Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Households with top incomes have a lower proportion of new vs used car purchases, and the lowest end of the income spectrum has a higher proportion of new vs used car purchases.
Perhaps this is further evidence that the rich live as though they were poor, and the poor live as though they are rich.
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I don't think that's so much the case. You could fill the driveway with new low end cars for the price of one pricey CPOV, and that one will be much lower mileage and in much better condition than a low end used car.
If you don't have much money to spend but want a car, new might make sense. I didn't want to spend 15- 17k on a new car, but spending 10 or 12 on one a few years old with maybe 40 or 60k miles doesn't make much sense. The expensive cars' initial owners are more likely to flip them sooner and they've got a lot more room for depreciation- so a highline used car is a much better deal, relatively speaking.
It's not that the poor are making worse purchasing choices, it's that they have worse purchasing options to choose from.
Edit:
Someone at the Fit forum I go to just reported paying 13,250 for a 2012 with 58k.
I paid 14,998 for one with 11 miles on it (and two of them were my test drive).
He paid a couple bucks less, but I got more car for my dollar.