The false economics of a used car

[Evan]

Well, I think your $13k E46 is going to be worth $6-7k when you are done with it, so that skews your comparison.

no chance in hell. look at 96 3 series with 180k miles currently for sale. No where near 6k.

You also neglected to include the insurance cost increase with the new car over the car that is 5 years old.

true, insurance wasnt factored, although I doubt it is as significant a number as you think it is. My new WRX wasnt that much more than an old Jeep I was coming from, and my new Titan is cheaper to insure than my 15 year old miata.
you wouldnt know, because you have never owned a new car

At the end of the day owning a used car is always cheaper... the $$ saved on payment will be much more than what is spent on maintenance.

We arent talking payments, we are talking final, overall cost. On a new car you get back much more of that payment when you sell it.
Like my numbers show, the used car has lower cost of entry and lower monthly cost, where the new car cost is front loaded, that you get back when you sell it.