I’ve had a car since I was 16… I’m 32 but have not actually BOUGHT a car.
I’ve been getting family hand-me-downs for half my life.
My current car (1996 Mitsubishi Gallant my brother in law gave to me 6 years ago) is finally on its last legs. It is time to get a new one.
I need advice for a first time buyer. My wife is far more savy so she’ll be helping me, but I don’t to totally be deadweight.
A bit more information:
My credit is solid.
I’m looking for used not new.
I’m looking at something under 15000.
Spend lots of time on Edmunds.com They have a great section on advice for buying cars, and you can type in all the details of any car and it’ll give you a price that such a car should cost, if you get a good deal.
Check out Consumer Reports. This has several lists of recommended cars, popular cars, etc. that you can narrow down based on the size that you’re looking for.
Gather together a list of a few cars that you’re interested at investigating in more detail, and then check out their reviews and stats on Kelley Blue Book.
I was just in a similar situation to you a couple of months ago, and here’s the advice I would give:
I was looking in the same price range, and I ended up going with a Ford. I chose Ford because I wanted a reliable car. The most reliable cars are Hondas and Toyotas, but because they are so reliable, a used car will still end up being over $15,000, unless it is really, really used. Ford has recently upped their reliability ratings considerably, but since it was recent, their resale values have not totally caught up to them yet. I bought a Ford Focus, and I was also heavily considering the Chevy Malibu. I considered a VW Jetta until I read a bunch of reviews saying VW had poor reliability.
If you are going to get financing, ask your bank about their financing options. When I bought a car, I ended up going with the financing that the auto dealer offered me, but by going in having a loan already approved, this gave the dealership less leverage in negotiating.
Do your research before you go to the car lots. For example, I went to a used Hyundai car lot, where the dealer was trying to sell me a used car for $15,000. This same car was $16,000 new, and Hyundia had a horrible resale value. I was very grateful to have done my research beforehand, so that I knew what a horrible deal this was. I would even recommend printing out info to take with you. I had about 20 pages of information on Blue Book value, safety ratings, customer ratings, etc.
Look at a lot of dealerships. I think I ended up looking at 12 dealerships and one private seller (all in a 3 day period – I wouldn’t recommend doing it in that short a period because I was exhausted afterwards). As you are looking, take notes on the cars you’re interested in – it will help when you want to sit down and compare deals in the evening. Write down anything relevant to your decision: not just the make, model, and price, but the year, the mileage, whether it has a sunroof, what the seats are made out of, what kind of stereo it has, if the windows are manual or automatic … anything that would influence your decision.
Try not to narrow your choices down to a single car. Choose a couple, so that if one dealership is not willing to give you the deal you want, you can point to a rival dealership and say “Well this place is offering me a better warranty at no additional cost …” or “Well this place is offering me the same price on a car that’s newer and has lower mileage.”
Lastly, do not go to carmax. Unless someone else can come into this thread and say why that place exists. I visited there and found the prices to be higher than many dealerships have as their sticker prices. Even if you don’t want to do any negotiating, it looked like you’d be better off just going to a dealership and offering to pay them the sticker price.
Don’t buy a car without test driving it. Even if you’ve driven 3 of the same year, make, model at other lots.
Don’t go for your first test drive the same day you want to drive home in a car, test drive one day, sleep on it and get your due dillegence done then go back to negotiate.
In my experience buying a car takes all damn day. If you arrive at noon you’ll be leaving at 5 or 6 or 7.
Generally, I agree with the idea to buy a used car, but the last three cars I bought were Hondas, and I found that they retain their value so well that the discount for buying used is so small that it’s not worth it. So the first two Hondas I bought used, while the one I bought last year, I bought brand-new.
If you want to avoid the hassle of negotiating prices, you can use a car buying service (such as the one from Edmunds.com, Cars.com or Consumer Reports), although my experience with the car buying services was only with a new-car purchase.
Check belts and hoses for excessive wear. If it has over 60,000 miles, find out if the timing belt has been changed. If not, don’t buy it (unless it’s a Prius, which has a timing chain). Have a mechanic check out things like the tranny and engine compression.
Used vehicles are just that - used. Have your mechanic check it over.
There are four major car valuation guides - Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds, Black Book, and NADA. NADA is what most lenders use to base the value upon. Black Book requires a subscription.
Remember - the value listed from all the buyer guides is based on the average price of sold vehicles. You should strive to get a better deal than what’s listed.
Feel free to get the lender to give you rate quotes for financing - but remember, they get a cut from doing so. Make sure you check out your local credit unions - almost guaranteed they will give you a better rate. I can get 2.99 for 60 mos on an 05 or newer - try to beat that at the dealer.
