6 Ways to Avoid Potential Risks When Buying A New Car
New cars are being sold somewhere every day. If you are a driver there is a chance that you will be sitting across from a salesman at a dealership negotiating the price of a new car. There are some risks that you need to avoid before you get to this point.
- Unexpected Financing Costs
The dealer is trying to close the deal as soon as possible. This is why many dealerships have in-house financing. That sounds great until you find out that there are other banks or credit unions that can give you a much lower rate. Take the time so see what the financing rates are with your financial institutions. Don’t risk unexpected financing costs that are much higher than what you expected to pay.
- Risk Of Higher Than Expected Insurance Costs
It is possible that you may change your mind when you come to a dealership. One car may be more alluring than another one. This may increase the price tag, but you may have great financing so you may not give this increased price much thought.
While you are changing your mind about the car you want to buy you should also look at getting a car insurance quote on this alternative vehicle. The car note may be manageable for your budget. The car note, combined with the insurance, may be out of your price range. It is easy to totally forget about the insurance, but this is just as important as the price of the car.
- Known Problems That You Did Not Research
Some cars have known problems. There are more than a few vehicles that have recalled. It is not the job of employees inside of the dealership to speak on known issues that buyers are having. The buyer’s remorse complaints are going to be easy to find online. Do a quick Google search and find out what complaints have merit. Make sure that you have questions before a salesperson puts you behind the wheel of a car that is geared to give you nothing but headaches.
If you get a car that is known to have engine problems, for example, you can always get repairs under the warranty period. That is not a problem. The problem is that you are spending time in the waiting room of the dealership’s car repair department. No new car owner wants this type of dilemma.
- Better Deals On Other Models
Don’t let the new car smell and the shiny paint job get you. Sometimes there are better deals on different models. When you get stuck on a single model from a single manufacturer it leads to a heartache that you don’t want to experience. It is better to research several cars. Negotiate as much as you can, but you should not feel bad when the salesperson returns with a “this is the best we can do” speech.
You have not wasted their time. If a salesperson cannot get the car to a price that you desire, the opposite is true: that employee has wasted your time. Don’t let a dealership waste any more of your time. Move on if the salesperson is not trying to sell the car at a price that you desire.
- Buying A Current Year Car Before The End of The Year Clearance
What you can do to lighten the cost associated with the current year models is to wait until the end of the year. This is when the clearance happens. This is when the salespeople give you the better deals that seemed impossible to acquire earlier in the year. You have the advantage over other buyers if you have already tried to get this vehicle earlier in the year.
You already know what the discounts look like before the clearance. Now you have the chance to see if you can get the price even lower than the advertised clearance price. This is where you get the chance to let your negotiation skills take over.
- The Bait & Switch
You could come to the dealership in search of a nice no-frills American made vehicle that is good on gas. You may drive away with a foreign sports card that is fully loaded. It may be hard to believe that something like this could happen, but it happens all the time. Potential buyers are lured into the dealership for economical cars only to find themselves falling for the bait and switch.
There are dealers that are going to tell you that they can get the monthly payment down to exactly what you would like for it to be. They do this by adding another year on to your financing or requesting a higher down payment. Don’t fall for this bait and switch practice. Get what you want or make haste to the exit.