It's not a sin, just do what works for you! People have highly variable approaches to the financial side of big ticket items.

Highlanders have always been good to me, I've heard of them lasting to 500-600k miles without major problems and still work fine.

Since I drive about 5k miles per year, I'm hoping mine will last me 80 more years. That's reasonable, right? :P

This is why I love Toyota! I feel that buying things that last longer is as important for the environment and humanity as reducing emissions. Building things has a huge carbon footprint, and often a human rights ones as overseas mines often don’t take as good care of their staff as they should.

Assuming something important doesn’t rust, corrode, or disintegrate over time. ;)

Right now the economics of the used car market are so poor that buying new is a better play, assuming you can find the vehicle you want.

Have you verified this personally?

Out of curiosity (and fear), I looked up used 2007 Highlander this morning on SFBay Craigslist, and there was plenty of inventory and they looked like a reasonable bargain, around $6-10k for one with relatively low miles considering they are 16 years old.

Maybe prices at dealerships are way up? Or people want newer cars and those are crazy expensive?

I am certain my friend who just paid way too much for a newer used Toyota is a moron in such matters.

Yes, I think you're looking at cars so far back that the prices, while still elevated, aren't quite as bad as more recent used cars. I just ordered a new car for myself (my old car was recently totaled by a deer strike) and had to pay MSRP, because nobody is offering any discounts. That probably means I paid $1500-$2000 more than I would have a few years ago when I could negotiate a deal. Alternatively, on my wife's 2018 car that was coming off lease, I just bought it out for $27K, while on the open market the car is currently worth about $40K. So we're looking at $13K overpriced on the used car vs $2K overpriced on the new one. Still doesn't quite make up the "drive off the lot depreciation" of a new car, but it gets pretty close.

A very similar thing happened to me. Any used car or on-the-lot new car (in whatever apportionment a dealer will get) is hiked up to astronomically levels for impatient folks. This means when things eventually correct in price, there will be a lot of salty bagholders.

By ordering and taking the bus for a few months, buying a car from the factory was the best deal.

I usually buy used cars and maintain them myself to a good degree, but that's only on the premise that you really don't lose much value on them from years ~5-10. If the price halves over that time, I might as well lose a similar amount from years 0-5 from regular depreciation and have warranty coverage.

> I usually buy used cars and maintain them myself to a good degree

I used to maintain my cars myself, including doing belt services and such when due, and even a couple engine and gearbox rebuilds. But the older I get, the more I can't get up the motivation. It's so nice to just take the car in to a trusted mechanic and have them do it. Recently started using a vacuum oil evacuator to do oil changes through the top though and boy is that quick and easy. Best $100 I've spent in a while.

Yes it's good to have rules on how far one wants to go down the maintenance rabbithole. I usually set the limit at whether I'll have to buy an expensive tool just to do the service (e.g. one of those tools to clean the valves on these GDI engines) or whether the job requires removing more than N things (where N = 2 or so); if I have to disconnect a bunch of ancillary stuff just to replace a starter (or the back spark plugs in a lot of transversely-mounted V6 engines), then to the pro mechanic it goes!

It’s possible things have changed in the last few months but I ended up going with a new hybrid recently (October in the Bay Area) when I couldn’t find anything reasonably priced in the 2-5 year old market I would normally play in. I wasn’t looking over a decade old but the prices you describe still sound higher than what models like that were going for pre-pandemic.

It's the chip shortage. The demand for new cars is greater than the supply because of supply constraints, so it spills over to the used car market. Prices in the used market go up until supply and demand are balanced again.

Definitely not a sin - you know that past you maintained the car at safe levels and you didn’t choose to cut corners. You didn’t let yourself spill coffee and soda all over the car. And you can keep it running well over 100,000 miles. And this might be the first car your future children drive!

In the UK at least, most manufacturers let you buy an extended warranty for a few hundred pounds a year even if you bought the car second hand, so long as it's no more than 3-5 years old.