I know people in this Frugal Reddit will tell you not to buy a new car and I would not argue with them as most of my life I have only bought used cars, but if you buy new, here are a few things to keep in mind and I hope others will chime in about anything I missed.
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Research the car you want. Deep research. If you see someone in a parking lot who has the car, don't be afraid to ask them if they are happy with it. Search the web, car forums, keep in mind the minority, those few who had issues will shout the loudest. You are looking for the overall experience people have had for years with certain car manufacturers. Do a search for reliability problems, class action lawsuits, etc., on the model you are looking at.
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Be willing to drive a distance to get the car you want at the price you want. We had a 3 hour round trip to get our new car even though there were dealers just 30 minutes away.
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Call ahead of time, ask about prices and features. I got a salesman to commit to the price I wanted before I got to the dealership. Get an "out the door price" including fees and taxes. Don't ask about payments until you have the price you want.
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Beware the finance manager. Don't assume they are giving you the best interest rate on your loan--ask for the best interest rate, especially if you have a good credit rating. Beware the "extras" they offer at this point. Our finance manager had an entire page of these extras to sell us. I told him I wanted none of them. I made the mistake of stepping out to go to the restroom and when I got back my wife looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He had been hard selling her on a protective coating that cost over $600. I shut that down right away. The guy was just doing his job, but here is the point you better be on guard.
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Carefully check the car over. Our new car with 17 miles on it needed both wiper fluid and coolant. I made them top those off before leaving the lot.
Hopefully others can offer up more ideas.
TL;DR - carefully research the car, be willing to travel, beware the loan manager, carefully inspect the car before driving away.
September 02, 2017 at 07:45PM
