Car payments are perpetual. They either come in the form of a payment or in the form or depreciation. Addionally maintenace on cars goes up substantially over time. So your trade off is newer and more reliable (slightly higher cost if well negotiated) vs older less reliable potentially lower cost.
With respect to education. I will throw this out there. Those who say leasing is more expensive miss the fact that for many buyers they end up wanting new cars and trade them in every three of 4 years. They go in with a mind set that they are going to hold the car or give it to a child etc and then thing s change. Thye get kille don the back end.
Also in the event that a model changes or if a car company floods the rental car market with the same make and model that you bought it accelerated the depreciation. Therefore the lease in this scenario protects the borrwer because it inflated the residual value of the car.
As I mentioned I don’t really have a bias. I financed a New Accord. I will either sell it at 95000 miles or run it until the tires fall off.
I personally believe that unless you are mechanically inclined and can identify the mechanics of a car buying used costs more as opposed to less. There is a huge variation between grandma jones driving a BMW vs the 18 year old rich kid. WHereas when buying new the car becomes a commodity. It is identical at 2 differnet dealerships therefore price is best negotiated at this level.
To summarize buying used can present opportunity for savings (grandma jones) but it can als present opportunities for loss(18 year old rich kid). One bad experience wipes out a lifetime of savings. JMTC
