BEST Used Car Buying Strategy.. How to Get Affordable Vehicles

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]Welcome friends. In this video, I'm going to be covering a used car strategy that I think can be a viable strat for most people to implement into their lives. So, what is this strategy going to entail? Well, number one, it's going to involve the 24/10 rule. So, that's a financing rule where you put 20% down on a vehicle, >> [music] >> you finance it for 4 years, and it's not supposed to be more than 10% of really your gross monthly income, but it's supposed to include your taxes, [music] your insurance, and your fuel as well.

[00:00:31]Honestly, I don't really think the 24/10 rule makes a lot of sense with new vehicles because you can lease new cars, you can just put no money down with newer vehicles. So, there are different strategies with that, but with used cars, I think this can make a lot of sense, and you can actually have access to more affordable vehicles this way.

[00:00:48]So, how do you find these affordable used cars? Well, number one, you need a good bank with good interest rates to finance you. So, for this strat to work, you do need to have pretty much perfect credit, and I'm using PenFed as the example. No, I'm not affiliated with these people. They just happen to have >> [music] >> really good low interest rates for used cars. For 48 months, they got 5.29%.

[00:01:08]Okay, nice. So, that's one piece covered. Now, you go to a website like CarGurus, you do a nationwide search.

[00:01:13]You can now implement PenFed's requirements for used car financing. So, what do they require? The vehicle has to be 9 years old or newer. So, during the recording of this video, 2017 vehicles and up. The second requirement is the vehicle should have less than 120,000 miles on it. And third, [music] they can finance you up to 125%. So, if you're going to buy things like a warranty, or if you're going to buy modifications for the vehicle, you can include that, but none of that should exceed more than 125% I believe of the vehicle's value.

[00:01:43]So, those are some things to keep in mind, and I will talk about warranties in a moment. [music] So, okay, on CarGurus, I filtered out all of the accident vehicles, the salvage title vehicles. I gotten rid of all of that, and under 120k miles, you actually do have a lot of choice here. We have, you know, over 361,000 vehicles throughout the entire country during the recording of this video. And some of the more affordable vehicles include things like the Chevy Spark, okay, around five grand for those.

[00:02:07]You'll see some Ford Fiestas and Focus models. You'll see the Mitsubishi Mirage. Obviously, not glamorous vehicles, but they are affordable, and they do fit into these [music] parameters. And why is it important for me to make this video? Well, I did another video talking about just how much it costs to truly afford the cheapest new car in America, which is the Hyundai Venue now. And I mean, to comfortably afford a new Venue, you have to be making between four grand to $8,000 a month net monthly income to comfortably afford a Venue, which is absurd. But here, you know, vehicles that are around five grand, you can be making between 1,500 to $3,000 a month and comfortably afford these vehicles that I'm sharing with you here. You know, you got things like the Kia Soul, the Hyundai Elantra, the Kia Forte. All vehicles that I honestly would not purchase without a warranty. You know, a lot of these cheaper vehicles also come with a CVT transmission. Those are pretty much prone to failure as well.

[00:03:00]The Hyundai Kia vehicles, you know, brand new, they offer that 10-year 100,000-mile powertrain warranty. Well, used, you're not going to be getting that. And I like the Hyundai Kia vehicles. They drive great. They have nice interiors, but I've actually seen multiple people with engine failures a little bit after 100,000 miles. Some people even before 100k, like around 80,000 miles, I've seen some engine failures on Kia. So, these vehicles will go bad. And as you [music] can see, these vehicles are not covered in any way. So, you would have to purchase your own warranty. So, that's one of the cons with this strat for sure because a used car warranty, I'm not sure exactly how much it's going to be, but even on one of these more economy vehicles due to the age and due to the mileage of what you're looking at, I'm still going to assume that the warranty is going to cost like three to four grand for a warranty that's going to last you 4 years [music] because you need a 4-year warranty since you're financing the car for 4 years, right? That's a strategy.

[00:03:51]So, where can you get a good warranty?

[00:03:53]Well, I know of four good legitimate [music] warranty companies. Again, not sponsored, not affiliated with any of these companies. These are just four that I found throughout all my research.

[00:04:03]One of them is going to be Fidelity, the other is Route [music] 66, Portfolio, and Freedom. These are the four like best warranty companies I've been able to find. The LeaseHacker forum, that's also been really good to do research with. And other forums, I've noticed on the BMW forums and on the Rennlist forums, there are two individuals who are kind of brokering and selling these high-quality warranties at rather high discount rates. So, that's amazing. One of those individuals selling things like the Fidelity and Freedom warranties, it's going to be a person named Trenton Gibson with Highline Autos. Okay, this company, they're pretty active in things like the Porsche forums, like the Rennlist. I saw that on the Rennlist forum for a 2025 Porsche Cayenne, an 8-year warranty, full coverage, it's going to be like four grand. Again, that's a 2025 vehicle, but, you know, okay, four grand for a Porsche for 8 years, that's pretty incredible.

