The Greener Route: Why You Should Buy Second-Hand Cars
It’s no question that many people in this era typically want things that would make life a lot convenient for them, and having a car is essentially one of those things. Your first steps in the premium adulting world is truly a nerve-wracking experience, especially when picking your first car. For some, it’s just for plain convenience, but for others, it will hold a precious memory, and their first car will forever hold a sentimental value that can’t be replaced.
However, your money may fall short, and you may be forced to be content with buying a used car instead. But that shouldn’t worry you, because that’s a great thing to consider! While newer car models are certainly a lot flashier and trendy nowadays, opting to go to “buy here, pay here” dealerships also offers you many unique finds that you won’t even see in the common marketplace. Most people who consider buying used cars typically:
- Want a low resale cost. When people buy used cars for temporary reasons or use it as a filler until they buy a newer car that they want, selling the old car will be easy as it will usually have no difference to the cost you bought it last. However, you may also consider adding to its cost when you bought upgrades and did proper maintenance that made the vehicle still in good shape.
- Want no room for depreciation. All cars do depreciate with time, but newer cars depreciate faster than old ones. New cars will typically lose 20% of their original prices within the first year, and in ten years, it will only be worth 10% of what it originally cost the buyer.
- Want more savings. This one’s a lot obvious, and also a lot true. Buying a car that has already been depreciated down to its lowest amount will save your bank account a couple of bucks. While repairs and maintenance fees are pretty inevitable, especially when dealing with old cars, you would still be facing them either way when you buy a new one.
Buying a used car is also one way to help save the environment, which is a path that everyone should take a stand right now. With the rate of abnormal disasters and calamities happening around us, it truly is vital that we must go green and uphold environmentally friendly actions in all aspects of our lives.
Keeping the good ol’ green perspective in check
It is truly ideal for maintaining a used car and keeping it running as long as time permits. Not every car is completely environmentally friendly, though, so you must be careful when picking a used car to ensure that it produces lower emissions. Some newer models may feature lower carbon emissions, but the materials required to build it are a lot more contributing to the pollution around us. There are existing studies, though, that say newer cars produce a lot more emissions than older ones, and the latest models might not be as eco-friendly as we thought they would be.
Nowadays, producing greener materials is certainly a priority, given the alarming rate of climate change, rising temperatures and sea levels, and disturbing air pollution that we are experiencing right now. Electric cars are particularly popular in the market right now, as they don’t directly produce carbon emissions. However, it was built with scarce materials that still exhaust harmful energy whenever they are charged. So while newer models claim that they are indeed friendlier to the environment, looking for used cars still cuts off your negative contribution to the environment in half. Building new cars do require a lot of money, and its materials are mined and shipped from the different parts of the world, so buying second hand allows you to have a car that already exists and won’t further contribute to traffic.
On top of considering second hand, you may also further help lessen your impact on the environment by being a lot more careful down the road. Take note of the way you drive, and see if your speed and acceleration do not produce higher emissions. Always remember to use the correct oil and keep the engine well-checked and tuned properly. Don’t forget to check if your tires are properly inflated, too!
One way or another, though, it all boils down to how you would take care of your car in the long run. Maintaining it properly will lessen the possibility of buying newer car parts to repair it, which is a lot better for the environment. The ultimate goal for having a greener, eco-friendlier community is to reduce, reuse, recycle. So by buying a secondhand car, you will naturally hit all three of them.
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