[topspin]

That's nonsense. I've purchased one new car so far. At the time of purchase I needed reliability; no maintenance issues, no shop time fixing anything. Zero. If anything did come up the dealer would have me covered with a good loaner for however long was necessary (which did actually happen.) This was worth many times the value of the vehicle to me. Working wheels, no excuses: it was an important time for me during my career.

I paid off that vehicle in 3 years and I still have it 18 years later. I know everything there is to know about it. I know what to expect, what's been neglected, how it's been treated and what the state of everything is. I've acquired tools necessary to do the bulk of both maintenance and repairs on it, and I know to whom I can turn for the stuff I shouldn't be touching. I have all that and I haven't had to make a car payment in 15 years. I estimate it's good for at least 5 and possibly 10 more years, at which point parts will become difficult to acquire and/or questionable in quality.

The narrow minded 'finance' view of the cost of a new vehicle misses the real value. I imagine the CR model will be the typical bonehead that jumps back on the new car debt treadmill about the time the second set of tires are needed, but we're not all that idiot.

[ars]

You could have bought a 3 year old car that was still under warranty. You would have saved a ton of money and still had good reliability.

[linksnapzz]

Not necessarily. There are certain makes/models that hold value so well (deservedly or not) that the prices of used models that are 2-3 years old is within $1500 of an equivalent new model from the same manufacturer, which would have the advantage of a better warrantee && no miles on the tires.