A bit less, or maybe a lot less. If you're buying an used car, you take your time to look for signs that tell about how well it's been taken care of (or abused

A bit less, or maybe a lot less. If you're buying an used car, you take your time to look for signs that tell about how well it's been taken care of (or abused). And of course you take it for a test drive. I don't think there are that many critical (as in very expensive / impossible to repair) defects that you can't spot by looking, feeling, smelling, and listening. In my case, I got my newest car just a few weeks ago. For the price of a battery and a tank of gas to drive it home. It's only 20 years old and runs great, has 230k km on it, and will likely last at least double the kilometers, possibly much much more, up to around 1000k. I could get a dozen used cars in the $0 to $1000 range and still have $15k or more for repairs before I've spent as much as the average new car costs.