Best time to buy a car

[disneysteve]

3. Don't buy a used car if you can help it.

You will get a lot of disagreement on this point. Most of us here preach to never buy new. We currently have 2 cars. Mine is a 1998 Toyota Camry. I bought it a year old in August 1998 with a little over 11,000 miles. It was a "dealer demo" model and was in Toyota's certified used program. It now has 123,000 miles and is doing just fine. I saved about $6,000 by getting it a year old. My wife drives a 2000 Toyota Sienna. We bought that in September 2002 so it was 2-3 years old. It had 34,000 miles. It now has over 120,000 and is also doing fine. We saved about $10,000 over buying a new van at that time.

I don't see myself ever buying a new car again. The depreciation is a factor even if you keep the car long term. If a car loses 20% of it's value in the first year, it will still save you money to buy a 1-year-old car and keep it for a long time.

[segmond]

if you have a decent running car, then there is never a good time to buy another one/replace it, unless you got millions.

if you don't have a good car, then right now, but first thing first, LEARN about cars, or find someone that knows about it and knows how to negotiate like hell.