It is that time of year where in the next few months summer will be here and some of you may be looking at buying your first car. I will give a few tips to help guide you through this exciting process.
The First things people should look at is “Your Needs”. For example, we may want a sports car, but if you are in a region where you get all four seasons you may want to look for an option that does better in the snow like AWD (All Wheel Drive). If you are in a state that is sunny and that does not have extreme weather you can look at those more sporty options. The next one is obvious but you want to “Set a reasonable budget,” because sometimes we get so excited about getting our first car we overlook costs like gas, insurance, and maintenance. If you already have money saved up, that can be your budget when looking for a car. But if don’t have that option, financing is also a path even if you don’t have credit you can always get a cosigner.
Don’t forget to take a test drive! This will be the next must because you want to make sure it feels good and handles well. Do not just go off how it feels if possible try to get the Carfax, which is, like a report card for cars. A Carfax report can help even before you test drive the vehicle because it will let you know millage, previous accident reports (if any), service history and many other things that can help you in the buying process. When you decide on a handful of cars you want to look at the MPG (Miles per gallon) each car has and determine the cost based on that to decide which car would be more realistic. For example, if you are driving 40 miles every day you will not want a car that gets 16 MPG as it will increase your overall cost. Think you have picked your first car? If so seal the deal. When you come to an agreement with either a private part of dealer they will sign the title over but if paying per month you won’t own the car until you fully pay off your loan. Congratulations you just purchased your first car!!