Originally Posted by
mrodgers
Even with rural, a brand new car doesn't make sense. Estimate $21k for a new car, $18k for a 2 year old car, and $11 on a 5 year old with equivalent say, 12k per year kind of mileage on them. My wife, and occasionally me, puts 25,000 miles on her car per year. I cut it off at 200,000 because that is the time when it seems I am underneath the car working on it more than driving it. That gives me figures for per year of $2625 for 8 years on the new car, $2571/year for 7 years on the 2 year old, and $1833/year for about 5.5 years on the 5 year old car. That doesn't include repairs because all cars would be driven through the same later mileage up to 200k. Still cheaper to buy the older used car.
With a used car, one might get a better price, but one still doesn't fully know how the previous owner treated it, with a used car, one is basically buying some other person's problem a little sooner down the line.
I buy used vehicles, but I can maintain and repair them if there is a problem, and for the fraction of shop rates, my co-worker cannot do their own repairs and is needing a vehicle that won't need major repairs for a longer period of time than a used vehicle would.