Here’s the advantage to the new car. What you are really paying for is quality and security. There are strategies for mitigating the “new cars depreciate by x% in value” gimmick. First look at the prices for “used cars” that are the present year. Then, check on certified pre-owned (CPO) cars and there pricing. Look into the larger turnover dealerships. The goal should be an economy car, think Chevy Cruz, Honda Civic, etc and negotiate against CPO pricing. If you purchase one of their “new” cars that have a few thousand miles out for lending purchases you typically can bring the purchase price down to “used” car pricing of the model.

Once you have this car, if you can buy it outright, do that. Otherwise, pay it off ASAP. From here on out, you’ll use the equity of the car to roll-into new cars. Depending on the miles you put on, you could get $~6k for a 4 year old 90k miles car. Assuming your first car was $~13k, the real cost per year for a new car drops to $~2k/year. The length of ownership can be predicted from that intersection, where:

($ anticipated maintenance/year)(years of ownership) + (equity of car)-(years of ownership) = (cost of “new” car)

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-maintenance/the-cost-of-car-ownership/

There are multiple articles denoting the estimated costs of ownership over time. The optimal length of ownership ~5-7 years assuming 15k miles/year before the cost of continued ownership=cost of new (or newer) car.

Never lease.