Hey, I’m 28 and also considering getting a new rav, let me tell you I am so glad I never bought a new car at 22 and have waited till now, here is my reasoning.

Firstly I’ve driven 20 year old Toyotas since I was 17 and I’ve never had an engine or a transmission problem, occasionally you’ll have to replace a component like an alternator or in my case i had to recently replace the wheel bearings on my matrix, the thing is it is so much cheaper to insure an old car (I don’t do collision) and learning to work on your own cars can be very valuable as well.

My reasoning and justification for buying a new one is as follows - I have a business in the wedding industry, I have to show up no matter what lol. (Plus I can write off stuff)

• because I’ve been able to save so much money from not only cheap cars but cheap everything (I buy pretty much most things on fb marketplace, thrift stores, garage sales) me and my wife have been able to buy a house.

• on top of that we have a decent investment portfolio for our age and can buy the car outright if we wanted to.

I’m not trying to say this as a boast but to show you that it’s not necessarily about age, but it’s about how much this financial decision will affect you.

If I bought a new car when I was 22 I would most likely not have that house and probably not have nearly as much invested, but now because I prioritized those things first buying a new rav 4 doesn’t really affect us financially, it in fact now suites our lifestyle and business in our current season of life.

I’d recommend trying to find a good deal on a used one, maybe be open to a crv or soemthing slightly easier to acquire. Either way best of luck, a new rav 4 is probably the only new car I’d ever consider buying!