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A good rule is to take contract at home and carefully read it before signing or not signing it. Be cautious if dealer press you to sign it immediately. Bad sign. When eventually signing a contract be sure that dealer signed it too.
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First, excessive odometer readings. Average mileage for a car in U.S. is about 14,000 miles. Ask for $0.10-0.15 for every excessive mile. Second, check tires. If tires are flat you should be given discout for changing tires. Car with flat tires will be a good slider on a wet road and you can save a lot making this change. Third be aware of car sales and manufactor's discounts.
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You can pay down 10% for a new car and 20% for a used car. You can buy a new 20,000 vehicle with only 2,000 downpayment. Drawback of paying less for a car is that you can find yourself in depreciation trap. For several years your car debt would only grows despite your monthly payments. Everage new car depreciate 30%-50% for the first three year in U.S.
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Car may be shiny outside, but look inside under the hood to determine weather it was in accident. Work of bodyshop can be tracked down buy some slightly damaged parts which were not replaced, because they do not replace parts with minor damages usually. If you see hints of an accident you should forget about the car or ask for a essential discount. Anyway dealer should notify you about car being in in accident and anyway you have a way check it independently.
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New car requires regular maintenace such as change of engine oil and oil filter, rotaiting tires every 5,000 miles and inspection. Additional maintenace items applies after 30,000 miles. This is a subject for discount if there is no records of maintenance or insufficient maintenance.
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A lot depends on your credit history. You are paying not only loan monthly payments which includes financing interest, but also you are paying for gasoline, insurance, regular maintenace. Reasonable guideline not to purchase a car which would cost you more than 10% of your gross monthly income in total monthly payments. You should anticipate spendings on emergency situatins like towing, rental cars or even traffic tickets.
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Never agrre on making body work before seeing an estimate. Major part of repairing price can be not for spare parts but for mechanics labor. It can cost as much as $66 per hour at the dealership service and $32 per hour in the bodyshop of the same dealership! It can cost you lower if you make shopping for lowerest reasonable price and compare estimates from different services.
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Read carefully a car purchase contract. Most probably you don't need any extra warranty coverage for a new car and be careful that dealership phinance department not included it into the contract. It can cost you a couple of thousands plus phinancing. This extra care does not cover everything and you hardly need it. Usual warranty would act still your mileage reaches about 30,000 or so, check it in your warranty paper.
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The main point here is your loan capability. If you want to buy a house soon buying a car with phinancing it can discvalify you from house loan for the next 5 years. Lease can not. Moreover lease is less expensive and you can have a new car for less money. However leased car is not yours.
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Dealer would earn money on your ignorance and wrong understanding how their business works. Make an impression on dealer that you are serious about buying a car but say that you are doing research on several dealership before buying one to choose less expensive. Never negociate down of sticker price, instead negociate up of factory invoce price.
© Stanislav Malevanny Writings