[00:04:53]Obviously, we're looking at much cheaper vehicles even though they are older, and we only need really 4 years of coverage.

[00:04:58]So, again, I'm going to estimate about three to four grand for these kind of cheaper used cars that we are eyeballing here. And there's actually another person or another company, uh Steingold Volvo. So, some individual working at a Volvo dealership, they are selling, you know, high-quality warranties at a pretty good discount price as well. You know, it's steingoldvolvocar sfactoryprotect.com.

[00:05:20]So, again, not affiliated with any of these people. I also do not know the bougie level of these people as well.

[00:05:27]So, you know, I saw on the Highline Autos website, you know, >> [laughter] >> they they have a a 110 million dollar Airbus for sale along with some other esoteric vehicles. So, I don't know what type of time these people are really on if you call them for a warranty on a $5,000 vehicle. I don't know exactly what they're going to say, but I do kind of know what you're going to be saying, you know, a warranty on a $5,000 car, you might as well just buy a second car.

[00:05:51]I I understand that sentiment, but just bear with me for this example, [music] right? So, you get the warranty, you know, your total cost it's going to be about eight grand, let's say. You finance it for 4 years, you put 20% down, which is $1,600. That's another con to this strategy. Over half of America doesn't have $1,000 to their name, so plopping down $1,600 on a rotting depreciating vehicle, you know, that can be a tall order, but I think you have to do it in this case [music] because you're buying that warranty, and due to the age, I think PenFed probably wants you to put down at least 20% in this instance. So, we're going to be doing that. With sales tax, with title registration and fees, your total monthly payment should be about $182 a month. That's amazing. [music] You know, even with insurance, which should be rather cheap on a vehicle like this, and even with fuel, which should also be rather cheap on a vehicle like this, you know, just basic economy cars, all in, you should be around like 300 bucks a month. And that's great. To be all in at 300, you know, you got a full warranty covered vehicle, you got, you know, good gas mileage here, you got this low monthly payment. Yeah, you had to plop down that 1,600, but regardless, $300 a month, you can be bringing in between $1,500 to $3,000 net monthly income and afford these cars. So, that's good.

[00:07:01]That's a viable strat because I share on this channel how you can save money with new cars, with car brokers like AutoCompanion. That's literally the only company that I am actually affiliated with. But, you know, they have deep discounts on Subarus, Mazdas, Nissans, things of that nature. You can always get Nissan Muranos for like 350 a month.

[00:07:18]Same thing with Mazdas, around 300. So, that's 300 just for the payment though on a lease. This is less than 200 on a finance, and you're actually going to have the vehicle paid off in 4 years.

[00:07:27]And one of the big pros regarding this strategy is in 4 years, yeah, you actually have a paid-off vehicle, unlike with a lease where you're not really going to have any positive equity.

[00:07:36]You're just turning the keys back in.

[00:07:37]Unless you buy something like a Tacoma or a 4Runner, you might have some positive equity, but that's far and few between. In the most cases, at the end of a car lease on a new car, you're not going to have anything left over. Here, we have a fully paid-off, you know, $5,000 economy car. Great. Now, you can trade that car in, or ideally sell it under consignment, and get back, you know, truly a a majority of your money back because these cars are already pretty much at the bottom of their depreciation curve, and you can take [music] the money from that car sale at the end of 4 years, and then you can apply it to the next used car deal. You know, you can keep kind of like rolling that money in. So, really, it's just the first deal that's painful. [music] You have to put down that 20%. You have to ride it out for 4 years. But after that 4 years is up, you're kind of in >> [music] >> a nice freedom position. You have a paid-for car. You can either keep that vehicle. Again, it won't have warranty at that point. Or you can just trade it in and just do this whole cycle again, and you can put down more money if you want to. You can upgrade in vehicle, or you can even get to the point where you're paying cash for a car. But honestly, I don't even think I would pay cash. I think I would just stick to the payments, and take the cash [music] that you would have spent on the vehicle, and just stick that into a savings account, or a tax-free municipal [music] bond, whatever the case might be, and let the money compound because the total interest on these cheap cars, it's not that much. You'll earn more interest having your money parked in a savings account or in some bonds. So, yeah, I would rather just do that. But this is the idea. Comment below. Let me know your thoughts. But I'm not going to act like this strategy is perfect because it's definitely not. It definitely has cons, and I'll illustrate out some of those cons right now. Number one, you're dealing with a used car market. There's a lot of gotchas in the used car market.

