I dont agree with Dave in everything, I do buy new Toyota pickups. The retained value is just nuts, it winds up being pretty cheap when you run it out 10+ years.
I don't agree with Dave on the buying used vehicles thing. I drive Toyotas too and trying to find a three year old used one with less than 50,000 miles for any appreciable sum less than the new price is a pipe dream. My last Camry, a 2018, I bought new for $21.5K. I looked around for used ones and anything with less than 50,000 miles was within a couple of thousand dollars of what I could buy new for. Paying $19.5K for a three year old car with 50,000 miles that will need new tires and probably a battery soon, and has no warranty left, is dumb when for $2k more I can buy a new one with full warranty. It's the same with my 2016 Tundra, when I was shopping for it most asking prices on 2-3 year old tundras were as much or more as I could buy new, people seem to think the value of their used truck goes up because they sat in it for a couple of years.
Maybe a Ford or Chevy depreciates more but the reason I buy Toyotas is because I need reliability. That's the reason they hold their value so well but I'm not concerned with resale, I drive them until they're done. I drive 250 miles one way to work and am gone for a week or two at a time, driving some 10 year old beater isn't an option because if it breaks down on the way to work I'm out a couple of weeks pay, which is more than the car would be worth.
I've done the math every which way over the issue and the conclusion that I've come to is that at least with Toyotas it doesn't pencil out to buy 2-3 year old ones when you can buy new for a couple thousand more.
