Rent Or Buy

[kudroz]

I'm currently paying 20,000 THB for a Yaris with a local company here in Chiang Mai. I feel like i'm paying way to much, and I'd like to buy a car instead. But if I buy one, how easy would it be to sell the car 1 year from now? And how much depreciation would I bit hit with?

I'm thinking of buying

Yaris: THB ~700,000

Camry: THB ~1,750,000

What is the depreciation like for both of these cars - and how fast can one expect to sell a car? If I want to sell the car quick to a used cars garage, how bad would the price be? I'm not looking for exact numbers here - just trying to find out what would be the best scenario for me since I do not plan to be here more than 1 more year (12-15 months give or take).

Also, i guess i need to factor-in the price for first-class insurance. Any help would be much appreciated.

[PhilHarries]

I can't advise regarding the economics but just from a practical point of view I'd stick with renting. When you list all the positives with renting it just ain't worth the risk buying. Renting takes care of buying risk, vehicle registration, depreciation, servicing, insurance, repairs, replacement car if needed and at the end you can just walk away no hassles with selling it.

Is 20k a month the best you can do? Tell them you want it for at least a year and shop around remembering lowest cost is not always best deal.

Just a personal view.

[Berty]

Toyotas don't depreciate to much, Expect to lose 20-30% off a 1 year old top spec Camry or Yaris

[jbowman1993]

Rent. Why worry about finding a buyer when you are only living here short term?

[kudroz]

Rent. Why worry about finding a buyer when you are only living here short term?

Well if I rent for 15 months, I'll be paying THB 300,000 for a car worth about THB 650,000. So, it would make sense to buy (cash) instead of renting. Although, is the "cost" of finding a buyer after 1 year worth the savings? That's what I'm hoping to find out;

- Market Value of 1 year old Yaris/Camry with ~30,000 KM

- How long/hard (what is the market like) is it to find a private buyer? (personal experience anyone?)

or

- How much (avrg) below Market Value would a used cars garage give me?

- How long/hard (what is the market like) is to find such garage? (personal experience anyone?)

Like I said in my OP, I'm not looking for exact numbers - but just trying to get a feel so I can take a better decision.

[uwe_rayong]

I would buy a small Yaris or even better a used car. I bought 3 years ago a Nissan NV for 250.000 Baht. This year I sold it, because I bought a new Vigo. I sold the NV for 195,000 Baht within 2 days to a used car dealer tent:huh:, I drove 90,000km with that car.

I also asked Toyota for a trade in, but they didn't offered me more, so I sold it to the tent and paid cash for the new one.

If you buy a new Yaris and sell it after one year you will probably loose around 100,000-150,000 Baht from the sticker price.

If you pay cash and you don't want any accessories, which they usually offer instead of a discount, you should be able to get a discount around 5-7% from sticker price for a Toyota.

Maintenance is dirt cheap, insurance for one year is always included.

So if you buy one you could save around 100,000 Baht.

Or you go with the a new Camry, then you probably loose the same amount then if you rent your Yaris but the car is much more comfortably then the one you rent now.

[teej]

Agree with the above post.

Re: getting the camry instead: If you don't mind losing about the same amount of money as if you'd rent (300K), I'd say get a Camry (you can even get the 2.0G for 1.2x million) and you'll have a much nicer car (over the Yaris) for the same cost in the end.

Either way, if you're going to be here for 15 months or more, I'd say go for it and get the Camry over the Yaris. You'll have a much more comfortable 15 months.

[kudroz]

Great tips there uwe_rayong. I like the fact that paying cash will give me 5-7% discount from the sticker price - wasn't sure if in Thailand they'd do that. Imma go shopping for a car soon i think

Thanks a lot everyone!