So my kid has an internship this summer - and for the 36 days (3 days on site x 12 weeks) I will drive her. It’s easy for me as I’ve been benched travel wise and i"m work from home.
Other thoughts are - as her internship is in downtown Nashville - 25 miles or so away - is drive with her bf to his work and uber as it’d be 6-7 miles. Or find someone in the neighborhood who goes to a similar place and hire them to drive her.
New vs. used is hard - used prices are falling - so what you pay used, you’ll be mad about tomorrow when it’ll be cheaper.
At the same time, new prices are falling - because selling over sticker is rarely happening and at sticker is often happening less. At the same time, in the product I sell, we have had 3 years of price increases - 5%, 9% and then MY24 will be 6% - so even new under sticker is a lot more than a few years ago.
We didn’t send a car to college. But my daughter is in a city, the insurance would be really high and the most reasonable parking garage is a 20 minute walk away. So we have her uber - she likes to go to the beach and I spend $100-200 depending on the month…and I’m ok.
If I had to send a car, I’d buy new - but the reason is - breakdowns.
Her BF, whose dad owns repair shops - has an Toyota FJ Cruiser - and it just died as he was driving - new alternator and serpentine belt.
My son wanted to buy a 2014 E Class with 70,000 miles on it. It was $17K. He should have bought it - would have made money. But as I told him - what will you do when the brakes wear out, need new tires, or minor accident, etc. It will be very expensive.
It’s really a personal choice. The average new car today is near $50K and it’s nuts. A cheap car is in the 30s - and that’s tough.
But finding that $2500 neighborhood car than an elderly widow wants to move on from - also is impossible to find.
I didn’t really give an answer - but I wish you luck.