More often than not, buying a new car, especially one’s first car, is one of the most important and the biggest decisions of one’s life. And just like any other important decision, before taking such a huge step, a careful consideration is important as is market research.
Today I will be sharing 5 important factors that should be considered before buying a new car to help you make an informed decision.
5 Important Factors To Consider Before Buying A New Car
1 Car Type
The first thing that you need to consider is need Vs want. You ming want to buy an SUV, but if you need is that if a small hatchback, then why waste money on an impractical SUV or maybe a shiny new sedan. Or maybe you simply need a practical second-hand station wagon instead of the new convertible that’ll definitely be difficult to park just anywhere.
2 Budget & Financing
The next thing on my personal list is financing. My father was a car collector and owned more than 12 luxury cars in his 60 years of life. The one thing I can tell you from my own experience (and his) is that the first thing you need to consider before buying a car (or anything that expensive) is to figure out your budget and the financing schemes and options available in the market. There might be a million schemes, of course, but you need to make an informed decision and consult a friend or a wealth manager and figure out the best finance scheme that would sit comfortably in your budget and that would easily accommodate the price of the car you’ve been eyeing. Or simply use a webiste like CarPaymentCalculator.net and use their features like ability to calculate car price that fits a monthly payment or loan payment amounts, printable amortization schedules, figuring your MPG, calculating your fuel budget, exploring the cost of underwater trade ins and saving money with biweekly payments.
You can even visit websites like NerdWallet or CreditKarma to better understand your credit scores and figure out the loan amount before actually applying for the loan.
3 Features & Technology
While it is important to know what kind of car you need, it is also important to know what features you want your car to have. For example, airbags, navigation, automatic windows and locking mechanisms, folding seats, air conditioning type, etc. These things also affect the cost of the car so it is always advisable to consider these things before you actually finalise the options.
4 Insurance Policy
Insurance policy and roadside assistance are major players when it comes to buying a car. You need to make sure that the insurance policy and assistance you are going for will cover the majority of the situations or scenarios that you might possibly get involved in. For example, if you are into a lot of road trips then make sure that you have complete roadside assistance and anti-theft and accidental protection as opposed to petty theft and damages.
Age and the premium amount that you are willing to pay, play a big role in determining the quality of your insurance policy so make sure to investigate thoroughly and do the required groundwork with your insurance agent before settling for an insurance policy.
5 Residual Value
While buying a car you don’t just have to think of the present but also the future, so thinking of what the car will fetch you after a couple of years if you decide to sell it off and go for another car is always smart. Some cars and models have a high residual value as opposed to others. If you are sure to not sell then this might not matter much, but most people upgrade their cars on a regular basis -especially keeping in mind the technological advancements, so it is always better to have the option of being able to sell your car in the future for a good price a good idea.
So these are some factors to consider before buying a new car. If you have anything more to add (there are many other things that have not been added in this article for the sake of brevity) then please feel free to share them in the comments below. We welcome all views and comments 🙂
The Reading Bud 