Originally Posted by
dynodonn
For some people, buying a new car makes sense, especially if they live in a rural location. One of my co-workers decided to purchase a new car when the annual repair bills on their older vehicle exceeded the annual loan payment on a new vehicle, plus the added reliability was another factor.
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.