Your argument dosn’t show that used cars are overpriced; it shows that one make and model of used car is overpriced…if bought for close to asking price at a new car dealer.
You ask for the most economical option…and then you use the least economical make, bought through the least economical means.
It’s like saying “beer is overpriced” and using stadium prices to demonstrate your point.
Getting cheap, reliable wheels is all about “expoliting inefficiencies in the marketplace.” to do this…
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FORGET ASIAN MAKES. These makes sell at a huge premium due to perceived difference in quality. This public perception has a decade-plus historical lag: domestics and Japaneese imports are presently near-parity, yet prices reflect quality differentials that are decades old. This is a marketplace inefficiency…go exploit it!
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DON’T PICK POPULAR MODELS. For the same reason as 1.
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DON’T BUY FROM DEALERS. Dealers get their choice of used cars, and shunt off the less-desireable ones to auction, etc. The public knows this, the dealer “knows that they know”…and exploits this factor mercilessly! Used dealers are a bit dicey for a novice…I suggest cutting out the middleman entirely and buying FSBO from an aquaintance…or failing that, C-list.
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There are age/mileage limits (I used to know them), beyond which financing is much harder to come by. If financing isn’t an issue, buy just on the other side of the dividing line.
I was once in a predicament in which I had $1,000 to get wheels to get out of Tampa, or abandon my personal belongings. I had about given up when I spied a 12 y.o. Olds Cutlass Ciera. No rust, under 100k mi, inop AC, and still on a used car lot that closed the week prior.
I damn near swooned; I knew I’d get that Olds for salvage price.