I bought my first car for cash after I got out of the Army in 1972 -- a '66 VW Campmobile, cost $1,600.
But when I got hired by the railroad in '79, I was down to about $40 cash in the bank, and the 13-year-old VW, which wasn't gonna make it with the amount of driving that would be required.
So I borrowed a few hundred $$$ from my mom, and put the down payment on a new 1979 Honda Accord.
Within 6 months, I had saved enough to pay off the loan.
Since then, I pay cash for all my vehicles (cars and motorcycles while I had them).
Then again, even though I generally "bought new", I've never bought overly-expensive cars, and I kept them as long as I could. For example, I bought a 1993 Acura Integra and kept it for 12 years, and sold it for $400 with 300,000 miles on it.
But when it came time to buy again in 2015, I decided to stop buying "new".
This time around, it was a Toyota Certified Used RAV4, saved about 5,000 from new. It had only 7,400 miles and was literally like new. The drivetrain warranty is longer on their certified used cars, too: 7 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.
No more new cars for me.
Heh. I'm wondering if there are going to be any "more" cars, even so!