The big disadvantages of a kit: it will take you years to have an airplane ready to fly, and you'll be flying an airplane built by a novice builder.

The main advantage of a kit: you (often) don't need all the money up front. Buy the fuselage kit, build it. Then buy the wing kit, and build that. Not all kit planes are sold this way, but several are. No need to pay for the engine, instruments, radios until the airframe is essentially done.

A good compromise is to buy an older, used, factory-built airplane. You can, with patience, get one of those for the price of a luxury car (50-75k USD, these days), sometimes less than the total price of a kit, instruments, and engine; you'll have something that's more familiar to your mechanic, for which parts are standardized (as opposed to "make it yourself"), with a type certification (meaning you get FAA notifications if a problem crops up that affects an entire type, even if its 25 years old).

Not to mention, you get to fly something that's, in certain ways, cooler than a brand new airplane, whether factory or kit -- and often easier to fly. No, a 1948 Cub isn't as fast as a brand new Velocity -- but it'll be cheaper, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to repair, and cheaper per hour to operate. And what's cooler than a Cub?

The big disadvantages of a kit: it will take you years to have an airplane ready to fly, and you'll be flying an airplane built by a novice builder.

The main advantage of a kit: you (often) don't need all the money up front. Buy the fuselage kit, build it. Then buy the wing kit, and build that. Not all kit planes are sold this way, but several are. No need to pay for the engine, instruments, radios until the airframe is essentially done.

A good compromise is to buy an older, used, factory-built airplane. You can, with patience, get one of those for the price of a luxury car (50-75k USD, these days), sometimes less than the total price of a kit, instruments, and engine; you'll have something that's more familiar to your mechanic, for which parts are standardized (as opposed to "make it yourself"), with a type certification (meaning you get FAA notifications if a problem crops up that affects an entire type, even if it's 25 years old).

Not to mention, you get to fly something that's, in certain ways, cooler than a brand new airplane, whether factory or kit -- and often easier to fly. No, a 1948 Cub isn't as fast as a brand new Velocity -- but it'll be cheaper, cheaper to maintain, cheaper to repair, and cheaper per hour to operate. And what's cooler than a Cub?