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This is misleading, as: - you're including interest for the new car but not the old - you're ignoring the residual values of the cars at the end of the 5/10/1

This is misleading, as: - you're including interest for the new car but not the old - you're ignoring the residual values of the cars at the end of the 5/10/15 year periods [edit: and the "cost" of that 3 year/2% loan is $623, not $8073]

0xfeba 8y ago
Whoa, I'm not sure why almost 50% interest added to the cost didn't ring alarms earlier, you are right. So the corrected 60/120/180: $23k, $25.5k, $28k. And true, it will be worth something after 10 years or so, figure $10,000@60, $5,000@120, $3,000@180 but it varies vastly with the brand, mileage, and condition. Corrected again: $13k, $20.5k, $25k Damn, looks like it's close to a wash after 10 years. But, consider that the used car is a Lexus with heated/cooled seats, leather, nice audio, power seats and windows, automatic wipers, etc. etc. and the new car is a base model Toyota Corolla. Plus, the use car will not be worth zero, hopefully, after 10 years. I guess 60/120/180 would be something like $3k/$2k/$2k: So for the used car: $9k, $15k, $19k So a bit ahead again. It looks like with these napkin calculations the $20-25k mark is the break-even point at around 10 years. So any new car more expensive than that is going to be more costly, obviously, relative to a used car. Well it was a fun thought experiment.