New Cars vs. Used Cars

[chrisj]

When I was a young kid here in South Jesus, Kentucky, my daddy always taught me that you should never buy a brand new car, and should always wait to get one a couple of years old because of how much the car devalues in the first two years.

I have owned only 3 brand new cars in my life. In 1974, a gold Camaro. In 1983, a silver Subaru hatchback, and in 1999 a tan Corolla.

I had no idea about values of the Camaro and Subaru, as my daddy took them off my hands for a couple of different reasons. In both cases I couldn't make the payments. In the 1999 Corolla's case, I paid $14,000 for it new, and traded it in 2 years later for my Tacoma. The trade-in allowance I got was $8,000, which seemed like a rip-off to me, especially since it was a Toyo.

So, when I got our latest "new" car, it was indeed coming up on 2 years old, and I got a pretty good deal on it.

Any thoughts on the brand-new vs. used idea?