Thanks for the answers.
Get a good brand. You’ll get better value for money spending $15k on a second hand Toyota than the same amount on a new Proton. (I’m not suggesting you spend $15,000, it’s just an example)
I had never heard of a Proton - Latte Gold!! But, no, I am with you.
The reason I was asking is that (for instance) a brand new Mazda 2 (similar to my old car) is about $15k at the moment (they are actually about $3.5k off because of model run out), while second hand Mazda 2's are not a lot cheaper - and many are more expensive. I have seen the same in other cars I have looked at. And, at least, with a new car, it wouldn't have to be grey (why is every car grey these days - you can barely tell them from the bitumen, and to my mind that makes them less safe because no-one can see them).
I am becoming very nervous about my car. I went on the trip to outback NSW, and the sump cap of the gearbox came off on the road between White Cliffs and Wannarring (a very low traffic road). After 5 hours the local farmer rescued me, found a sump cap on his property, filled the gear box with engine oil (no gear box oil), and I drove 70 km to Wannarring in 2nd gear (nothing higher was working). The next morning someone filled it with gearbox oil, and I drove 180km to Bourke at 65km/hr in 4th (this stopped the gear box from crunching too much). The car was then towed to Dubbo, and the gearbox was replaced. Everyone invlved was just wonderful.
Since I have been back, I have found that as well as not tightening my gearbox plugs (they were specifically told I was going on this trip, and to double check everything), my previous mechanic used the wrong tyres, and didn't fix the back or the front suspension. So all those have been found and rectified one by one. Each thing has individually cost just about what the car was worth. If I had known everything that was wrong, I may have left the car at Bourke.
Then, before I posted this, the battery was flat. So I guess, I just felt like I wanted out of the whole situation, and getting a new car may be worth it overall. The battery has now been replaced, and they tested it, and the electrics seem OK.