Anonymous wrote:Just go to a Subaru dealership and buy one. You can't be picky, but that's what I did. Kept an eye on advertisements and walked in and bought. Coincidentally, it did match almost exactly what I wanted. But i literally spent no more than 5 minutes and that was that. Had I dawdled for 10 minutes, there was a couple that came in right after me that wanted it and ended up with a higher end model. Stuff I really didn't want.

That’s great but that means the model you wanted was in stock. Plenty of cars are not in stock anywhere (eg, civic, crosstrek, impreza) and there is a ling list of prospective buyers with deposits down who have claimed the next 2 mos of incoming inventory.

But I’d probably buy the new, too, if I could afford it without financing it or got a low rate. If I had to finance a large amount I’d buy the used one I could pay cash for (like the pp said).

Just go to a Subaru dealership and buy one. You can't be picky, but that's what I did. Kept an eye on advertisements and walked in and bought. Coincidentally, it did match almost exactly what I wanted. But i literally spent no more than 5 minutes and that was that. Had I dawdled for 10 minutes, there was a couple that came in right after me that wanted it and ended up with a higher end model. Stuff I really didn't want.

OP, I'm in the same boat and was hoping someone would respond to this. This is what I've settled on. I have 20k in cash and while it's probably better to buy new for 35k I just can't bring myself to take out a loan for 15k. So I'm looking at spending 23k used and even though it's not the best financial decision, I'm not saddled with more debt. Sometimes you gotta take what you can afford at the time. I've made some great financial choices in the past, and this is probably NOT one of them but who could have predicted war on top of a global pandemic.

We all know the issues with new and used car markets now.

Re: new, if you can buy msrp from a dealer that doesn't add a "market conditions" fee (eg, subaru), there is a long wait time for the car.
Re: used, the market is so tight that ones pays close to the msrp price of a new car for a car with mileage and less or no warranty.
At what amount of savings would you buy the used vs new? or vice versa?

In an ideal world, I'd spend $15k on a used car, but for the cars I am shopping (new price of $25-30k), there is only a $2k - 5k savings on the gently used version (less than 4 yrs old, less than 50k miles, and the safety features I want). Any savings is savings, but I worry I am being pennywise and pound foolish.