Buying a car in this crazy market

[Sam Finkelstein]

I need to replace my wife's really nice car which was totaled by a distracted driver two weeks ago. BH everyone walked out of the crash.

Unfortunately the market right now is nuts, but hopefully we'll get a nice insurance payout which will help.

We are a two car household. I put 12k miles annually on my car, and my wife puts about 6k on hers. I bought my car (Toyota Avalon) at 45k miles and it now has 65k on it. My wife's car (Honda Accord) came with 80k miles and was totaled at 103k. We were hoping to keep that car as her local/commuting car until it died or we got really sick of it.

I'm going through our options and would appreciate advice from the smart people on DDF.

Buying new:
Buying a new car comes with the most peace of mind. But, it's a high monthly payment even after whatever we get from insurance. Additionally, it would become pretty old before we got enough miles out of it. And on top of that we will need to keep it in good cosmetic condition if we want to maintain its value.

Buying used:
There's always risk in buying used. But, if I bought a relatively late-model car with 80-90k miles on it that was checked out by a mechanic,  I wouldn't have to deal with selling it and we'll have used the whole value of the car.

And I guess the follow-up question would be who gets the new car, considering that I put on twice as many miles annually.

[Spoon]

Might make more sense to buy new with the used market as high as it currently is.

[yelped]

Might make more sense to buy new with the used market as high as it currently is.

And something that is likely to retain it's value once the shortages stop. Certain models are likely to retain it's value such as some Subarus or the Hyundai Palisade which were very popular even before the shortages.

[zh cohen]

And I guess the follow-up question would be who gets the new car, considering that I put on twice as many miles annually.

The more miles you drive, the fastest the car's value will go down.

[dovy2]

Unless constant reliability is a must, might be a worthwhile idea to get a real cheap junk car (any Japanese car with around 150k).. from my research, those cars are still cheap (less than 5k) and should last a 2-3 until prices come back down.
Obviously, get it checked out by a reliable mechanic.

[Jellybelly]

Unless constant reliability is a must, might be a worthwhile idea to get a real cheap junk car (any Japanese car with around 150k).. from my research, those cars are still cheap (less than 5k) and should last a 2-3 until prices come back down.
Obviously, get it checked out by a reliable mechanic.

When are prices expected to come down?

[EliJelly]

When are prices expected to come down?

Welcome back Jellybelly.

[yelped]

When are prices expected to come down?

Who knows.