Introduction to car buying

- So you're looking to buy a car. So, I'll at least tell you how I would approach buying a car. The first thing is thinking about what you can afford. And, I would think about that before you even look at the types of cars you might wanna buy. Because it could be very tempting to get some car, and then somehow rationalize that you can afford it. So, look at your budget, look at how much money you can, you think you can put aside. Let's say, every month. Either for a payment on a car, to lease a car, or to save up for a car. And if you're going to be financing the car, or getting it on a lease, you're also gonna have to put some money down there. But think about that, what you can budget. And then, whatever amount that is, remember, it's not just gonna be for the payments on the car, or the cost of the car. It's also going to be needed for things like gas. And things like insurance, and maintenance. And maybe even a parking spot, if you need to pay for where you're going to actually keep your car. So, keep all of those things in mind. Now, once you have that in place, you can think about what kind of car you're going to buy. And, I really encourage you to think about the car that you need, versus some dream about what you might want. I think all of us are, as human beings, we are very susceptible to market, marketing. We imagine, "Hey, if I had this car, "my friends are gonna say this, this, and that." Usually they won't care. And almost any car you buy, even if it's a super-fancy exotic sports car, within a week or two, it's gonna get old. (chuckling) And you're gonna realize it's just something to get from point A to point B. So, think about what you need. How much capacity, storage, how many people are you gonna be transporting? In terms of cost? Gas. How much gas it is using? And it's not just the cost of the gas, but the convenience, or the inconvenience, of having to stop for gas if you're driving a lot. Think about, when you think about the cost of the car, don't just think about how much you're paying for it. Or, don't just think about the payment that you're making on either the financing, or a lease. Think about what that car might be worth in five years, or 10 years, however long you are taking it. So, there are definitely scenarios where Car A might cost more than Car B, but the amount that they have depreciated, over say five years, the more expensive car has depreciated less. So the cost of owning it, if you sell either car after five years, the cost of owning the more expensive car, in some cases, not always, it's usually not the case. But sometimes it is, the more expensive car could actually be cheaper, because it has a higher resale value. Once you figure out the type of car you're getting, and even if you could afford more car, I do encourage, get the car you need. And if you have surplus money, put it into your savings, invest it, like in all the other videos that we've talked about. But now you're ready to go, to actually go get the car itself. Now, if when you're selecting a car, be sure to test drive. Think about the warranty if you're getting a used car. Make sure you get the vehicle identification number, the VIN number, so that you can make sure that it hasn't been damaged, it hasn't been in an accident before, there isn't some shady history associated with the car, that you don't know about. And then, once you identify a car, everything looks good, it looks like a car you can afford, it's the car that you need. Then, you have to think about how you're gonna pay for it. And of course, if you've saved up money for a car, maybe you could pay with cash, or significant down payment, finance the rest. Financing, as we talked about in other videos, it's gonna be dependent on your credit score. Definitely look carefully at the interest rate. And then, leasing could also be option. Now leasing, if you own a business of some kind, especially a business that requires a car, a lease can be interesting, because it might be tax deductible. So it helps to reduce your tax burden. But in most cases, a lease ends up when you do the math, actually becomes more expensive than financing it. And there's some limitations to leasing, as well. You can only drive it so many miles over the course of a year. Beyond that, the company might charge you. And then, you might lease it for two or three years, and then after that point, you have to get in another lease. Sometimes they will allow you to buy that car at a discounted price. But once again, usually you should do the numbers. It's gonna cost a little bit more than if you just bought it out right, or if you were to finance the car. But think about how you're going to pay for the car. It's a very important consideration there. And then, you get the car. And there, the paperwork can be really involved sometimes. I just got a minivan. It's never a pleasant process. I encourage you, call ahead of time. Do as much negotiating as you can do on the phone. I tried to do that as much as possible. Because once you're in the dealership, they know that they have a little bit more leverage on you, and some games might get started to be played. It's like, okay, this is a firm price, this is what we're gonna do. Get them to say, "Yes." And even on price, you can look up things like the MSRP, the Manufactured Suggested Retail Price. And you can also look the invoice price, which is essentially what the dealer is, what it cost for the dealer to get the car. Now, if your car is on demand, if there's a shortage, a wait list, you're not gonna be able to get close to the invoice price. It probably will be closer to the Manufactured Suggested Retail Price, maybe even a little bit more, if it's a really high-demand car. But if it's not a super high-demand car, there's a lot of inventory at the dealership, you could actually discount a pretty good bit. And you could even get invoice, or in many cases, you can even sometimes get a below invoice on the car. But once you get there, and this happened to me. You know, we negotiated a price on the phone, I felt good. My wife and I drove an hour to that car dealership, because they had the car we wanted. But once we were in there, games started to be played. And they said, "Well, this car has the undercarriage protection, "and this car has that." I was like, "You didn't tell us about any of that when we..." And honestly, the only way we were able to make sure that we got that phone price, and I didn't wanna walk away, we had driven an hour to this care dealership. Is I keep telling him, "We gotta leave, we gotta leave." And my wife was like, "Are you sure? We drove an hour." I'm like, "If we don't leave, "they're gonna charge us that extra $2,000. "They're gonna charge us that extra $500." And yes, when we were ready to leave, and it hurt to leave because we had driven an hour to get there. They said, "Okay, okay, okay, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. "We'll do what's on the phone. "We'll throw in the undercarriage protection." Or, whatever these things that you really, unlikely need. So, negotiate ahead of time. Be really thoughtful on price. Don't necessarily, unless it's an option that you really want, don't fall for that. Be ready to walk out of the dealership, if any of these games get played. And then, you gotta sign the paperwork, and usually you're gonna have to get insurance within a few days of bringing the car home, or sometimes you have to have the insurance immediately when you get it. So, that's my car-buying advice, for whatever it's worth.