5 mistakes you make when purchasing a car

January 11, 2022

5 mistakes you make when purchasing a car

Car Buying Tips

Five mistakes you make when car buying

People make these mistakes on every car purchase, so in this article, we will talk about them so that you don’t make them and get the best deal possible.

car dealer

Most people who come to the dealership to help you buy a car are honest and ethical. Unfortunately, there’s a very, very small few out there that still give dealerships bad names, but there are still bad dealerships out there. 

So that’s where the idea for this video came in

1. Never Come to the Dealership Hungry

You come to a dealership hungry. Never come to a dealership on an empty stomach. Make sure you come when you have had a good meal, don’t skip lunch, don’t come at 11 o’clock, and expect to be out of here in a couple of minutes and be able to go, get lunch! A lot of times, people will be like, “ah, we’ll go to the dealership, and then we’ll get lunch afterward.”

When you’re hungry, it’s tough to make good decisions. You’re more likely to buy things you don’t need when you’re starving. So make sure you come to a dealership with a full stomach. You’ll be able to think more clearly and make better decisions. Food is energy. It gives you the power to make sure that your mind is thinking correctly, so make sure you come to a dealership with some food in your stomach. 

2. Have a Vehicle in Mind

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The best way to find a car is by knowing what you want and going to the dealership with price comparison in mind. By doing that, the dealership gives you the best deal rather than finding a car for you. Some of these ways include, but are not limited to: looking at Carfax, making price comparisons on vehicles, and researching pricing of cars. 

3. Setting up an Appointment

Car Dealer and Client Looking at a Document

Number three is super significant to make sure you don’t make this mistake when car shopping, so one, we’re trying not to annoy the salespeople, right? 

Not annoying salespeople is not an extremely high priority. Still, we are using them to get a great deal on a new or used vehicle!

So make sure you set an appointment with the salesperson! It shows your commitment when you’re on time. 

Make sure you’re on time to want to buy a car.

Setting an appointment shows your commitment to the dealership and the salesperson you want to buy a car. This will put the salesperson’s mindset extremely high that they’re going to do everything they can to buy a car and stop trying to take new customers that are walking in the doors.

4. Have Realistic Expectations and Do your Research

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The key to financing a used car is to use the Google Payment Calculator. Do this first, before you go looking at cars. This gives you realistic expectations of what your monthly payments will be. If your credit score is below 800 tries using an interest rate between 5-6% instead of the usual 8%.

 If you find a car you like, get pre-approved by a bank or finance company BEFORE you go to the dealership. This will make things much easier for you.

If your credit score is below 700, I would not recommend financing a car because of the high-interest rate you’re facing. So if you do have a low credit score and don’t have the down payment required, you might want to go with an hourly car rental company that offers low credit financing.

If you’re not sure about your credit score, try using the free Credit Report Card. This gives you a breakdown of your credit score and two of your credit reports. I use it every year because checking my credit score is something I like to do.

5. Know Your Trade-In Value

trade in value

People walk into the dealership, and they’ve done either the flawed research or they’ve not done any research at all to know what their vehicle is worth?

I’m going to give you a couple of sources to go to.

One of them will not be nada; never go to nada, which is a lousy source for trade value. They’re always way too high, and that’s going to lead you to some.

So the best place to go to is Kelly Blue Book. You need to go to Kelly Blue Book Instant Cash Offer, not just evaluate your car. You’re going to put in your van or your license, plate number, and all the accurate factional data and get an actual valid number for your car.

Also, you can go to TrueCar. Again, TrueCar is an excellent source to get that same data under their trade-in value, so one thing you want to do with their data is, if you have a BAD CarFax or you’ve been in an accident, tell them no value so that way, you get an actual number and know that accident could affect your value on the vehicle a little bit, not a whole lot if it’s just a minor or moderate.

But you know if you got a salvaged title, you’re not going to be able to do that. You know, if you’ve got a rebuilt title, it’s not going to work, but that’s the way to go!

CarMax is a really good place to get your car evaluated and get a truthful number. Carmax is always dead on with their numbers, and they give fair pricing. The disadvantage of going to CarMax is one of the time they take. 

Here is a video where I had a personal experience with CarMax

Do you really think online car buying is the easiest? Check out my video explaining the issues with online car buying!

Carvana is another one where you can do everything online. Still, Carvana right now has been extremely high on its values. 

6. Planning Ahead for your Visit

Photo of Planner and Writing Materials

The average car buying experience nowadays is four hours long, so make sure you’ve got four hours to buy a car when you go in. Then, do your research, choose your salesperson, and set up your appointment.

It’s your hard-earned effort to get this car, but don’t walk into a dealership and say: hey, listen, I’ve only got 60 minutes. I’ve only got 20 minutes. You can’t buy a car in 20 minutes. It’s just impossible to do all your research. So instead, do exactly what I said above, set up your appointment, set up your times, and pick your salesperson. That way, you come in, and you’re ready to do business, and you’re ready to get something done when everything falls in line, so don’t come in with a limited time frame. 

So thank you so much. I hope this was something that you could learn. So maybe the next time you’re going to buy a car that is very, very simple and not stressful for you with these six tips and the five mistakes you make when purchasing a car as always!

Thank you so much for following along. Make sure you check out my youtube channel for more content like this. Also, make sure you hit the subscribe button to support the channel!

 

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