[00:09:11]So, you know how I went on CarGurus, and I filtered out all of the accident vehicles. Well, that's not good enough because you still have to do your due diligence. You have to pull up the Carfax of each vehicle. There might be some hidden, minor, or even major accidents that isn't properly being disclosed, and CarGurus is not good enough to, you know, vet these vehicles thoroughly. So, you have to still pull up the Carfax for a lot of these used cars. And in some cases, depending on the vehicle, you might want to do a PPI, [music] pre-purchase inspection. So, now you have to pay a certified mechanic to inspect the vehicle before buying it.

[00:09:43]So, that's going to cost like $200 to $500, whatever they might charge. And that's no [music] good because what if the mechanic is like, "Oh, I wouldn't buy this car. This car is junk. It's got all kinds of potential issues that can arise." So, then you have to keep doing this game where you keep paying PPIs to inspect certain vehicles. That's not fun. I'm assuming if you're interested in a strategy like this, you're probably not rich with cash like that to just keep blowing it. In fact, even just putting down the 20% on some of these cars might be a tall order in and of itself. And that's the other con, you know, putting that 20% down. That's no good. The third con, it's going to be that warranty. A lot of people watching this probably won't even get the warranty. I'm only including the warranty and mentioning it because, you know, I'm making a video about this. If you buy one of these clapped out cars blows up on you, I don't want you to blame me, okay? I told you get the warranty, okay? Don't don't look at me.

[00:10:31]You don't really see any Toyotas and Hondas in that $5,000 range. Those would be my ideal picks, but again, you're going to be closer to that $9 to $10,000 range to actually start seeing some Toyotas and Hondas that fit into these parameters. Other cons, obviously, these are going to be used vehicles, so, you know, with over 100,000 mi on it, they might feel clapped out, crunchy, creaky on the inside. The outside might not be looking that fresh, either. Obviously, most of these affordable cars are not that glamorous, but if you can extend your budget, it can be better. But before I get into that, there's another way where you can kind of fix some of the issues I just talked about. You know, if you're going to be buying cheaper used vehicles, it's ideal if you're, you know, a part of a community, a part of a church community, whatever the case might be, you know, you have a large friend family group, whatever it is. You know, you're buying from people that you already know. That would be ideal, okay? Instead of going to some used car dealership and, you know, dealing with those shenanigans. If you can buy from someone that you know, that's the best thing, you know, someone who actually took care of the vehicle, someone who you're actually comfortable dealing with. That would be ideal. So, that's one thing. The other thing is, like I mentioned, if you're willing to increase the budget, you know, if you can at least get into that $10,000 range, now the doors really start opening up regarding the quality of vehicles, of the different brands of vehicles that you can get. For instance, I know a lot of people they they want luxury cars, right? That's that's the number one thing. You see a bunch of luxury cars rolling around all the time.

[00:11:53]Most people, they don't care that it's used. In fact, they prefer it. One of the cheapest luxury vehicles that kind of fit this parameter, it's going to be the Infiniti QX60. Infiniti in general is one of the cheapest luxury brands that you can get, and something like the QX60, it's a massive three-row, very practical. So, that's the other thing, like, which vehicles are ideal for this strategy? Because, you know, me personally, would I do this? Honestly, I would not. I would not do this strategy.

[00:12:17]I'm not interested in this strategy because I can just go get a new car from Auto Companion, new Muranos, new Mazdas for the cheap. I can get a new Tacoma for like 300, 350 a month. That's always available to me. In fact, my issue with new and modern-day vehicles, I made a separate video talking about this. My issue with modern-day vehicles, it's the data collection. And the majority of vehicles here, you know, a a 10-year-old car is just as bad as a new one. It has all of the data collection tech, infotainment, all that stuff. So, you're not really escaping that buying these types of used cars. Okay, if you want like a less tech-filled vehicle, you have to buy either base models or you have to buy like a pre-2010 car. Which the problem with the truly older vehicles, you know, pre-2010, you can't qualify for this cheap interest rate PenFed financing. You have to get some type of classic car financing for like a 2010 car or or whatever the case might be. So, that's going to be like 9, 10% interest, even if you have perfect credit. So, that's something to note.

