Those people should buy older cars used. But if you only have a couple thousand to put down, you're going to have a bad time.
Not saying that means you drop 50k on something else, when when a new Corolla can be had for between $22k-28k MSRP, I’d think pretty hard about gambling my $15k on a 10 year old unknown.
>50% of Americans have less than $2000 in savings: https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-we...
Statistically, the vast majority of buyers would prefer to buy a nicer car and finance it.
The reality is - unless you know a lot about cars - more times than not - you're going to spend WAY more money on a 20 year old car with >150,000 miles - then you are on financing a car 4x the price - and, especially, you don't need the $1520 that those people don't have to begin with.
>30% of Americans wouldn't even have the $1520 you paid.
Either you get ripped off at the point of sale (the car is totalled from any sane valuation) or you'll eventually get ripped off by mechanics.
Again, if this doesn't apply to you - then great - but it's not really surprising why people ignore the age-old adage to buy a car in cash when interest rates were negative in real terms for a generation.
E.g. 4.54% at 36 months https://www.penfed.org/auto/car-buying-service
The car chip shortage caused the resale value of cars to skyrocket. In the past few years my 15 year old CRV, which just passed 100k miles, has gone UP in value according to my mechanic because the used car market is so bad.
Many car dealerships, already well-known for poor consumer practices, have straight up refused to sell cars to people who don't wish to finance because they can make a lot more money off someone who wants to finance. You used to be able to convince them you planned to finance, then buy the car in full at the last minute, and the salesperson would do so because of sunk investment. Not anymore, many of my friends have experienced this firsthand when shopping for a new vehicle.
Combine this with it being all-but-required for people in the US to have a personal vehicle and drive if they want a job ("reliable transportation" in job postings), new & used car dealers have the additional leverage of time pressure as people can and do get fired for their car breaking down.
What I see a lot of wealthy people do, on the other hand, is finance a luxury vehicle, drive it for 3-5 years, then trade in for a newer model. Used to be lots of luxury vehicles, like the Giulia Quadrifoglio, with 20-30k miles for 30-40% of the original vehicle cost (25k-35k) which is an incredible deal for a luxury brand. This isn't really a thing anymore as the cost of a new car skyrockets.