New vs old cars

I tried to search for this but the majority of topics was asking if a certain make and model was good or not and people sharing opinions about their own or previous vehicles so I’m sorry if this is a repeat. My new house is concrete so things load weird, out of order, or slowwwwwly since the signal can’t come through sometimes.

One post in particular plus recent events in my own life had me wondering about what’s the best option for this topic. One comment in particular was dragging the OP for buying new. But you know... it was a car forum after all so who knows why the commenter was so vicious.

I have a 2009 Scion xD. They don’t make them anymore. People in larger vehicles loveeeeeee to blind me/try to shove me off the road. When I switch into what was my dad’s Chevy sonic, that doesn’t happen. It has Horrible blind spots. It’s approaching 10 years old and is over 100,000 miles. Yes I know it’s a toyota and they’re invincible or whatever... but I’m tired of it. It’s been wrecked multiple times and survived, ill give credit for that.... but the number one thing I hear after being slammed into is “oMg I dIdNt SeE yOu!!!!!” 🙄

Plus it’s sad when a challenger I looked at got better gas mileage than my little import 😐.

I keep seeing that buying used is better, and better for the environment... and I’ve seen people say with intensity that used cars are better than brand new electric cars but without an explanation to how or why.

Is a happy medium something like a 2 year old used car with light miles? What if a dealership doesn’t offer a warranty for that? I live near public transit & train now, but I still have to travel to North Carolina here and there as well as drive to the main metro station, take the dogs to the vet, grocery shopping, etc. so I cant be completely without a car.

Does it REALLY have that much of an impact buying used? How likely would I be *buying someone elses problems*?

This is the only car I’ve ever had, so I don’t have life experience with multiple choices. It’s going to start to need routine maintenance, which is something I do not have time to deal with. Like my alternator dying today... I’m supposed to go to North Carolina tomorrow. I don’t have time for sudden surprises like this that comes naturally with age and miles.

I wish my dad was still here so I could ask for his advice on this 😞

Annnnnd please be nice if others wanna show off their new cars. I don’t wanna delete this, or have this moved to a dead room where I won’t get any logical debates as to which one is the better choice.