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I generally agree with him, but I agree with the blogger that Ramsey overstates how inexpensive used cars are.
As the woman points out, Hondas, etc. don't depreciate 70% in 4 years.
If they did, yeah, it would be no-brainer financially foolish to not buy a 3-4 year old Honda instead of a new one.
Cars are a tremendous money drain for most people. IMO, more important than the "new v. used" and even "buy v. lease" questions is the question of how long you keep cars.
THAT's where it gets really expensive, and where significant money can be saved.
The way to minimize costs is to buy a quality car and keep it for 10-12 (or even longer) years, and maintain it well.
When you do that, your amortized "per year" cost goes way down.
If you must have a new (or relatively new) car every 2-4 years, it's going to be expensive, whether you buy or lease, or buy new v. used.
That's the biggest downside of leasing, it's a bit of a "trap" because it's easy and is highly pushed by dealerships (because it's the easiest way to get customers into new cars year after year). The upside is you're driving a brand new car every few years, the downside is you are paying a lot for that. Probably more than most people should, given their financial situation.
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