We boughtr my wife a new Mazda3 Sport hatchback last year. Looking at good used cars, the difference between new and used for what we wanted ( Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Hyundai) was very small. So we bought new.
@mb - No…It’s a 72 White one with a 2’ wide black stripe done the middle. No spoiler. And it’s in pretty good shape. Only has 80k miles. And it’s in Florida. He’s already had a few nibbles on it. Asking $3k. I think that was more then it was new.
Darn. Oh well, I’m sure mine was sent to the crusher years ago.
Re: the new car price: I had a '72 coupe (the hatchback as opposed to the notchback) and paid $2300 branny new & delivered. An extra few hundred would have gotten the GT. Yeah, $3K is definitely more than it cost new.
Price a new Mercedes S class and then price one that’s a few years old, then see how true your statement holds up.
“Buy Japanese new; buy domestics used.”
Not always true. I tried to find myself a good used Ford Focus with manual transmission and they were priced higher than the new ones. I did not bother negotiating but I am sure they wouldn’t come down much on the price since it was still priced bellow “book value”.