[madness410]

Originally Posted by TPI Monte SS

Agreed. A lot of this is to blame on the gluttony of Americans that "need" to have a new car every 2-3 years when their lease is up. The automakers have been building more cars than we really needed for a few years now, and it's finally caught up to them. Now there is a ton of used cars on the market, and a decent amount of brand new '08's and '09's still sitting around. I also think a lot of this has to do with the depreciation of a new car, and how much you shell out for it in the beginning. If you spend 35K on a brand new vehicle, and then it's worth 15K in 3 years, that sucks! Personally, I just wait until the car is a few years old and buy it at it's greatly reduced price, because the reality is the price of all these cars is inflated (IMO).

For example, my 2001 Cherokee stickered for somewhere around $20-21K. I bought it in 2005 with 48K miles on it for just under $11K. So, the original owner lost about $10-12K on that car in 4 years, because you know the dealer didn't give him $11K on it as a trade. I think I should be able to sell it this winter (demand is up for 4WD in winter) for around $7K. So, in the 4 years that I've owned it, it's only depreciated 4K. That's a helluva lot better deal IMO.

definately well stated and a great example given...which is why i want to wait a few years to buy a 5th gen