There was no big celebration for New Year 2009. I was happy that I was successful in my last new year’s resolution of “eating no meat and no carbonated drinks for a year”. I started this New year at a new apartment and with a Toyota Corolla 2009.
 |
I was little hesitant to buy a car in this economic crisis situation and against my parent’s apprehensions. Two reasons made me buy a car – Texas is not good in public transportation and I wish to be independent at least after joining a job. My apartment is around 10 miles from Schlumberger office and there is no other way after signing the apartment lease.
Buying a Car
I opted for buying a new car rather than a used one fearing maintenance issues. I was looking for a car that has good mileage, not big and better resale value. I narrowed down to Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic based on the above reasons. I have little idea about cars compared to my friends and I found these two sites Fighting Chance and Carbuyingtips really useful to do my initial homework. After going through these sites, I thought I should have spent considerable time in buying a car as it is a big investment for me. These sites will help you understand the different terminology while buying a car and some buyer’s tips.
Request for Quote
Before requesting for a quote from a dealer, I would suggest you to go and ‘test drive’ all your favorite cars. Read through the car manufacturer’s site to understand the different trim levels and the features that goes with different trim levels by doing car comparison. You should choose a car that matches your needs and comfort levels. Discuss with your friends and family members about the pros and cons of each car. Once you have decided on a particular car, go to Edmunds site to find the True Market Value of the car by building the car or if you have purchased the Fighting chance package, you would get lot many details about a particular car, different incentives and negotiating strategies. Aided with this knowledge, request for quotes from different dealers of your favorite car online. You would also get internet coupons at some sites after your request for quote. Give your phone number and the best time to reach you, so that you are not wasting your time and that of the dealers. Most dealers will contact you in a day or two over phone or through email. The first quote you get from the dealers will not be specific and you won’t be able to compare the different quotes from different dealers. Build the car in your manufacturer’s site with the exact features that you require and save the specifications as some pdf document or you could do this at Edmunds. Send this document to the dealers and ask them to provide you the final drive-out-price inclusive of taxes, registration, rebates etc. I got 400$ college graduate rebate and $1500 factory rebate from Toyota. If you do your math in Edmunds site, you will get the details about the invoice price for your car with different options. Compare this price with the dealer’s invoice price not with MSRP. Inform the dealers about the lowest quote that you have got so far and ask them to give the best quote in the next email. Inform them clearly that you are not ready to do back and forth negotiations, but will be buying a car within a specific period if you get a good deal. Sometimes, it is better to clarify things by calling the dealer than through email. Try to close the deal with the nearest dealer. Be aware that some dealers will say that they have all the options that you wish to buy, but indeed it won’t. For instance, one dealer informed me that he got the ‘All weather guard package’ for Corolla and ready to offer me at the lowest price, but when I went to a different dealer from whom I purchased the car, he showed me on their computer terminal that there is no car in texas that had that package installed for that trim level. In order to get your business, some dealers follow dishonest strategies, be aware of them.
Auto Financing
Once you have finalized the dealer, you need two things to get the car out of the dealer shop – auto insurance and money. You need to have an idea about your credit score in order to get a good APR from your financier. Better your score, better APR you got. Whenever a dealer or insurance agent runs a credit check on your credit file, your score decreases. So try to minimize this as much as possible. Toyota initially offered me 6.45% APR for 36 months with 1500$ rebate or 0% APR for 36 months without that rebate. If you go to cars.com you could calculate which one is best for you. Once you have finalized the dealer, I would sugget you to apply for car loan elsewhere and get it approved before you walk into the dealership for driving out your car. Some credit unions offer you better interest rates for car loans. Once I got my auto loan approved from a credit union, I negotiated with the Toyota dealership itself for a better APR.
Auto Insurance
Car dealership will suggest you some insurance agents or check with your friends who could refer you to some good insurance companies. You could also visit the Texas Department of Insurance website to know about the different insurance companies. While getting an auto insurance quote, it is better to try over phone than email. For a new car, it is better to buy comprehensive insurance coverage. Installing anti-theft devices on your car, taking Defensive driver’s training course will help you get some discounts. Your age, average daily driving miles, driver’s history also determines your insurance amount. I still feel that I should have worked out this better. It is better to get your driver’s license as early as possible before the purchase of your car.
Posted by Balaji Paulraj on January 11, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Pretty Neat Summary. Definitely, this would help folks out there planning to buy a car. May be, you could post this with the title ‘Tips to buy a car in U.S’.
Posted by Ajai on January 11, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Good article for a novice in car buying.
Posted by Aditya Ramgopal on January 12, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Good stuff man… but poor SEO
Change the title to something like ‘Car Buying tips for Students’ etc or something like that and let the google juice flow 
Posted by bharathim on January 13, 2009 at 10:26 pm
The title changed as per reader’s suggestion