Financially, new cars make absolutely no sense. If you can afford it, great, but you can get an excellent used car if you're willing to look around. You can specify what you're looking for in the filters on the used car sites, including how far away you're willing to go to look at it. I have two cars at the moment, and a motorcycle, none newer than 2007 model.
This is a very typical viewpoint of someone who is interested in cars. "Why buy a new one," they will say, "when you can get a used one for cheaper and the risks are negligible." They will then go on to say that they have multiple older vehicles. But for a lot of people, who are not interested in cars, those risks are everything. People not interested in cars don't want to maintain two cars plus a motorbike. They don't even want to maintain one car. They don't want variable costs, and they absolutely cannot stand roadside failures. They depend on their car to get to work.
For these people, leasing a new car is absolutely the way forward. Fixed monthly costs, one service during the ownership period, no need to repair anything (unless it's crashed), and then after three years hand it back and get another one. It's utility motoring. You only have to watch all the terrible cars in awful colours being driven badly by people on their phones, to get a sense of just how little people can care about motoring.
Who, of all the people you know who care about cars, would look at the market and choose to drive a 1.6 litre diesel crossover, like a Nissan Qashqai (or a Rogue in the US)? Nobody who cares about cars looks at their wants & needs, looks at the market, and thinks "Yes, this bland, inoffensive, cheap, economical car with a good safety rating is the one for me." So why are they
everywhere? It's because they're buying a new car for five grand down and four hundred a month.
Until the start of the chip shortage, nobody paid full retail for a new car, unless they were buying exotic, limited or built-to-order (and I've seen some great deals on built-to-order cars as well). So, for sure, losing 60% of the value in 4 years seems financially mental until you remember that they only paid maximum 90% of retail, and even then they financed the deposit with their old car and paid off the new one at four hundred a month. These buyers don't typically see the depreciation: they're not handing over a massive wad of cash at the start and getting a tiny wad of cash at the end, because it's five grand down and then after three years they hand the old car back and get a new one, with the monthlies rolling over.
These sorts of people don't want "to look around" either. They want to turn up at a lot, or point to a screen, and say "that one," then conclude the transaction as soon as possible. People don't want to weigh the pros & cons of a car that's 2 years old or 4, has done 10,000 miles or 30,000 miles. They don't want to find a car that has dual zone climate control when they can tick the "dual zone climate control" on the order sheet. They don't want to check that the services were done on time by reputable shops. This is all unnecessary detail that can only cause stress for them.
So, yeah, new cars make a lot of sense for a lot of people, so long as you can see past the sticker price at the start & end of a traditional buy-as-asset commercial agreement. And I realise I've ranted on a bit about this, please note
@wfooshee this is in no way a personal attack on you, I'm just presenting an alternative viewpoint.
Article here. I agree with it - I was visiting a local Hyundai dealership, and some of the new vehicles had a $1,000 markup. It's nuts. It's also a shame because I was really hoping to get a car soon. Then again, I don't really
need a car of my own yet, as my parents' 2008 Honda Odyssey works perfectly fine despite having over 181k miles on it, haha! Perhaps I'll take this time to do a bit more research. My folks and I think I'd be best with either a Hyundai Kona, a Subaru Crosstrek, or possibly a Mazda3. I'm not sure which trims I'd get any of these cars in, either, though we can definitely rule out the Kona N, haha! But seriously, I'm aiming for a new or used car that's about $24k at most, and RWD is (perhaps unfortunately) out of the question, although it feels like snow has becoming less and less common lately here in CT.
Snow is about tyres. Get yourself a set of winter tyres and your snow worries are gone. My main advice to you for what sounds like it will be your first car is this: Don't back yourself into a corner. Don't insist on too many specifications. Each time you say "I want..." the pool of vehicles from which you can choose will decrease, and this diminishes your scope for finding a great car at a great price.
But generally, keep your cash in your pocket as long as you can while we have this supply chain issue ongoing.
Over 260,000 miles, everything worked, still had cold air, power everything.
