The New Vs. Used Car Debate Is Dead. They're Both Expensive Debt Traps

For years I had the worst car in the parking lot. Probably close to the highest salary too. I was amazed at the cost of the cars for even low level cars. I was also amazed at how people noticed when someone had a flashy car. I only got rid of my car when it was no longer safe to drive. Caveat: some large towns, you need a more reliable car. I get that. But I just can’t see paying over $30k for a vehicle, and for very local commutes, that $2000 car was fine.

That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

A high quality used car beats a new car for value 99 times out of a hundred. The only exception being the weird outlier that is rare and desirable enough to appreciate in the two years after sale. If you can spot those you already know more than me. (The Toyota Tacoma springs to mind)

Look at prices for 20 year old cars. Find the cars tha have the highest resale value (avoid the ones that fall off a value cliff). Then find that one like that but five or ten years old, avoid the three main things that go wrong with that model and you’ve got a stable, reliable car that holds its value well. Maintain it and keep it clean. Drive it for five years and you’ll be able to sell it for almost what you paid for it, it’s basically free to drive for five years. This is called the value plateau. If you like it just keep it, the high value at 20 years means the maintenance costs are minimal.

I’m currently driving a car that’s worth about as much as it was when I bought it 3 years ago. I’ve got a car I bought 8 years ago that’s worth more than I paid for it.

Compare that to a $70k new car that is worth $20k five years later.

Buying new cars is a suckers game. (Thanks to all the suckers for buying them because otherwise there’d be no used car market)

Publishing an article saying new and used are comparable is idiotic at best.

I have owned and driven 4 Nissan 4 cyl. Frontier PU trucks in succession over 15 years for my small business, the most reliable PU I ever experienced. Drove each one 180K to 200K miles. before selling. As a younger man, I drove Chevy's, they were often needing work, some were "fix and repair daily" models.

My 1st Nissan PU was a manual stick, hard to find, but ultra reliable since no automatic trannie to fail. Had to replace clutch every ~80K.

All I ever did on the other 3 PU's with auto trannies was install an extra trannie cooler (after market), change tires, change oil every 5K with Mobil One synthetic, filters, change power steering and brake fluid every 2 years, change auto trannie fluid at 85K to 100K. None of the 4 were ever in the shop for any other repairs. Proper seat belt retraction was always a nuisance issue, Nissan has never solved it to my knowledge.

Bought all of the Nissans used, with low mileage, except last one, none were available in my area from private sellers around Covid. Recently added a victory red 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP turbo convertible to the mix, I found it with only 22K miles on it for $11,500.

My best friend for >50 years used to sell cars at a dealership, he told me dealerships don't make hardly any money off selling cars for cash, most of their money is made off selling cars on finance and extra "options" on new cars - - - and selling service. I found ~30 years ago when I drove my Chevy into the Houston dealership for service I was lucky to survive with no less than a $400 bill, they always found items they claim need replacing. Cox Automotive, parent company of Kelly blue book says in 2026 the typical cost today for servicing your vehicle is $838 each time you take it in.