Let me preface this by saying I am not buying a new car. I have a 2009 Yaris that serves me well and this post is purely to talk about how cars are no longer tanking in value as soon as you drive them off the lot.
I see loads of videos and posts saying "Dont buy new! Buy a 3-5 year old car because cars depreciate up to 60% in the first 3-5 Years" I feel like this is extremely outdated now. Whenever I look at marketplace or any other used car site, I see 3-5 year old cars going for like 10% less than brand new ones. The used car market is brutal and especially for Toyota and Honda.
I might be wrong in saying this but I feel like buying a brand new Corolla is a better deal in the long run than buying a 3-5 year used one. The warranty and peace of mind knowing all the preventative maintenance has been done right and on time seems to heavily outweigh any "discount" you will get on a used car that isnt 10 years old.
I still think 10-14 year old Japanese cars are the way to go but people who want a newer car should opt to buy brand new I think. Maybe this is exclusive to Canada but used cars are just not worth it. I would rather pay 5-10k more for a brand new corolla than a 3-5 year old corolla with 50k kilometers on it.
Cars don't depreciate as fast anymore and it's not even close to what it used to be imo.