Cars: New vs Used vs No Car

Paid Twice and the M-Network will be discussing this issue this week and Paid Twice has graciously invited bloggers to join in. Thanks, Paid Twice.

When my husband and I were first married, we bought new cars. Probably because we had done no research on purchasing a new vs used car. After the last new car purchase my husband announced that we would not purchase another new car. Of course, now he had done some reading on new vs used.

I went back to work several years ago after being home with my children for 16 years. I announced to my spouse that I was buying a brand new Toyota Corolla. He tried to talk me out of it, but I told him that I had wanted a Corolla when we first got married (at that time I allowed him to talk me out of it) and I was going to buy one. He took me to Enterprise where we once had purchased a used car with only 15,000 miles on it and tried to convince me to buy a used Camry or Avalon. I just wasn't having it!

Earlier this year, my husband bought a used economy car. It's a 2004 and only had about 30,000 miles on it. I think he paid less than $9,000 for it. I thought he got a good deal. I went with him to the lot to purchase this vehicle. While he was completing the paperwork, I was looking at some of the automobiles the dealer had on the lot. One really caught my eye. It was Toyota Camry. It was a silvery-grey color. It had a sun roof and leather seats. It was absolutely beautiful. It looked brand new. I looked at that big print-out that gives you more car details and my mouth dropped! This Camry was a 2002 model. It only had 20,000 miles on it. You will never believe what this car was listed for. I couldn't believe it myself. I had to run back to my car to get my glasses to make sure I was reading the sticker correctly. This silvery-grey 2002 Toyota Camry with a sunroof and leather seats and only 20,000 miles on it was listed for $14,000!

That was the clincher for me. I am a convert. It's used car or no car.