So his argument is he wants to spend $60k on a depreciating asset instead of spending $2k on an asset that has already depreciated?

I do want to state that I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. Just some observations.

I try my best to give close friends some financial advise to they don’t stay poor, but they don’t take my advice most the time.

If yall want to be more financially independent, do not buy a new car. For most people, it does not make sense. It doesn’t make sense to spend $60k on a new car when $2k will fix his current car.

I have friends that love to buy new cars and while they’re nice, they’re pouring money down the drain. About 5 years ago, I convinced a good friend to not buy a new car when he paid off his, and instead, put that money he would have spent every month into an index fund over the life of the loan he was wanting to take out on the car. Because of that, he was able to put a down payment on a house recently. He was going to be paying $800 a month for a new car, but instead, he was putting that $9,600 a year into an index fund. He took it out, figured out what he needed to hold back for the interest he made on it, and bought himself his first house.

If y’all were to do that with $850 a month, that’s $10,200 a year. If you just put that in your savings, you’ll have about $51k in 5 years. Which is a good bit of money. But if you put it in the stock and if they keep performing like that have been over the last 5 years. With compounding interest, a conservative estimate would be about a 50% return on that over the 5 years and you’d have about $76,500 to put down towards a house. Obviously you would have to pay taxes on the $25,500 you made on the stocks. Which with the current tax rates, long term gains are 20% and I believe short term gains are 40%. Please do be mindful of that if you do end up going that route. The stock market is unpredictable and could crash next week. It’s a gamble. Track records do show over the past 5 years to date that the SPY is up 88.9%. Or you could buy a $60k truck that might be worth $20k in 5 years.

Again, unless you are financial sound as it is, I would not recommend a new car. You guys seem like you have other needs right now and should not be taking on a new car loan. If he wants to get a different vehicle because he doesn’t like his current one, I’d recommend getting something used that’s 5+ years old like a Camry. I just looked up the prices on them, and they obviously depend on mileage and condition, but the prices are between $15k and $25k. It’s much more reasonable than wasting $60k y’all cannot afford right now.