I feel you OP. I spend a tiny portion of every day looking at new cars online, playing with loan calculators ("If I put X down, my car payment would be Z"), watching Youtube reviews and comparisons of cars, etc. And because I've been looking at new cars, I can now tell the difference between a 2016 Civic and 2015 Civic, between a 2016 Corolla vs a 2015 Corolla, etc. I've had this itch for months now and it hasn't gone away.
Some things that I've been doing to help, though:
(1) I have no car payment, but I still put a line item budget for a car payment. Like every other category, the columns read: "Budget, Actual, Difference." It feels good to put $0.00, $0.00, $0.00 in that spreadsheet every month.
(2) I wash and clean the interior of my car at least once a month. Keeping it look nice makes a big difference in how I feel about the car.
(3) This one is weird, but my car is so basic that these 2016 models seem insane to me. And from watching endless Youtube reviews, it's pretty clear that whatever is in luxury models now (Lexus, Acura, Mercedes, etc.) will be a standard feature in economy compact cars in 3-4 years. Think about it: Mercedes was advertising push-start buttons and backup cameras like they were the greatest thing ever 4-5 years ago. Now they are standard in a freaking Honda Civic! So now I find myself looking at luxury models (which I would never buy) and think, "Oh, that's going to be sweet in a Civic a couple years from now. I'll wait."
(4) My friend is a car salesman, and he says the best time to get a car is the end of the year when they are getting the newer models. So I've basically only given myself a two month window where I'm even allowed to think about buying a car. And if my car is running fine, I'll probably pass that window up, leaving me with another year of no car payments.
(5) A very helpful thing has been to focus on not the after tax cost, but the before tax cost. Say my car payment ends up being $250 per month. That means I can contribute $350-375 less to my 401k, HSA, or traditional IRA each month. It's actually probably more than that when you add in increased insurance premiums. So focusing on the actual cost makes a big difference for me mentally.
(6) The biggest and most important thing, I think, is to remember that I only spend about three hours per week in my car. That is 1.7% of my week. Even if your work commute is a longer, you have to ask yourself, do I really want to pay $250 per month for the privilege of driving a nicer car for such a limited amount of time?
As I said at the outset, though, I feel your pain. It gets to the point where you feel like you're depriving yourself, but I can't help that this feeling is just the product of anxiety straight from Madison Avenue. Every month I keep my car is a small win. That Focus is nine years old now and I hope it goes another nine years. Because holy hell, if the 2016 Civics are as awesome as they are, imagine how incredible the 2025 Civic will be. And yes, if I own this car for 15-18 years or whatever, damn right I am going to get a brand new car when the time is right.
