Don’t Buy A New Car Without Considering These Four Factors First!
Posted by admin at 27 February 2018, at 23 : 29 PM
If you think buying a car is easy, then I’m afraid you’re wrong. It shouldn’t be a simple case of finding a car and buying it on the same day. If your entire car buying process is started and ended in one day, then you’re doing it wrong!
The reality is that buying a car needs to be quite a lengthy process. You must allow time for research, so you’re 100% certain the car you buy is worth the money. At the end of the day, you want a car that lasts a long time and doesn’t end up with a whole host of problems.
The secret to buying a new car is running through a list of factors beforehand. These are essential things that determine if a vehicle is worthy of your money or not. If you’re confused by this, then don’t worry, we’ll go through all these factors right now!
Vehicle Age
The age of a vehicle does play a huge role in seeing whether or not it’s worth the money you pay for it. Now, you may already be aware that buying a used car is a great way to save money. However, if you want to buy yourself a new car (new in the sense that it’s new to you, not brand new on the market), then you should think about how old it is. Why? Because the older it is, the less technology it contains, and the less use you’ll get out of it. A car that’s twenty years old just isn’t going to last as long as the same model that’s ten years younger. Therefore, it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to spend money on this car.
I’m not suggesting that the best idea is to buy a brand new car hot off the manufacturing line. For some, this could be way too expensive. Instead, you can easily find used cars that are only a couple of years old. Here, I believe you get great value for money and a car that will last a long time before it deteriorates. Speaking of which, I saw a good article on popularmechanics that talked about how you can make your car last longer. Proper maintenance can really help you get more value out of your vehicle.
Car Safety Rating
It’s not only essential that your new car has a good safety rating, but it’s downright stupid if you buy one that doesn’t. Cars with high ratings will obviously keep you safe first and foremost. After all, as it shows on mahoneymahoney, most car accidents happen when two vehicles collide with one another. But, if a car has a good safety rating, then it means it scores well in crash tests. Consequently, this means the car is nice and durable, meaning it won’t completely crumble if it takes a small knock.
What should you do? Well, if you find a car that looks good and catches your eye, then you need to search for its safety rating. A simple Google search will find everything out for you, and you could also have a look on YouTube for videos of their crash test. The ratings are self-explanatory, and you can always head over to nhtsa and search for specific cars to see their ratings. If the car you’re interested in scores very low across the board, then it’s simply not worth your money.
Service History
Obviously, those of you that are thinking about buying a brand new car can skip this point entirely. When your car is fresh on the market, it’s not been used by anyone else and has no service history. In fact, this is a good argument some people make for buying new instead of used.
But, if you buy used, then you do need to pay close attention to the service history. This will tell you everything you need to know about the car in question. You can see if it had any persistent problems, and was in and out of a mechanics garage. If you’re looking at a vehicle that was constantly breaking down and getting parts fixed and replaced, then what does that tell you? It shows the car isn’t very reliable, and you’d be a bit of a fool to buy it. A clean service history indicates a car is reliable and very rarely suffers random issues.
Engine Efficiency
Engine efficiency, fuel economy – call it whatever you want. Here, we’re basically talking about how cheap the car is to run, with regards to fuel costs. No one wants to buy a car that ends up costing a shedload of money every year. Unfortunately, many of us fall into the trap of thinking we’ve snagged a bargain, only to realize the excessive fuel costs make it more expensive than it first seemed.
Naturally, an electric car is the most efficient vehicle you can buy in that you don’t spend any money on fuel. What’s more, paying to charge the car battery is a lot cheaper than fuel costs as well. Then, you have hybrid cars that are the best of both worlds and can keep your costs very low. But, don’t assume you can’t get a proper old-fashioned petrol/diesel engine car. There are loads out there with complex engine technology that makes them very efficient. Again, it’s all about doing your research and finding out the best option.
Having reached the end of this article you’ve probably noticed a few common points are missing from this list. Of course, things like price and dealer trust are important as well. But, these points have been talked about over and over again in loads of different car buying articles online. Instead, I wanted to talk about a few factors that most people might not think about before buying a new car. I truly believe that if you take all these things into account, and do the right research, you can find a car for a good price, that doesn’t cost a lot to run, and will provide top safety for you and your passengers.