I met a pilot the other day flying a metal Robin and he said he owns it since 40 years. If the plan is to own a plane for 40 years buying new or lightly used makes sense, perhaps?
My club just lost a C-172 on an ice runway (the pilot forgot that ice is slippery :smile ). We are replacing it with a (brand new) Tecnam P2008. Later on a new P2010 is in the plans. I wouldn’t personally buy any of those, not by a long shot, but looking forward to try the P2008. It’s a really nice plane, G3X, 120 kt cruise, 250 kg useful load for two persons, NVFR. The P2010 is more like a cheaper and better C-172, on paper at least, but I have never flown that either.