I’m thinking that we might soon enter into the short window of dirt cheap recession time cars.
In an economic recession people tend to do one of two things with their vehicles:
1.) They will get rid of any unnecessary cars at the beginning to save a few bucks on insurance and maintenance. This is the cheap car period as the used market gets flooded with cars no one wants to keep, and no one else wants to buy. If you’re going to get your license in this window, you should get a good pick of whatever you want for a first car at a price you can probably afford (and don’t be afraid to negotiate, during this period people are desperate to get rid of the vehicle so you can probably get them to shave $1000 or more off the price).
2.) After this short window is up (it will probably only last a few months), people will hoard the cars they have as buying a new one is off the table due to cost. Because of this, the cars that are still on the market may be very cheap due to lack of demand, or the owners will hang on to them as a backup incase their car fails and is too expensive to repair. People will also generally skimp out on maintenance and run lower grade fuels during this period, so if you end up buying a car right after this time, be on alert for mechanical problems.