Five Steps to Buying a Used Car
Here are five key steps to buying
a car.
- Narrow your choice down to a particular
class of car -- sports, station wagon, minivan, sedan,
large luxury, or economy car. These are general classifications
and some cars may fit into more than one category.
- Determine what features are really
important to you. Most buyers consider safety on the top
of their list. Airbags, power options, ABS, and the number
of passengers, as well as "hidden" elements such as maintenance
and insurance costs, should be considered at this stage
in your selection process.
- Find 3 or 4 cars that meet the
needs you outlined above and your pocketbook. It's important
not to narrow your choice down to one car because then
you lose all your bargaining power in the showroom. In
fact, because cars today are more similar than dissimilar,
it's not hard to keep three or four choices in mind. For
example, if you are interested in the Honda Accord, you
should also consider the Toyota Camry and Ford Taurus.
- Make sure you take a good, long
test drive. The biggest car buying mistake most of us
make is to overlook those nagging problems that seem to
surface only after we've brought the car home. Spend at
least an hour driving the car without a dealer in the
car. If a dealership won't allow you to test drive a car
without a dealer, go somewhere else. This includes time
on the highway, parking, taking the car in and out of
your driveway or garage, sitting in the back seat, and
using the trunk or storage area. Whatever you do, don't
talk price until you're ready to buy.
- This is the stage most of us dread
-- negotiating the price. While price negotiation is a
car buying tradition, a few carmakers and dealers are
trying to break tradition by offering so called "no-haggle
pricing."
from The Car Book 1998 by Jack Gillis
