Newer cars actually run longer on average because of maturity of manufacturing processes and other things.
“Old Clunkers” like those Corollas from 97 or some shit are just what survived, the “Old Cars Only” people conveniently forget about the millions of 97 Corollas that died way too early
It was just an example and “with cash” is open ended, how much cash? 500? 5000? 10,000?
Debt also isn’t inherently bad, lots of people might have 10k in savings that they might be able to drop a huge chunk of to get a car…but then their savings will be depleted by that much when they could have made a sensible purchase on a low interest loan with reasonable terms.
Did you grow up on Dave Ramsey? Much of his “anti-debt no matter what” rhetoric is bumpkis