Bought a 2012 Focus SEL w/ Ford MyTouch (Deal or no deal)??

[svptsp]

For $16.5. Has 650 miles on it. Was this a good deal, or should I have bought a 2013 model?

I am now wondering if I should've bought new, with colors of my choice. And paid $6k more for the 2013 Titanium.

Thoughts?

[Sponsor]

[05focusST91]

Pretty good, with nav?

[svptsp]

No Nav. Just 8" touch screen.

[Arco-Zakus]

Originally Posted by svptsp

For $16.5. Has 650 miles on it. Was this a good deal, or should I have bought a 2013 model?

I am now wondering if I should've bought new, with colors of my choice. And paid $6k more for the 2013 Titanium.

Thoughts?

Wondering -- why? What's done is done, don't look back. If you discover you made a bad deal, you'll just feel bad about it, unless it is still reversible. I guess either way you can apply whatever you learn from this experience to your future purchases.

I know what you mean about getting to pick the "colors of my choice" since I've alternated between buying cars new or used over the years, but sometimes even buying new you can get a better deal by being flexible about color choices. Since the SEL was eliminated for 2013, you probably won't be seeing others like yours everywhere you drive, if that matters to you. If you got a "good one" (no DCT ills or front suspension clunking or steering rack wierdness) my gut feeling is that's a pretty good price and you'll be happy with it. How good the price was depends on the difference between what you paid and what that car would have sold for new, which may be different than what you'd pay for a comparable 2013. You did not mention whether it is the base SEL (cloth seats) or the premium package (leather seats + 17" Borbet BS5 wheels) and what other options (moonroof, etc) it has.

There's a good discussion that touches on the range of discounts people got when buying new and how prices compare to other brands for used sales:
Focus Fanatics > Model Specific Discussions > MK3 Focus > ’12 Focus Depreciation – That Bad? Really? <DATA ANALYSIS INCLUDED>
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=307859
That analysis is for base SE models so it does not apply directly to your SEL, but you can extrapolate, or gather your own data for SELs and copy the method he used if you think it's worth the effort.

My advice would be to enjoy this car for as long as it takes to save enough to pay cash for your next car. Start building a fund so you can self-finance the next one. If you have it, put the $6k you saved into a reasonably safe investment (if such a thing even exists these days). If you financed the it, calculate the difference between payments you're making now and what they'd have been for the 2013 and pay that amount to yourself each month until the '12 is paid off, then keep paying the full amount until your fund is big enough. (You can decide then what you want to replace it with and whether you want to buy it new or used, as with this one. Pros and cons for either way...) Along the way you can always increase the payments to your fund as your budget allows and as your desire to buy a new(er) and/or more expensive car, or how soon you want to be able to do that, dictates.

For this method to work, you have to be disciplined enough to pay yourself back (to replensh the fund for the next car, and so on) the same way you would have to make payments to anyone else you would borrow from. The reward is that instead of paying interest to THEM for the use of their money, YOU are the one recieiving the interest part of each payment. Then, on top of that, it grows at whatever rate your investment yields as you rebuild it between purchases. (This is the part the dealer finance guy leaves out of the comparison they use to convince you to borrow from them instead of paying cash. If it was not a good deal to be the lender, why would they work so hard at convincing you to borrow from them?) It's better to be the lender than the borrower for a depreciating asset like a car -- it is not an investment since it has little chance of appreciating in value. That is, as long as you know how to qualify how risky the borrower is, which in this case is yourself.

Sorry if this was way more than you wanted to hear -- "thoughts?" is a bit open ended -- but it's kind of related and has worked great for me for 40 years.

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There's no fool like an old fool. It's like anything else -- the longer you are one, the better you get at it.

[Nik00117]

Don't dwell on if you got a good deal or not after cause fact is after the deal is done there is very little you can do.

[Focusfreek13]

There is no such thing as a good deal....a good deal is a state of mind or a perception of what is....if you FEEL like you got a good deal then you did... That's all that matters...you got a great car at great price ! Sounds like a great deal to me!!

[Arco-Zakus]

Originally Posted by Focusfreek13

... if you FEEL like you got a good deal then you did...

Someone I knew who sold cars most of his life probably would have agreed you. At a party one night he told a story about a deal he had put together for a repeat customer who had bought several fleets of cars from him over the years.

When they got together to finish the deal, the customer told him, "I'm so busy at the moment I haven't had time to get another bid or check these prices. You've always been fair with me for all the years we've done business together. I trust you enough that I just need you to look me in the eye and tell me this is a good deal."

The salesman said he had no problem looking the customer in the eye and saying, "Yes, this is a good deal," so they shook hands and the customer signed the contract. He finished the story with a big smile and added, "He didn't ask whether it was a good deal for him or for me."

[Ox-y-GenIII]

Ya that's a good deal. I paid 21k for my SEL NEW (with extended warranty). So that's quite a bit of savings for 650 miles. It stinks you may lose out on some warranty things but that is damn near new to me and you can always get the ESP before the standard warranty runs out.