With the economic climate in its current state you would understand if car makers were to be a little reserved about projected sales figures. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

In fact, car makers are remaining confident that there will be a growth in car sales in 2013. That may of course have something to do with the incentive to buy new.

There are indeed some great value models out there and if it’s a pay monthly scheme that takes your fancy then there are a wealth of incentives out there to tantalise you.

In fact, buying new can be cheaper than buying a used car. Yes, this may come across as somewhat ludicrous but when the numbers are crunched it can pay off to buy brand new.

For example, take an offer on a new car that boasts 0% finance, free insurance and 3 years free servicing. This could add an extra value of over £3000 to the car and if there is a target monthly payment to achieve buying new simply makes more sense. All that said it doesn’t mean that there aren’t persuasive arguments against the option and that is why consumers considering changing cars should weigh up the argument either way.

If paying monthly isn’t an option and a fixed budget is the option of choice then consumers are fairly limited as to what value they can get for their cash. Increasingly there are fewer and fewer models available with an attractive mileage because more people seem to be holding off and sticking with their existing car. As a result there is an abundance of cars on the market with high mileage and in turn puts prospective buyers off.

However models with high mileage shouldn’t be overlooked, especially to those that only do an average of 5,000 miles or less in a year. There can be some real value in paying less for a high mileage motor if the user isn’t planning on adding a large amount of miles to the clock over the next few years. What this means is that they will in turn allow the year to catch up with the mileage seeing a decent return with regards to depreciation.

The economic climate doesn’t bear bad news for everybody and many in the motor trade are happy. That said, the buying frenzy we were accustomed to a few years back seems to have died down somewhat. What this means is we should expect to see some interesting tactical activity coming from many dealerships which in turn could make buying particular cars a worthwhile investment in the new year.

This article was written by Mike Carr of MTI. For more information, please visit my Google+ page