I don't know if you've heard of click and clack, two car nuts with a radio show and useful website
http://cartalk.cars.com but check them out. They rave about, and I agree, that buying a new car is pretty silly. As soon as you drive your $20,000 car off the lot it has dropped maybe $5000 in terms of resale value. The only new car I would buy if I could stand looking at it in my driveway is a Korean car. Kia and Hyundai have 10yr/100k warranties. For $8,000 you can get a gas saver that is guaranteed to have no problems for 10 years!