We are currently leasing and I am not really impressed with the car. Had we bought it, we'd be stuck with it. But it is definitely gone at the end of our lease. We will lease another one again. We also have a second car that we own and is paid off. I think we will always own a car that we will drive into the ground and a nicer car that we can lease. You can usually get a nicer car at a cheaper price by leasing a brand new car.

Another option is trying to purchase the dealer cars. They are "gently used" and have a cheaper price tag.

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Buy a quality used car no more then 3 or 4 year old (i.e., a lease return). There is no better option. Someone else pays to drive it off the lot, but if you by a reputable brand (like a Honda) you'll have no problems till about year 10. You'll know you're getting a good used car when the cost is slight more then you think it's worth.

For those promoting leases give your head a shake. Actually scratch that, thanks for paying through the nose to break my cars in.

Buy a new car its self rewarding.

Buying either a new car or used car will require a good chunk of cash, so pay a little extra and get it new. You get the warranties and peace of mind. There are deals out there to be had...

My thoughts:

Buy NEW if:
1. You take care of your cars well.
2. You put a lot of miles on it.
3. You intend to be in that car for at LEAST 10 years.

Buy USED if:
1. You feel any financial crunch in your life.
2. You don't put a lot of miles on it.
3. You could foresee a life-changing event (different/loss of job, marriage/kids) in the next 5 years.

LEASE if:
1. You've got the money.
2. You don't have the time.
3. You think you'll want a different car in 3 years time.


I'm 35 years old and I've never had a new car.
I'm not a fan of quickly depreciating assets either. Use Facebook, tell your world you are looking to find a car to drive, can be used. Often friends are willing to unload their current car at a more-than-fair price because they NEED a new car (job situation or life situation). When I bought my home, I bought it from a friend's aunt. I got a full disclosure on the ups/downs to the home and we saved 3% with me not getting a real-estate agent.

When we had our daughter 3 years ago, we bought our first new car (for my wife). My wife has USAA afiliation (through her dad) and they have discounted rates - which are pretty-much no-haggle. We used consumerreports.org to select our vehicle.

Regardless of buying New or Used, I'd suggest going to this site and reading EVERYTHING.
http://www.carbuyingtips.com/
You'll be prepared if you do... and spending money on their guides for the car that interest you are well worth the money.
It's not the cleanest website in the world, but I read almost everything on there before buying our vehicle and felt very comfortable about the auto-buying industry after I had read so much.

Good luck.

It used to be that new cars were more expensive but you got the reward of brand new, a warranty and some service. Used cars were dramatically cheaper, but you had to make sure you avoided lemons and there was no warranty available.

Today a lot of that has changed. Car dealers are hurting so you can get some pretty smoking deals, cash back, throw-ins, 10 year warranties, 0% financing all are readily offered which will cut the total cost a lot. Conversely, with longer warranties most 2-3 year old used cars come with warranties, or there are outside agencies who will sell you a warranty on a used car, which, combined with an inspection before purchase, will give you give peace of mind and protection. Really the pros/cons of new vs. used have been shaded gray by all these changes.

If you have the time I’d recommend keeping all options open. Consider your needs and narrow your selected car down to 3-4 models. Then price each option new, used and possibly leased. You may be able to find a smoking deal on a 2-3 year old used in great shape too good to pass up. Or, you may find a dealer who is desperate to unload a brand new car that is only $4k more brand new than last year’s model with 20k on it.

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Wow, thanks guys. There is a lot of good info here. I don't think I could ever lease a car. Yes, you can change every few years, but eventually owning the vehicle is important to me. Leasing seems too much like renting to me.

Pengwin, you bring up a lot of good points. I don't put a TON of miles on my car (I think I have put around 70k km on my car over the last 10 years)

Another thing that has to be taken into consideration is that I am a larger man, so I will probably go full sized sedan so that I will be comfortable.

Lawman, that is also a great point. I will probably take my time. I will take several test drives. I will be looking for a new car with tons of incentives, or a used car with a still active warranty, fairly low Kms and several thousand off the ticket price.

Thanks all for the input. I will rep as I can.

Rylant

if you add up your lease payments x 48 months then add residual value + tax you will notice it comes pretty darn close to what you'd pay if you bought instead of leased.

and since you put on low mileage your car will likely be worth a few thousand more than what the residual + tax is .

once lease is up , buy it out(dealers will refinance for you) and you have a bargaining chip for trade .
or just buy it out and keep it if you are happy with how its running.

Isn't 70k over 10 years considered low usage? That's about 7k a year. I consider myself a average driver and I've done 70k over ~5 years. That's 14k a year and I think average is 10-15k a year. Though I could be way off

Yah that's low. I had 57K over 6 years. Most ppl drive 15-20,000 km a year.

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Yep no doubt about it, I don't drive very much. To and from work, mostly. Still need a car though :-)

Rylant