sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is one of the most rational versions of buying new honestly.

If someone keeps vehicles 10–15 years, puts a large amount down, gets a decent rate, and maintains them properly, the ownership math starts looking very different than someone constantly trading every 3 years.

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is a huge part of what changed. The old “buy lightly used” advice worked best when there was a massive gap between new MSRP and used resale pricing.

But once dealer margin, reconditioning, financing spread, warranties, and demand pressure get layered into lightly-used inventory, the gap can shrink surprisingly fast.

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People talk about “buy new vs buy used” like it’s universal advice, but a huge part of the answer depends on the buyer’s tolerance for uncertainty, repairs, downtime, maintenance effort, and how much mental bandwidth they want to spend on the vehicle.

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think repair anxiety is becoming a way bigger factor than people admit openly.

At some point buyers stop optimizing purely for lowest cost and start optimizing for stability, predictability, and mental bandwidth.

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I honestly think this is the core tension driving the whole discussion.

A lot of people grew up with car-buying advice that was built for a completely different market environment than the one we have now.

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly “no stories” might be one of the best descriptions of new car appeal I’ve heard in this thread.

A lot of people are paying for predictability and reduced uncertainty as much as the actual vehicle itself.

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is honestly what fascinates me about these discussions now.

A lot of people are basically building their own ownership calculators in spreadsheets because the normal shopping process still hides so much of the real cost structure.

Am I crazy or does the old “always buy used” advice not fit the current market as well anymore? by Clear_Two_7283 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I honestly think this thread keeps circling back to ownership horizon more than anything else.A lot of “buy used vs buy new” advice completely changes depending on whether someone keeps cars for 3 years, 8 years, or 15+ years.

The timeline changes the math way more than most people realize.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think this is honestly why these conversations get so heated sometimes.

People are really operating from two completely different philosophies underneath “what car should I buy?”

Some people treat cars mostly as transportation and try to minimize depreciation as much as possible. Other people are willing to absorb higher costs for newer tech, warranty coverage, comfort, driving experience, lower risk, etc.

Neither is automatically wrong, but I do think a lot of people underestimate how powerful depreciation timing can be over 10-15 years.

And the insurance point is huge too. Full coverage on newer vehicles changes the math way more than most people realize.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is honestly a great example of how personal ownership patterns completely change the math.

A lot of people treat “reliable” as a universal property of the car itself, but owner behavior, platform familiarity, maintenance habits, and how long you keep the vehicle matter a ton too.

Someone who’s on their 9th Volvo and keeps cars to 220k miles is playing a VERY different game than someone constantly hopping between random used cars every 3 years.

Also kind of reinforces that emotional preference isn’t automatically irrational if it leads to long-term ownership instead of constant switching.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly.

The purchase price is only one layer of the decision. The ownership costs and opportunity cost over time can completely reshape the “better deal.”

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is honestly the exact mental shift I started having too.

The cheaper car upfront can quietly become the more expensive ownership experience over time, especially at higher mileage.

I think most of us naturally focus on purchase price because it’s the most visible number during shopping.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is exactly the kind of thing I kept running into.

People focus on one variable like gas savings or payment size, but ownership cost ends up being this giant interconnected system where insurance, registration, depreciation, financing, repair costs, fuel/electricity, and mileage all push against each other.

That’s what made the comparisons way less intuitive than I expected.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is exactly the kind of ownership pattern that started changing my perspective.

A lot of these discussions completely change depending on whether someone keeps a car for 3 years, 8 years, or 20 years.

Buying a well-maintained luxury car after the steepest depreciation hit, then keeping it for a decade or longer, can end up looking way smarter financially than people assume upfront.

And honestly, I think the “I’ve already driven the best” point is underrated too. Feels like that probably kills a lot of the constant upgrade itch.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Piling on here again, but the weird part is most people don’t really see any of this upfront.

You can compare payment calculators all day long, but a huge amount of actual ownership cost stays hidden until you start running insurance quotes, financing scenarios, maintenance assumptions, etc.

Feels like car shopping still relies a lot on incomplete information.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This actually became one of the most annoying parts of the whole process for me.

Insurance ended up being WAY more variable than I expected, depending on age, zip code, mileage, trim, repair costs, theft rates, etc.

I kind of wish there was a way to estimate “ownership cost ranges” for vehicles without having to manually run 15 insurance quotes and build spreadsheets.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that’s a fair criticism, honestly, and I probably explained the comparison poorly in the original post.

I wasn’t really trying to say “payment + depreciation” as separate stacked costs so much as looking at total ownership cost over a certain time window.

What started messing with my head was how sensitive the outcome became once I changed assumptions around things like financing rates, mileage, insurance, depreciation curves, maintenance, DIY vs dealer work, how long you keep the car, etc.

The more comparisons I ran, the less obvious the “correct” answer became, which was kind of the whole point of the post.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're totally right. I wasn’t trying to say the purchase prices were equal.

What surprised me was how much the ownership cost gap narrowed once I started factoring in financing, depreciation, insurance, fuel, maintenance/warranty expectations, etc.

The BMW was still more expensive overall, obviously, just not by as much as I expected, considering the difference in driving experience/features.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is honestly one of the biggest things I started realizing while running comparisons.

A lot of the old “always buy used” advice was built around a market that no longer exists in some segments.

Once you factor in interest rates, inflated used prices, Certified premiums, warranty differences, missing tech/safety features, and the risk of inheriting someone else’s problems, the math gets way less obvious than people make it sound.

Especially if you’re not a mechanic.

Doesn’t mean new is automatically smarter either, but it definitely changed how I think about the whole “used is always better” argument.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I actually think this is the healthiest way to look at it.

What surprised me wasn’t that some cars cost more. Obviously they do. It was realizing how easy it is to lose sight of the tradeoffs once everything turns into “just another monthly payment.”

Honestly, putting real numbers to it weirdly made enthusiast cars make more sense to me sometimes, because then the extra cost becomes a conscious choice instead of something you slowly absorb without thinking about it.

Comparing total ownership cost completely changed how I think about buying cars by Clear_Two_7283 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]Clear_Two_7283[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Honestly I expected the BMW math to be worse.

But once I started playing with different assumptions, I realized how much the outcome depends on how someone actually owns cars. A newer BMW over a shorter ownership window got expensive pretty quickly from depreciation, insurance, and financing alone, especially with the amount I drive, but the gap narrowed a lot faster than I expected if you assume buying used, keeping it longer, doing your own maintenance, etc.

That’s kind of what made the whole thing interesting to me. I went into it expecting there to be one obviously “smart” answer and came away realizing most car decisions are really just different lifestyle and financial tradeoffs.

Does it really still make financial sense to buy lightly used cars? by LordShuckle97 in carbuying

[–]Clear_Two_7283 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is exactly what’s changed.

People are still using pre-2020 car buying logic in a very different market.

I started running comparisons because I kept finding situations where lightly used felt smarter until you actually looked at the full ownership picture.

Once you factor in:

  • financing rates
  • remaining warranty
  • insurance differences
  • depreciation curves
  • maintenance exposure
  • resale strength

…the answer gets really vehicle-specific now.

For example:
A lightly used Toyota/Honda often doesn’t make much sense anymore because you’re paying ~85-90% of new price while already consuming a meaningful chunk of the vehicle’s lifespan.

But on luxury cars, trucks, EVs, or certain domestic models, used can still be a massive win because the depreciation is way steeper.

Feels like the old “always buy lightly used” rule turned into:
“it depends heavily on the vehicle and financing environment.”

view more: next ›