Is financial illiteracy with cars common?

[RawrImAMonster]

You can almost always save a bunch by buying something with 5k or 10k miles even if you want something basically new. That way you still have your warranty and you still have a newer model year car, but you've already let someone else take the big initial hit.

Have you tried buying a 1-2 year old used car lately? Its not always worth it - and if you're financing, the interest rates on new cars are lower, so that's money saved (often nearly free money).

With the limited set of sports cars I was looking at a few months ago, it looked like you could still get a much better deal buying a year old with a few thousand miles. However, I've never really shopped for "normal" cars and it is true that used car prices have been ridiculous for the last 6 years or so.

The v6 firebird I daily drove from the time I was 16 to 22 sold for 600 less than what we originally got it for 6 years and 60k miles earlier. AND it had a transmission that was in the process of shitting out when I sold it.

As far as interest rates go, I think the loan I took out on the used evo ix was 2% so still not bad at all.