What Car To Buy

If you’d stop and think about it, a car purchase is probably the third largest purchase you’ll ever make (assuming you’re planning to buy a new car), if you would consider the house as the first and education as second. The first question that pops up in your head is, “what car should I buy” this may be the most obvious of questions but it is also the wrong one. Here are some steps from which you can determine the car you need to purchase in order to truly feel fulfilled.

Actually the first question that should be taken into consideration is: “what do I need from the car”. In order to answer that question, you need to have a look at yourself so that you can determine how the car will fit with your lifestyle. Therefore you need to think it through, in order to determine how you plan on using the car, and not what type of car you’d like. Yes, most of us would definitely want to zoom around in a Lamborghini, but would that be fitting for a family? What if you have children? These are some of the examples that should give you a main idea what to look for within your own life.

Next step is financing. Having a price range will dramatically decrease the search area for your car. Think about how much you are willing to spend and don’t forget to make a price cap. Be extremely careful with that price cap, make sure you’ve done the math right and be honest with yourself. You must realize that a price cap is a wall you cannot break through (that is, if you want to stay out of trouble).

Now and only now you may finally consider some aspects and values towards the car you’re planning to buy. For example, if you fancy “green” cars than you might want to head for a hybrid vehicle. Not to mention that you’d be doing a great choice since hybrid cars have unparalleled fuel efficiency ratings. Or you could only look for a European made, or American made car and so on. These preferences that you have will help decrease the search range for your perfect vehicle.

Now, since you’ve got all the parameters settled, it’s time to begin the actual search. There is no place better than the internet for this kind of search. There are multiple online websites such as Cars.com, CustomerReviews.com or Edmunds.com that have huge databases and hold information about every major car brand on the market. You can read reviews, compare cars, find out about prices, and last but DEFINITELY not least, find out the experts opinion on the car you’re looking for. Edmunds and KBB will aid you in finding out the car’s value, and (very importantly) you can also find the car’s retail value. This is an important factor that should be taken into consideration.

We all know that from the moment you drive the car out of the dealership’s gate, your car just dropped at least $500 in value. This is called depreciation and new cars suffer considerable depreciation especially in the first, and in some cases the second year. Your new shiny car may end up 60% cheaper in two years from now. Here is the real trick: cars depreciate different. For example, if you take a car that is quite common such as a sedan, than in 2 years, you’ll be selling it for %40 of its original value. A more valuable car such as an SUV, will hold the price a lot better.

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