Buying new vs. buying 3-4 years old used
 

No ifs and buts about, buying a 3-4 years old car is almost always cheaper financially. Yet my question is, is the gap really as big as people say? Here is my situation. I am looking for a new wife mobile. She is leaning toward the Acura MDX as she wants a 3rd row for flexibility. With the discounts and rebate, a new MDX is $37K. If I get a used one, it would cost somewhere around $25-$28K similarly equipped in 2008-2009 with about 40-50K miles. Extended warranty to 120K is available for $2K extra. So the difference between the two car (same style virtually) is $10K. Do you think it is worth the money to fork out for a new car or just take the money and deal with it.

We also looked at a Toyota Highlander. Gap is even smaller due to the resale on the Toyota. I can get a base one for $30K new (with 0%), a fully loaded one for $36K. On the used market, a 3-4 years old base goes for about $21-24K and high 20s for a loaded one from 2009 with basically no warranty left.

What do you guys think?

I'd just buy it used and save the $10k. As long as it hasn't been horribly abused and you take good care of it (which I presume you will) it should be fine. My cousin has bought 2 used MDX's in the past couple of years and has run them for like 30-40k miles with no issues. It really is a great car as a DD and $10k is not an insignificant amount especially since you'll still have a warranty on it.

As soon as I saw "wife" in there the answer is used. Most women destroy cars, only makes sense to not spend more for it.

Buying used is nearly always cheaper than buying new. If you don't get the aftermarket warranty then the difference is even greater

The 3-4 years of use price gap sucks. I always buy new or 5+ years old.

No way I'm dropping close to the cost of a new car on an unknown with very little warranty left. The savings are too small to cover the warranty loss/unknown condition.

One thing I have noticed lately, is that lot of cars that are 1-2 years old are still trying to be sold at damn near the new price. For only a maybe 1-2k difference, I'd rather pay extra for the new.

That's what I did with the Maxima I bought 2 years ago. Went in looking at a used 09 and ended up with a new 10 for only $2k more.

0% financing new could be worth it depending if your getting a "used" auto loan for $20k+

The thing is that I want to get an extended warranty as the car will be the baby mobile. To get a factory warranty, you have to buy it before the factory warranty runs out. So you are basically stuck with a car that has <50K miles. $10K is a decent chunk to save, but it feels easier to buy a new car and just make the payments and call it a day. Decision decision

Use the $10k for baby expenses, you'll thank yourself for it some day :p

Used car is cheaper, but in the current market everyone is going after used cars. This has driven the price of used cars up. The gap is not what it used to be. I'd still buy used, and will for my wife's next car (by the end of this year), but its really almost a personal preference in this market.