As a once-a-decade new car buyer, I think the problem with this strategy is the risk profile. There's a decent chance that the 3 year old car will be fine, but

As a once-a-decade new car buyer, I think the problem with this strategy is the risk profile. There's a decent chance that the 3 year old car will be fine, but the risk is higher - and a lot of buyers that hold on to cars for a long time would view an unscheduled car purchase (due to a reliability issue) as worse than getting the very best deal on the purchase price. Buying a new car every other year is for suckers. IMHO, buying any car every 3-4 years is for lesser suckers. Part of how you get to the comfortable decade on a car is to buy new and take care of it. .. and, of course, this all goes out the window if you find cars interesting or exciting, and therefore want to buy nicer cars more frequently just because you enjoy cars.