[00:13:11]But if I were to do this strategy, it would be to at least get a luxury vehicle, you know, to get into the Infiniti brands. And really, if you get into the $15,000 range, now you're talking about BMWs and Audis. You can get BMW X5s, Audi Q7s, and kind of the late model years, too, like 2019. So, [music] it's a pretty fresh-looking Audi Q7. You can get that for $15,000. You get like a $5,000 warranty from, you know, one of those people I mentioned, the Highline Autos or that Volvo person.

[00:13:38]Five grand, you're all in at 20 grand, right? Your monthly payment, it's definitely jumped up to $421.

[00:13:44]But if your dream, your goal, and your aspiration is to whip a foreign car, then there you go. This is one of the most affordable ways to make that happen. Although, another affordable way is to just lease certain Audis, like the A5. You can get those for around 500 bucks a month. You can also get certain electric BMWs, Audis, things of that nature, Mercedes EVs for $4 or $500 a month, too. So, that's what I'm saying.

[00:14:08]There's usually always a new car alternative out there that I would rather do than this. But again, the most powerful part about this strategy, this used car strategy, is in 4 years, you have a vehicle that's paid off. Let's say you bought the $15,000 X5 or the Q7.

[00:14:23]Maybe it's worth eight grand at the end of 4 years or $7,000, whatever the case might be. You can now take that money and apply that to the next deal moving forward, right? So, that's the most powerful part about this. That's the one thing I I really appreciate about this strategy. It's that resale value towards the end. And other vehicles where this strategy would be worth it, >> [music] >> you know, you can kind of finesse a lot of different vehicles, like economy cars and even certain electric vehicles in the new car market, but a vehicle that you can't really finesse, it's going to be like the body-on-frame SUVs, right?

[00:14:55]Like your Chevrolet Tahoes, your Nissan Armadas, your Toyota Sequoias. Those types of vehicles, you can't really finesse them in the new car market.

[00:15:03]You're not going to get that for $4 or $500 a month. It's going to be at least $700, [music] $1,000 a month if you want to get that ultra-practical three-row with good cargo capacity and good towing with one of those body-on-frame SUVs, then looking into this used car strategy would be very helpful because the Nissan Armada, the Infiniti QX80, those are consistently rather affordable three-row body-on-frames that you can get. So, those vehicles, those are good candidates for this strategy, and of course, get the warranty, and you should be covered with any of the Nissan Infiniti shenanigans that you might be running into. Now, [music] there's pros and cons with the warranties as well.

[00:15:39]So, let's say you get the warranty, right? You listened, you took my advice, especially on the European vehicles, the more expensive, high-dollar cars, the warranty is a must. You know, those 10 to $15,000-plus cars, definitely get the warranty. But even the good companies, like the Fidelity and the Freedoms that I talked about, in some cases, they want you to, you know, when you first buy the car, you should probably do an oil change on it. That can help ensure your coverage. And also, some of these warranties, especially on higher-mileage cars, at the 100K-plus mileage vehicles, they might not start your coverage until you've driven the vehicle for at least 1,000 mi or even a set amount of days.

[00:16:15]So, that's another thing to watch out for regarding the warranty. And [music] other things to note, you want to get a full list of the exclusions, the things that the warranty will not cover. In some cases, like certain HVAC things will not be covered. So, you know, every company is different, even amongst the good ones, so keep that in mind. And finally, whatever warranty company or warranty plan that you are going to get, make sure that it's a proper, like platinum warranty, a bumper-to-bumper warranty that covers like everything, right? Including the electronics, the suspension, things of that nature. It's natural for a warranty to not cover the maintenance, obviously, like brakes, tires, [music] wipers, you know, don't expect them to cover that. That's fine. But in general, just make sure it's like one of the best warranties, and it's going to cover you for the duration of that 4-year finance.

[00:17:01]But if you want to sell the vehicle early, right? Make sure the warranty it's pro-rated because let's say this isn't working out for you, you don't want to drive this old car, you know, in 2 years, you want to sell the vehicle.

[00:17:10]Let's say you paid four grand for the warranty. If it's pro-rated, in 2 years, in half the time, you can get back half your money.

[00:17:16]>> [music] >> You can get back a $2,000 refund for that warranty. So, always make sure that the warranty that you get it's pro-rated. And I don't recommend this, but, you know, if these payments are still too high for you, yeah, you can of course extend the monthly term to 60 months and 72 months, but if you're going to do that, PenFed requires you to at least buy a $15,000 vehicle. So, keep that in mind. But also, I don't really recommend overextending the loan term. I think keeping it at 48 months is good.