Take your time, don’t fall in love with a car - remember, it’s just a car.
If you are going to finance the purchase your rate is usually much lower on a new car compared to a used car. The warranty on a new car is also much more extensive then what (if any) warranty you get on a used car. Sooo… when I did the math I figured it cost me about $1k more to buy a new car, over a five year loan that was $200 bucks a year, big whoop. I bought new, and there’s nothing like your own brand new car with only five miles on odometer!
One other thing you should definitely check is your insurance. Some cars are much more costly to insure.
Just bought a new car (truck) a few months ago. I’m offering my experience on a new vehicle, but I imagine it would work as well on used.
My advice is to try not to get fixated on a particular brand. I spent about a month of weekends/evenings traveling from dealer to dealer getting quotes (in writing). I had specific size and trailering needs, but still managed to find 3 that were acceptable. I let each dealer beat the others’ offer(s) of purchase price and trade-in. When I sat down with a salesman, I had a large folder of offers, comparisons, etc. I could reach into it and show the Dodge dealer the offer I’d gotten from the Chevy dealer yesterday (f’rinstance).
I also made a lengthy solo test drive a condition of sale. I insisted on spending a day in each truck to see how I liked the ride, visibility, interior features, etc. As part of this, I offered to accept a used, very late model vehicle that was a close match of my intended purchase for the day-long test drive. I did this in case the dealer wanted to keep miles off the brand new trucks. They always offered me the new truck, though. I strongly advise spending as much time as you can in your prospective purchase, without the salesman. I took each vehicle through my daily commute, and parked it at home to see how things fit (garage, etc.). I also spent some time just sitting in my driveway carefully examining the interior with an eye for where all my stuff would go (cellphone, charger, toolkit, etc.) It’s also a good idea to spend at least an hour or more in the seat to check out the long term comfort. This may seem silly, but you’re going to have to live with your decision for many years, and better to know up front if something about the layout annoys you.
Good luck in your purchase.
FWIW: On the truck I finally selected, the original offer was 35K minus 2K for my trade-in. The final deal was 31K minus 4.5K for my old truck.
What sort of car do you want? Plenty of Dopers can give you specific recommendations. Small, medium, or large? Something sporty? Something with great fuel efficiency? Something that can carry some particular large object? Something with a big backs seat so you can drive around four or more adults comfortably? Something with seating for lots of kids?
If you were happy with your Galant, I think we can infer that perhaps all you need is “medium sized car with wheels”.
FWIW, I’m starting to browse around for a used car that will primarily be my fiancee’s commuter. Like The wind of my soul we’re leaning towards a Focus, since the later models are extremely reliable but don’t sell for a premium like a Civic does (e.g. our 10k budget will buy a three year old Focus with ~50k miles, or a six year old Civic with ~100k miles).
Consumer Reports is a great resource, and they have this list of recommended used cars for a given budget. It may look overwhelming, but once you filter out all of the types of cars that you don’t want (trucks, sports cars, luxury cars so old that they fit in your budget) you’ll be left with only a handful of models. This list basically includes all of the cars that Consumer Reports rated above average overall, and that also have above average reliability as they age. Stick to that list and you’ll already have eliminated the real clunkers.
I’ve bought five or six used cars over the years. My advice is to look for something two years old, in the 25-30,000 mile range. This will almost always be a vehicle which was leased and has been returned to the dealer at the conclusion of the lease. Leased vehicles tend to be treated well, and they are a great value. Finance over three years if you can, four if you must.
Basically, when you drive a new car off of the lot, the vehicle takes an immediate hit of about 40% of its value. By purchasing a two-year old car as I have described, you are letting someone else take that hit.
(If you are buying used Volvos, you can increase the age to three or four years and the mileage to about 40,000.)
This has not been true for a while now outside of a select few makes and models that were known pieces of crap. Something on the order of 10% is probably more like it.
And besides, if I buy a new car and keep it indefinitely, until it dies a natural death, what do I care if its value drops by ten or forty percent when I drive it off the lot?
You may plan to keep the car indefinitely, but it doesn’t always work out that way. If the car gets totalled in an accident a month after you buy it, you will certainly care whether you get a check for 60% or 90% of what you paid for it.
Don’t fall in love with any particular car. Be prepared to walk away. In fact you may even be better off telling yourself you will not buy any car the first day you see it.
When you do make an offer for the car, think of the lowest reasonable price you’d really like to pay and make an offer lower than that. You might be surprised what they would go for if they think you’re not emotionally invested in the vehicle. Don’t worry, they won’t accept any deal that will hurt them financially.
