Walking around a dealer's lot, you feast your eyes upon a beautiful brand new car.

It's perfect.

The color is just what you wanted. Looking inside, you find every appealing characteristic possible. You must have this car! While sitting inside, running your hands over the smooth brand-spanking-new leather seats, a salesman approaches you with a shifty grin and dollar signs in his eyes. In a not-so nonchalant way, he informs you of the price: $30,000. Not including taxes, licence and fees.

You ponder for a moment that the car you were about to purchase will cost you an arm, leg and your first born child. As you walk away, you spot a nearly identical car. In the windshield, a bright yellow tag screaming a $19,995 price tag. The smile that disappeared has shown itself once again as you prance over to check out the lower priced car.

Everything is the same. Fit, finish, color. The only differences you can really notice is that there is 70,000 miles on the odometer and maybe the odd small scratch in the paint. By this time you have also noticed that it is 3 years old. A tough decision to make - do you buy the brand new model or save some money and buy the used one?

Automakers are desperately trying to sell you brand new vehicles. Which of course is to be expected, they ARE a business. They will offer incentives such as 0% financing (read very carefully, it's usually 0.9%), cash back offers, even a year's worth of free fuel. Not too shabby really, but when the average price of a new vehicle is over $30,000 you would hope it cooks your family dinner two nights a week.

Used vehicles should never be underestimated. They did in fact come from the same factory, using either the exact same technology or very similar and were sold at close to the same price at one point...they have just been around a bit longer and have some wear and tear. One downfall to a used vehicle is that it's likely not offered with a manufacturer's warranty. It may be sold with a third party warranty which is better than nothing, but you can end up paying a high deductible in the amount of a costly repair.

Crunch the numbers though - let's say for example you buy a new car. With all costs including finance charges, you're at $36,000. This will be paid back in 5 years, so your payments are $600 per month. It comes with a 5 year OR 60,000 mile warranty. After 3 and a half years you are past the 60,000 mile mark so your warranty is now void. By this time, you will likely be into

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