[00:17:42]60 months is the maximum that I would go, but I would only extend it for more high-resale value vehicles. So, an individual commented on my previous video saying that he would like me to do a used car coverage for Lexus. I think he wanted like an RC, I believe. Well, Lexus is stupid [music] expensive in the used car market. With these same parameters, 9 years old, under 120,000 mi, I looked up both the RX Lexus SUV and the RC. Remember how I said you can get Infiniti QX60s for like 10 grand, and you can get [music] Audi Q7s and BMW X5s for like $15,000?

[00:18:20]Yeah, one of the cheapest RXs that you can get, it's going to be like 20 grand.

[00:18:24]And same thing with the RC coupe that the individual wanted to buy. But there's not that many of these Lexus vehicles that fit into these parameters.

[00:18:31]The RC coupe that the individual wanted with a V6 engine, there's only like 139 available for sale throughout the entire country. And only like 1,400 Lexus RXs available for sale throughout the entire country as well. And with a minimum buy-in price of $20,000, that's pretty unfortunate. If you decided to get a warranty on top of that, you're going to be at around at least $25,000, I feel like, because most of these cars are actually going for 21,000, 22,000, something like that. And maybe because it's a Lexus, the warranties might be cheaper, who knows? Probably not, but we'll see. I just incorporated 25 grand.

[00:19:05]Your payment, it's going to be like 520 a month. So, now we're getting into pretty expensive territory because you're still putting down that 20%, right? So, for a $25,000 vehicle, that's five grand down. Again, the more you jump up in price, the less people are going to be able to do this strategy because again, over half of America does not have $1,000 to their name to even do this strategy. So, that's something to keep in mind. And if your credit is shot, then you're not going to get these ultra-low interest rates, which it's not even that low to begin with, but you know what I mean. But now you at least have the tools. Now you at least have a different way of looking at the market, right? You have PenFed as a good bank to contact. You have two good warranty individuals that you can contact, you know, Trenton from Highline Autos and this other individual with the with the Volvo dealership, the Steingold. Okay, so that's your financing and your warranty covered. You now know how to sort through CarGurus to find the vehicles that fit these parameters. And obviously for new cars, I shared with the Auto Companion, that's the only company in this video that I'm actually affiliated with. If you want new vehicles at deep discounts, Auto Companion, they have you covered. But hopefully I touched on everything.

[00:20:08]Hopefully this was in-depth enough for for most people. Again, would I personally do this strategy? I don't know. I still much prefer the new car game. You know, if I'm just going to be driving around in a data collection pod anyway, it might as well be brand new with zero mileage on it. And I also do not have the this crazy aspiration to buy an Audi or a BMW. [music] You know, again, I kind of review cars, so you know, my my desires, I kind of got that out of my system regarding driving new cars and driving luxury vehicles. So that's not really like a super big necessity for me. I'm just grateful to drive a new car on the cheap, but that's just the way I see it. Everybody is different. That's why I want to share this. So I'm not opposed to used cars really anymore because, you know, used car prices, they do keep going up. So that's one of the reasons why I thought, "Okay, maybe like buying a used car would be good because in four years, it'll still be worth a decent amount because the prices of everything just keep going up apparently." So, you know, that's how vehicles like the [music] Porsche 911 maintain a really good resale value. It's because they keep increasing the price like crazy year after year. And the clients who buy them can afford it. Well, same thing with these used cars. Price just keeps going up, so, you know, maybe you'll still recoup a decent amount of your money in four years, but, you know, hindsight is 20/20. We have no idea what they're going to do in the future. But I'm not opposed to this. I mean, I can even consider reviewing some used cars if you want me to. I don't really hate doing that. I used to do it all the time because that was pre-pandemic. Used cars were an amazing deal back then. They had less miles. They were newer, of course.

[00:21:40]It just made sense [music] at the time.

[00:21:41]But I think with certain parameters like this, I think it can still make sense.

[00:21:44]For me, if I'm going to buy a used car, I would want it to have like less technology, right? Like none of the infotainment crap. Maybe that's another video I can make, you know, like which vehicles don't spy on you, which ones don't have the crazy data collection.

[00:21:56]Two older vehicles that I know of are the 2013 BMW 335. I noticed that certain trim levels or models didn't have the infotainment system, and I absolutely love the E92 3 Series, so there's that.

[00:22:09]And that's not super old, but it's older than 2017. Something to keep in mind. Uh and like the earlier Porsche Caymans, '07, '08-ish, those types of vehicles, they didn't have an infotainment. So, you know, anyway, that that's just my personal taste and desires regardless.

[00:22:25]Comment below, let me know what you think about this. Do you have any other strategies for used vehicles? If you found value with this content, make sure to like and subscribe. Thank you again for watching. Take care and goodbye.