I've got a 14-year-old Honda that I paid $14K for. That amortizes out to about $1K/year. Annual repair bills and smog checks are still way less than $1K/year (I think I spend amortized $200-300/year, plus vehicle registration renewal, which is less on super old cars than new). I hear there are people out there now who spend $1K/month on their car payment. It's pretty nice to not have to deal with that.
It's got plenty of life left too - I'm hoping to keep it until EV technology stabilizes a bit and then just upgrade straight to whatever EV gets it right.
Then supply chain stuff exploded and rates went up but it'll come around again eventually.
You could pay $50k for an average new car, or $10K + $40K over 5 years at 5% (~$5k extra in interest)
If you put that $40k into the stock market, average annual returns for the S&P500 are ~10% going back to 1928, so you would have made ~$24k over 5 years on average. That would put you ~$19k ahead after you pay off the loan with interest.
You could certainly buy at the wrong time and lose out by taking a loan. There are plenty of +/-30-40% years in those "average" stock market metrics. But historically it's been a pretty good bet if you're a gambling sort.
Ok.