The Six Steps of Car Buying
Most people think about the car-buying process with disdain. And most of the time, this is due to a bad prior experience. It happens, I know- it happened to me when I bought my first car! When it’s all broken down to its most simple form, here are the six steps to buying a car.
1- Kitchen table budget — This is the most important part of the entire process. Making the decision to buy a car starts well before ever stepping foot onto a dealership’s property. Around the industry, it’s called the “kitchen table budget.” Take an honest and serious look at your personal finances and find out if a new (or used) vehicle is even plausible for you. After looking at your finances, you should have a better grasp of whether you should be looking at a new or used vehicle. Be sure to get an idea of your credit score, as well, if you’re going to make payments on a vehicle. You don’t necessarily need to have someone pull your actual credit file, but you can get a general idea from a site like CreditKarma.com. Just a forewarning, unless your credit is pulled (either by a bank or dealership), you are just getting an estimated credit score. I’ve personally saw credit scores on CreditKarma be 50 points higher (and lower) that what was posted. (Something else to contemplate is the amount of annual miles that you put on a vehicle to determine whether or not leasing is an option. Typically, you can lease a new vehicle for considerably less than if you were to purchase the same vehicle.)
2- Research — Get out the legal pads and notebooks, it’s time for studying! The internet is a terrific resource, but you also have to be careful of its pratfalls. Make sure to keep your eye for the fine print, most advertisements have plenty! This can be in relation to money due at signing, not all customers qualifying, employee price, etc. Don’t only utilize one resource when it comes to finding out rebates and incentives. Guess what, most people you know drive vehicles. Talk to them! Find out some pros and cons of what’s being driven around you. Also, if you’ve set yourself on a certain vehicle at this stage but don’t personally have any family or friends working for that specific manufacturer, put it out there on Facebook to your social network- most employees are able to give out a number of friends/family discounts, which is immediately going to qualify you for a steep discount.
3- Picking out a Vehicle — This step and the previous certainly overlap. Figuring out what exactly what you’re looking for can be tricky. Most people wouldn’t mind owning a sports car, but it’s rarely a practical family vehicle. But that doesn’t mean picking out a vehicle has to be a compromise. It’s always nice to have a few options that would work. Think a mid-size SUV makes the most sense but you also would prefer staying in a sedan? You’re allowed to give yourself options. If you find yourself narrowing it down very specifically to a particular vehicle, still do yourself a favor and try something else. (More on this later)
4- Picking out a Dealer — This, surprisingly (to some people), is the second-most important step in the entire car-buying process. A dealer, and by default, a salesperson, can absolutely make or break the entire experience. Finding a dealer who actually cares more about someone than a bottom line is not as difficult as you may think. Popular websites, such as Cars.com, CarGurus.com, or AutoTrader.com all post dealership reviews based on verified customer’s impressions. There are also the other standard review sites, such as Google or Yelp, that review dealerships as well. This is another opportunity to reach out to your friends and family, as well. After you decide on the dealership you’d like to work with, but before you step foot on the property, try to find out something about the sales staff- this could be through the dealer website or a salesperson’s business Facebook page. A simple fact of life- not everyone is going to get along with one another, so it’s a good idea to try and have an idea of who you’d like to work with before ever coming to the dealership.
5- Test drive — PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE test drive the vehicle! This may seem silly, but it is an absolute necessity for your personal satisfaction. This is where your hours of research and car selection really come to fruition. Drive the SUV and the sedan. Decide which one has better lines of sight, which has the more comfortable seating. You can read thousands of reviews and get hours of personal stories about a vehicle, but until you sit inside of it and look out of the windows, you can’t make the best decision for yourself.
6- Finish the Deal — If you’ve driven the vehicle that you want, sit down with the salesperson and work out the numbers. It’s a pretty straightforward process from here. If you’ve done your research, you should have an idea of the rebates that manufacturers are offering. It’s not in a dealer’s best interest to NOT qualify you for rebates, so just be honest with your salesperson. Bear with the salesperson, because manufacturers are getting more and more tedious in which vehicles are eligible for specific rebates and how a customer is qualified for said rebates. After getting all of that settled, you’ll see a finance manager to figure out your options. This is the person that gets everything in line for the bank, as well as gives your additional options when it comes to extended warranty coverage. Listen to what he/she has to say- in most states; it is law for him/her to go over all available options to you.
There are more steps, of course, to the entire car-buying process, but I’ve highlighted the most important steps. There will be additional in-depth discussions of negotiations, rebates, financing, taking delivery, leasing, and more to come in the future. But, once you strip it to the bare bones, the car process is simple and straightforward. The “old days” of dealers taking advantage of customers is long gone.
John Mowrey
