Quote:
Originally Posted by jIM_Ohio
Assuming the used car kicks the bucket 3 years before the new one (same model, both should be on road for same length-right)...
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That depends on mileage.
Let's say that you typically drive 15,000 miles/year. Buy a new car and after 3 years, it will have 45,000 miles on it. What if instead of new, you were able to find a 3-year-old model that only had 25,000 or 30,000 miles on it? That means the used car has only gotten about 2 years' worth of usage based on your average. All things being equal, the used car would last an additional year.
As I mentioned in another thread, we bought a new van in 2000. It was wrecked in 2002. We replaced it with a used 2000 van but the used one had 8,000 fewer miles than the one we had wrecked. Even though it was 2 years old, it was like turning back the clock 3/4 of a year for us, so in a way, it was only just over 1 year old based on mileage.