Ok, I’ll reply here. Mainly because I can’t get back to sleep. How is buying a new car cheaper in the long run than buying an older used car? Let’s take my truck for example. A 2005 extended cab 4wd. I bought it with 137k miles for $5500. A comparable truck new could be had for maybe $35k. Even if I have to replace the motor and transmission, I’m not going to get close to $35k. Tag, insurance, etc aside, as those would all be higher on the new truck. As a matter of fact, I could probably do a major repair on the old truck for the cost of the sales tax on the new truck.
Now I think you could be correct, assuming you drive the new truck (or car) for 250k plus miles versus buying and repairing multiple used vehicles in that same 250k plus mile period. Which is why we bought my wife’s suv new and plan to keep it at least 200k miles. But that’s not what most people do, I don’t think.
