Money well spent: saving their old car versus buying a new one (2024)

Since auto technicians rely on the repair industry for our hard-earned dollars, we think it's fair to say that we could all use an easy win every now and then. Luckily we finally have one.

Even though your customers may have trouble making a decision, the truth is that the calculation is quite simple: it is almost always more cost-effective to repair an old or damaged vehicle than to replace it. Even if it's something as serious as a blown engine, paying to get the vehicle repaired and back on the road is usually always the right thing to do. In this short blog post we will show you how to explain this to your customers as they struggle to decide whether to pay for their vehicle repairs or buy a new or used vehicle.

To start, let's start with something everyone knows:The 50% rule. Because a replacement vehicle, used or new, is going to cost a lot of money no matter where you decide to buy it (we're talking quality cars here, not jalopies), the usual rule of thumb is that if the repair costs less than 50% of the value of the vehicle so as not to consider parting with it for replacement.

This does not mean that repairing the vehicle will always be easy. And that certainly doesn't mean it will be cheap, especially if they are approaching half the value of their car. But guess what 50% is half the price of 100%...

Buying a used vehicle may seem like a better alternative, but you never know what problems the vehicle has had in the past. By paying the repair costs instead, the customer already knows the history of their vehicle, such as what maintenance and repairs have been carried out, what wear and tear has occurred on the vehicle and whether there have been any previous accidents, for example.

Have your customerinvest in the repairNot only can getting them back on the road save them a large sum of money over purchasing a brand new vehicle, but in most cases they will also get back on the road faster. As long as they haven't caused any serious or damaging damage to their vehicle, most garages will have the vehicle back on the road within a week or two. If they could sell their car, find a suitable new one, buy it and transfer ownership quickly... well... props to you Superman.

Finally it isactual payment planTo consider. If your customer thinks it is cheaper to buy a new car because he can put it on a payment plan, make him aware of these two facts: 1. There is no "down payment" on repairs. And 2. If you break down the cost of the repair into monthly payments, each monthly payment would be much less than the monthly payment for a new car. Moreover, they do not spend money annually on the interest costs that they would normally incur when taking out a car loan.

If they're thinking of pinching pennies, which is perfectly reasonable these days, ask them to go a step further and put their repairs on a repayment plan, rather than taking on a much longer term and greater debt burden go, just to think they saved money.

Reference locations: