I will do what I did last time: buy a certified pre-owned car with low miles (this was before Cash for Clunkers drove up prices). Even that will be exorbitant in cost.
The car I have now was one year old when I bought it, in great shape with under 20K miles. It now has 110K and I take good care of it praying it will make 250K. The process of buying a car in this country is thoroughly unpleasant from cost to negotiation.
We do that, too. Let somebody else take that depreciation hit driving a new car off the lot.
I just bought (well, in January) a two year old V8 Expedition with 26k on the clock. Saved about 40% compared to new. We bought the extended warranty and it’s a good thing we did...the sunroof just broke and it’s a $3,000 repair! That’s nearly 10% of what we paid for the vehicle. That alone is more than the warranty cost, so we are money in the bank.
Disappointed that a sunroof broke, though. That’s never happened before.