Newish Car Purchase

Last Friday I made the first significant purchase of my life: A newish car.  To be more precise, I bought a 2010 White Subaru Forester.  This is pretty much what it looks like:

Although I didn't want to spend the money at this given time, I am happy with the purchase.  My old car was up there in miles, and the repairs were piling up, so I figured it was time to part ways, and I received a very fair value on my trade in.  For those of you youngins who have never bought a car, it is quite stressful.  Unless of course you're a multi-millionaire and buying a $22,000 car is no big deal, but to those of us who don't live in the very upper tier of society it's not an easy undertaking.  I took my time to think about the deal and weighed my options until I finally came to the best decision and warranty package.  It's still crazy to me that I now have a car payment, but I guess that's just part of growing up.  Not to worry, I've recently acquired a number of jobs so I should have a steady flow of cash coming in.

Maybe I should try not to make this post all about me by giving some people out there some general car buying advice.  My first piece of advice is to go out and buy consumer reports on new or used cars (depending on what you're buying).  See what your desired whip is ranked before you move any further because you want to make sure you're buying a safe and reliable car.  After you figure out what you want (And yes you should figure out what you want and not wait for a dealer to tell you what you want) start doing your research online and see where you can find the car or truck you want for the best price.  Once you've found the location it's time to go shopping.

The next step comes either at the dealership or with your salesman if you're doing a private purchase (If that's what you're into then you should probably stop reading here because I can't really offer advice on that).  Before you even talk to anyone you have to know two things if you're trading in: 1. How much you want for your car & 2. How much you want to pay a month for your new car.  You can find out what you want for your car by going to a site like Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com) and then you may want to take off a couple thousand knowing that the dealer won't give you the true blue book value since they need to make a profit on your car.  There are lots of websites that have monthly payment calculators when you enter in the car's price, your trade in value, what you're putting down, and the interest rate for your loan.  Interest rates from banks can also be found either in newspapers or online, so if you do everything ahead of time you should have a good idea on a ballpark figure of what you'll be paying per month. So once you know what you can afford, you can start to see if the car you want is in your price range.

Possibly one of the most important pieces of advice I can give to someone who is new to purchasing cars is to always remain calm around the dealers.  Sure it's exciting to get a new car, especially if you're finally making money and if you've been driving around a hunk of junk for a few years.  Still, you don't want to appear desperate, and you don't want to rush through the process without giving close thought and attention to every detail of the car and your car payments.  Plus, the more time you take, the more time the dealer has to sweeten the deal, which they most likely will attempt if you leave number.  I know my salesperson added a couple hundred bucks to my trade just because I asked if he could do any better when he offered me the initial figure.  You always want to be in control, and the best way to do that is to have your financial limits set and decided on before you purchase the car.  Otherwise you could fall into a trap of payments that are too high or a car that you don't want.

Vehicles and homes are the two most popular large purchases that we can make, and in order to get a good deal it's important to do your research, know the true value of your product, take your time and make a sound decision, and not rush through the process.  Otherwise you could be stuck with a large payment for a product that you don't really want, and that's the nightmare that I hope you all will avoid.