Many new car advocates would swear by the hassle-free driving experience that a new car brings. That, to them, is worth all the bucks that you save by not buying one brand new.

Buying used is definitely a hit or miss thing. Or, if not, quite a chore since you have to do a lot of research and leg work to be able to get one that’s low-mileage and well-maintained. Even at that, you still need to shell out a few more bucks for the routine maintenance and repairs.

Then again, there’s always certified “pre-owned” vehicles sold in dealerships. They do count as used cars but are more costly than you get one privately. Thing is, they usually come with warranties albeit shorter (12 to 24 months).

One of the open secrets with these certified pre-owned cars is that they usually are more profitable for dealerships than brand new ones. If you don’t do the math carefully, you might really be better off getting a new one. Then again, warranties do count with these used cars.

In my opinion, it always boils down to math but I guess personality counts as well. If you’re the type of person who can’t be bothered with repairs and such, maybe the depreciation cost can be worth your peace of mind.

There is a lot of wisdom behind the advise. First thing that you need to keep in mind is that cars are not assets. It’s all about depreciation anyway. They very rarely go up in value (unless you’ve chanced upon a future classic which, chances are if you’re buying a regular family sedan, not likely) and you’d often loose as much as 20-30% in depreciation as soon as you drive it off the lot.

Then you’d begin to lose money every year since, not to mention the maintenance costs and gasoline/diesel costs. Some would say that at least you get a three to five year warranty with a brand new car but mind you that warranties only cover the bigger pieces of mechanics like engine and the transmission. Almost everything else is “consumable.”

However, dealerships are enticing you with quite a lot of “good deals.” Hyundai, for example offered buy-back programs just in case you lose your job with no impact on your credit rating. They even threw in a year’s worth of free gas. These combined with the cash for clunkers program last year enabled buyers to save more than what they’d lose on first year depreciation. Which is actually pretty good.

So does the advice still hold true? In my opinion. Yes. The cash for clunker’s long gone and the car market is doing better. So those deals might just be long gone as well. A much as possible buy a one-year or two-year old car. At least biggest depreciation has already been absorbed by the first owner.