New car or late model for best deal? (luxury car, SUV, buy)

[augiedogie]

I have always been a used car purchaser, because it seemed like I could always find late model used cars with low miles for much less. Now, it seems more difficult. I've been looking used toyotas, but the price, in some cases is only about 20% less than new for a 4 or 5 year old car with 50k miles. That's pretty steep in my book. Anyone have thoughts on this topic.

[cebuan]

The price of a used car is the break-even point. People will buy used cars until the market price of them reaches the point at which new cars are cheaper. At market price equilibrium, the cost of new-vs.-used is a wash, and the cost tends to gravitate to that point.

So the value of one or the other is dependent on the circumstances of the buyer, and any buyer may be on one side or the other of that watershed.

[eaton53]

Originally Posted by augiedogie

I have always been a used car purchaser, because it seemed like I could always find late model used cars with low miles for much less. Now, it seems more difficult. I've been looking used toyotas, but the price, in some cases is only about 20% less than new for a 4 or 5 year old car with 50k miles. That's pretty steep in my book. Anyone have thoughts on this topic.

Yeah... buy something that depreciates.
Just because something depreciates doesn't mean it's bad.

That means probably not an SUV. Being unpopular helps.
Luxury cars, full size cars and EVs are things you can get a deal on.

[Jowel]

There are exceptions but the profit margin and markup on used cars is often higher than new cars since the dealers are paying significantly less to someone trading in a car than the market value of the car since most of their trade in customers don't want to deal with the hassle of selling it themselves and buyers are more leery of buying from a private seller.