It really all depends on what one desires out of their vehicles, my wife and I own two vehicles which are 19 and 18 model years old. Mine is truly a beater but a reliable beater used solely as a work vehicle, my wife's is a year older but has all the bells and whistles of that era for a GM.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
We haven't had a car payment in decades because we've always personally bought use and great used vehicles at that. Are we rich or baller, hell no but it did allow my wife to be a stay at home mom which was a part of our plan. Do we care what others think of our vehicles, hell no. I'll plop my miter saw on the hood of my Suburban as a place for it to sit while I get my table saw out. Do I worry about scratches or dents, hell no because that shit happens on the job sites I'm at, really I don't get people spending $50,000 plus on a work truck that's going to get beat up - first week I had mine, minor dent in the front fender. Not sure who did it but I sure as hell didn't lose any sleep over it. Other guys in their new trucks, well it's quite a scene.
All I'm saying is each to their own, we can't be bothered with the whole economic math of leading versus new and to be honest, there plenty of great used vehicles out there - our Trailbazer (written off by a distracted driver who hit my wife) was bought use and still had the factory protective plastic on the second and third row seats plus the rear entertainment video/audio stuff and it was 6 years old when we bought it. My wife's current SUV, bought at 16 model years old only had 58,000km on it - very old seniors owned it in Medicine Hat and used it only for getting groceries and going to church on Sundays.