Any car you buy is going to drop like a rock. As I've gotten older, I kinda feel like cars are now just a big waste of money even though I still love the feeling of driving a nice, sharp looking car vs a cookie-cutter appliancemobile. I targeted my sedan due to poor resale value. Window sticker was $42K brand new, and I bought it less than 2 years old and under 20K miles for ~$23K. So two years, and nearly 50% off sticker. 10 years later, it's fate is still up in the air, but I still love the car and would love to keep going despite pretty much no resale value at this point

Buy a car because you are going to love driving it. This isn't a financial blog....it's en enthusiast site.

 

i like buying used that way i dont lose more money then i need to.

 

I'm in Atlanta, and paid a little over $13k (maybe close to $14k - don't recall exactly) for my 2006 6MT coupe (sport/rev up) in January of 2015. it had 74k miles, and was in reasonably good shape.

While not a steal, that was a very fair deal for what was in my local market (looked at several that were dogged out with high mileage going for around the same or only a little less).

Closest thing I can find in my market now (comparable condition and mileage) are Automatics ranging from $11,000 - $14,000.

I've put a little over $5k worth of maintenance/upgrades since purchase (not counting oil changes, and other very basic routine maintenance), so I'm not looking at this as an investment - just a hobby to enjoy.

 

I agree, the 03' 6mt g35 coupe non revup with 102,000 miles on it could still easily be sold for 10k in my area. I can't tell you how many $80K car owners completely stop their life to try and understand what the g35 is when we stop at a light together. btw, I bought the car for $9400 with 60,000 miles 4 years ago. Feelin pretty good about my purchase, with no intent to sell anytime soon.

"just because it's new, doesn't make it better"

 

just ran a NADA check on mine. 2004 coupe 6mt with all the options at 114K miles was worth 10,500 back in August 2015. now it's worth 9,700 with current and previous mileage. damn near lost a grand in 10 months

 

Insurance gave me 12k for my 06 coupe