Often when you're living month-to-month without savings it's feasible to buy a new car but not a used one.

The loan terms on new cars are usually more favorable and you don't have to worry as much about something expensive on the car failing and leaving you without transportation.

I was a couple months out of college when the old car I owned needed about $3000 in repairs that I didn't have. My options were payday loan, buy a new car, or buy a much cheaper used car and hope that it didn't end up needing $3000 in repairs.

New car was the easy choice, and I fully understood at the time that if I could scrape together $3000 it would be much better to repair the car I owned.

It's like buying cheap sneakers from Walmart that you know won't last. Doesn't matter if it's a bad decision if that's all you can afford.

So I can tell you the rationale for why my sister is getting a brand new car straight after uni - she lives in a foreign country, with no family/friends around and zero car maintenance skills. So it's far easier to buy a new car on a very low monthly finance, where she knows that if anything happens she has warranty for 4 years + full assistance, no need to risk getting ripped off at some random garages. Plus the car is far far safer than some old beater you could buy for little money, which means the insurance at her young age is really cheap. I fully support that decision.

How much would it cost you to find out who the most reliable mechanics in the city are? And to learn the (very, very) basic maintenance skills?

I think paying $1000 for that knowledge would more than cover it. Why pay a lot more not to gain that knowledge?

I did buy a used car, just a more recent, nicer model. At the time, I thought I would hold on to this car for years, so I went for a step up in quality as well.

After working low level internships and restaurant jobs, its easy to get a little too ambitious at age 22 when you sign that first contract with an annual salary.