Some people cant see the wood for the trees, spend £5k on a van and get five years its still going to cost you a grand a year
even if you get 6 years from it its still coming in at around just over £800 a year, add on the extra expenses of keeping an older van on the road and you might be worse off.
The biggest problem for some when buying new is because of their poor credit rating they take out overpriced finance deals that
would make buying a cheaper used van a better option ( there's no bigger waste of money than paying interest on a loan ) but with a good credit rating and a low interest deal a new van could work out a better use of your cash than buying used.
And some people can't see the trees for the wood.
A 5k van won't depreciate to 0 in 5 years.
Vehicles do most of their depreciation early on. A 5k van might still be worth 2.5k in 5 years.
I wouldn't buy a 5k van either though. My van as an example was 2.5k. 10 years old with 100k on the clock. If I keep it 5 years I might lose a grand on it.
Yes components are older and potentially going to fall apart quicker but it's also likely am older van has had major components replaced like cam belt, clutch etc already.
If you buy a new van an keep it 10 years it's likely you will be paying for all the major services that come along over that first 100k. So clutch, belts and and no doubt you'll want that book stamped up and not miss anything as it's a new van.
On an old van all your likely to do is give it an oil and filter change a few times.
The cheaper the van the bigger the savings. My previous van I paid 500 quid for, never even changed the oil, kept it two years all it had was battery and a bulb. Sold it on for 375.
Its the same with cars, in my younger years I once bougut an mgzr. Few years later I lost 5 grand on it.
All my other cars I've had are a grand or less, amd ive had a few, maybe 20 or so..i've been lucky in they've never needed much and when they have most of the time I can do it myself. If they blow up sell them on and buy another.