year olds are closer to market.  Most come with a factory extended warranty as well.  Mercedes offers a three year warranty ona  four old car that extends the factory warranty to seven years.  A three year lease/finance plan on a four old car is a possibility, and you won't be out of warranty either.

If you decide to buy the car at the end of the term, the residual is probably reasonable, and wouldn't be a big hit.

[davidm]

Local paper is advertising 1.9% finance or lease on certified pre-owned BMW's.  I would look for a certified 2001 323/328 and lease it for 2 years (only question will be maintenance costs).

Audi and Volvo have good certified used programs that extend the warrenty up to 6 years from new (IIRC), but those cars seem to have worse depreciation than the bimmers.

[Blacksquishee]

Hi,

I work in sales in the auto industry and can get deals on almost any car.  If you want, send me an email and we can discuss this in further detail.

Thanks

Wellesley