My trigger for buying a new car is a little different than it is for most people.
I guess I know a lot about a variety of things, but I have come to accept the fact that I know absolutely ZERO about car repairs and never will because my interest in car repairs is also zero.
Also, I am 68 years old and after owning several used cars that were lemons with erratic undiagnosable electrical problems, I am completely over any excitement one might have at the prospect of calling a tow truck. That gets old after the umpteenth time and I hope to never have to call one again.
So, my objective when buying a car is NOT to minimize costs. My objective is to buy a car with not only a good repair record, but hopefully a sterling repair record. I like Toyotas because my perception is that they fit into that category. I will tolerate one repair, but the second substantial repair is a trigger for me to sell it and buy a new one. I prefer brand new to used, because I don't want to risk getting somebody else's lemon.
Is this my version of RobbieB's caviar? Maybe, I don't know. I just feel like I am so over dealing with broken cars and I'd rather spend my money keeping that from happening, than spending it on almost anything else. Life is even more wonderful when you don't ever have a broken car to hassle with.
My last car was a Toyota Solara and it lasted 10 years and 30,000 miles before the "check engine" light showed that some switch needed repair, and when I took it to the dealer to have that done I found that the timing belt needed to be changed (which is more like maintenance, but still pretty costly). I only counted this as one repair. Still, these repairs plus the fact that I retired a few months later and had already planned on getting a new retirement vehicle anyway, all added up to enough for me to trade it in on a new Toyota Venza. My Venza will be 7 years old in January and so far, so good with no repairs yet. The leather upholstery has a rip in it but my attitude towards that is "so what". It only has 24,700 miles on it and I maintain it very well.
If my spending has been low for a year or two (which it hasn't been lately), then I will start looking at edmunds dot com to see if there's another car I'd rather have even if no repairs have been needed on my present car. So far I haven't seen a car I'd like better than my Venza, even though I gripe about it and call it my "nanny car" sometimes.
At some point I will want to stop driving and have no car. I do not feel that I am quite that old yet, however.