In 2015 I bought a certified pre-owned 2014 Jeep Rubicon with just over 14K miles. Some poor schlub paid a lot of money for the privilege of breaking in the engine for me :)
The math is a little different when you can depreciate the vehicle through an S-Corp, which I did.
But, I haven’t bought new for myself in nearly 20 years. There is a huge hit on resale, and buying a well kept vehicle that is a year or two old can save you a lot of money, sometimes close to half price unless it’s a highly desirable make and model.
My problem is, I always tend to want the highly desirable makes and models, lol, so the price used is not at such a steep discount. The upside to that is, the resale is still high when you go to sell it, assuming you’ve taken reasonable care of it.
In 2015 I bought a certified pre-owned 2014 Jeep Rubicon with just over 14K miles. Some poor schlub paid a lot of money for the privilege of breaking in the engine for me :)
You got that right. Low mileage CPO is the only way to go. Previous car was a MB E550, current year model, 5k miles, better warranty than a ‘new’ car. Still smelled new. Saved $thousands! Similar deal with current car. (2013 SL63 AMG. 600 hp. I love capitalism!)
In early 2015 I bought a Honda-certified pre-owned 2011 Honda Accord LX, single leaser with 32,000 miles for $16,000, roughly half the cost of a new 2015 one. Included one year full new car warranty and five year power-train warranty. Dealer must have put a couple of grand into it to bring it up to nearly-new spec.
Manufacturer-certified pre-owned single-lease vehicles are practically the only way to go.
That’s how we buy new cars. And we haven’t had a car payment in over 20 years. We have a car savings account that money goes into every month. It’s separate from our other accounts. In 2013 we bought a 2012 Mercedes SUV with 8000 miles on it. Was a little over half what they cost new. Did the same thing when we bought my Jag. It was a year old with 13,000 miles on it. I’ve had the Jag 10 years now and as soon as it starts giving me trouble I’ll be looking around for another deal.