<prompt> Human: I am starting to think of replacing my 2010 Kia Forte, and I wanted to do some calculations to see just how much more expensive buying a new car rather than a used car is.nbsp;I decided to look at the cost of buying and replacing a new car versus a used car over 40 years. I used this common denominator method rather than an equivalent annual operating cost method because I assumed that the annual maintenance costs were variable, and dependent on the age of the vehicle.nbsp;In my calculations, I assumed that:- You bought the new car with a 48 month loan 2 interest rate- You bought the used car with a 48 month loan 3 interest rate- If you bought used, you bought a 3 year old model- You kept either car until it was 8 years old The average lifespan of the car according to one questionably reputable site- You paid the fair Kelly Blue Book value- You sold the car when it was 8 years old for the fair Kelly Blue Book value- A new car has 0.04mile maintenance costs. This increases linearly to 0.06mile by the time it is 8 years old- You drive 12,000 milesyear To estimate maintenance costsnbsp;The results for a Hyundai Elantra I like Korean cars I guess are:- Buying new Elantras costs 92,714 in loan and maintenance costs over 40 years- Buying used Elantras costs 79,528 in loan and maintenance costs over 40 years- The new Elantras cost 16.6 more in nominal terms 22.7 more if you use discounted terms, using a 5 post-inflation discount ratenbsp;Here is how much more it costs to buy the new car for all of the models I tested:nbsp; Hyundai Elantra Honda Civic Honda Fit Toyota Corolla :---:---:---:--- 16.6 -1.2 8.1 13.8 nbsp;As you can see, it costs roughly 10 more to buy the new car rather than the used car. However, some models, such as the Honda Civic, actually cost slightly less to buy new!nbsp;Id say the biggest take away is that it is only marginally more expensive to buy a new car using these calculation parameters. Of course, the specific result is dependent on the model, how long you plan to keep the car, the loan conditions, and a million other things. I also assumed that outside of the price of the car itself and maintenance, both options have similar expenses. This is not quite true as new cars will cost more to insure and to register, but older cars will have more fuel costs, etc.nbsp;These results are definitely making me consider buying a new car. The small increase in costs are probably worth it to me since the new car has better safety features, possibly a better warranty Kia and Hyundai warranties tend to not transfer to the 2nd owner, and newer overall features.nbsp;If you have any questions about my assumptionsmethods, or want to tell me how awful my calculations are, let me know! I know it is conventional rpf advice to say that you can drive a car for 20 years until it has 300,000 miles on it. If people want to see my Excel file, I can make it prettier and share it.  <response>: I bought a used same year ford focus in 2006 with 8,000mi on it. I was 18 at the time and didnt have much choice in the newness of the car due to family pressure but Im pretty sure I had paid around 14,000 for it after everything. That car lasted me 12 years and while I did have to do some maintenance work obviously anything that happened was either totally my fault from being dumb and learning how to be a good driver or was cheap enough that it still made sense to fix it. Honestly it was working completely fine when I did finally get rid of it, I made an executive decision to deal with a new car now while my bills were still fairly low with my wedding coming up next year and family planning to likely follow soon after.I bought a used car again this year a few months ago, 2014 model ford focus not the base model, only ever owned by the dealer and only 5,000 mi on it. . .After taxes I paid 12,400 - Buying a 2018 brand new would have cost me several thousand dollars more up front just for the base model. I hope and expect that considering I have 12 years of driving experience under my belt Ill be able to better take care of it and keep it longer than those 12 years.The benefit of buying used cant be seen from just looking at charts and a few cars or the KBB value. When buying used you have a little bit more bargaining power when trying to bring prices down and if you are patient can find practically new cars for a pretty steep discount. Do I care that my cars doesnt have 4 years of cosmetic upgrades inside?. . Nope, it can hook up to my iphone and it drives, sounds good to me! 