I agree with geebee.  I generally buy new and drive it into the ground.  I bought my current car new for $25k in 1998, and I can probably comfortably squeeze another year out of it, before expensive stuff starts to break.  I'm in the market for a new car, again in the $25k range.<p>It's not about the car's purchase price, it's about how much that car costs you to own over time: how much it depreciates in a year, and how much it costs to maintain it.  I think I'm at about $3k per year for my current 1998 car (not counting gas), assuming it has zero resale value (which isn't the case).