This might have been true 20 years ago, but advances in car technology during the recent decade were really fast. Newer cars accross the board have better handling, fuel economy, more creature comforts as standard. Luxuries that existed only on premium models became mainstream.
In terms of safety, the standards have gone up significantly from where they were 10-12 years go.
And even when an old premium car matches new run-of-the-mill vehicle in terms of safety technology, both passive and active safety features detiorate over time: body looses it's rigidy, original air bags unless replaced which is costly are much less likely to work properly after 8 years or so.
Cars heavily rely on electronic and software and becoming as transient as any other gadgets.
My advice:
- don't buy new, 3-6 year old car is a much better value
- exclude makes and models that are not routinely sold with 160K miles on a clock.
- go for a used car with high freeway, motorway, autobahn mileage (ca 20K miles a year), i.e. 60K-100K overall depending on a year. They are cheap and still very reliable.
- Regardless of car age, don't buy a car made during first 3 years of model production, i.e. before the first major facelift / upgrade. Cars are just like any other product and it takes about 3 years for a "service pack" to be delivered to a market.
- Another benefit apart from reliability of getting a car towards the end of the model lifecycle is the number of extras you'll be getting for free as standard.
- Have a clear exit strategy: sell before a major maintenance is due.