There is always another option, and one we're doing. Buy an older aeroplane and rebuild it.
We bought a commander which had had a landing accident. As such we bought it off the insurance company very cheaply. Had we broken it for spares then, we'd have made money on that alone, but we decided to rebuild. After the rebuild the aeroplane will benefit from:
New avionics
New Interior
New paint job
Zero timed and balanced engine
new 3 blade prop
(and N reg
)
Once this is all complete the cost will be about £60k all in. Not bad for an "as new" IFR tourer.
It has taken about a year to do, and we have paid people to do all the work, bar a few bits like sand blasting and painting components and re-doing the interior.
The thing I like about this route is that the aeroplane is a known quantity. I have personally inspected the wing spars, and other critical bits and it is nice to see they are in good condition. We'll have new wing bolts and during the rebuild they found minute cracks in the rudder at the hinge - something that you never know, could have gone in 10 years time and you'd never have known they were there because you can't see them on the pre-flight. Aeroplanes that haven't benefited from being taken to bits may never be inspected in such detail.
Can one pay say a maintenance place to build a kit aeroplane? Would it be cheaper than a factory built one?