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Sometimes in your life, you just plain 'ol want a new car, and if you can afford it, go buy it. However, if you boil it down to the financial solution, buying the new car never makes sense.
My wife wanted AWD. Mercedes announced the 4-matic C-Class. We went to look. We sat down and crunched the numbers, and it just didn't make sense. We bought a new-price $42,000 Subaru for $21,000 that's barely three years old that will be worth $16,000 in three to four years instead of a $50,000 car that will be worth $22,000 in three to four years.
Now, this keep 'em strategy does NOT always work. It happens to with almost all Mercedes because they retain so much of their pleasure even as they age. We're a little unusual because we know that in 10-12 years our cars will be rust-free, solid, fun to drive cars. This is not so with a Neon.
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