Thats the canundrum. Either you buy new and know the history of the car but have to make payments or you buy used, pay less and are never quite sure of the car's history, how it was cared for and how it was driven.In deciding whether to put a major expense into a car, what is the value of being the original owner of a car and keeping it, as opposed to buying a used car? If you're the original owner, you generally know every thing about the car's maintenance, something you can never be 100% confident about when buying used. I am trying to calculate whether it is worth it to put money into a car and keeping it for several more years, or trading it in, and to me there should be some factor as to what a car is worth if you're the only registered owner. Is it worth 20% more than book value? 15%? 10%?
To be fair though, even buying new you never know because someone at the factory could have messed something up with it was built.