Are you looking to make a vehicle purchase soon? This is my personal list of the top 5 things to consider when buying a car! We’ve always loved buying used cars and highly recommend paying cash to avoid car payments. Here are some of my best tips after years of driving used cars…
If you follow me on Instagram Stories, you know that we bought a new-to-us vehicle a few months back. I say new-to-us vehicle, because we’ve never bought a brand new vehicle.
When you buy a brand new vehicle, it loses significant value as soon as you drive it off the lot. So we’ve always preferred to buy a 1-2 year old vehicle that has low mileage and will hold its value better since we’re saving the money of it being driven off the lot.
When I mentioned our vehicle purchase, I received a message from a follower asking me what to consider before buying a vehicle and how to make a wise decision about a vehicle purchase. So I thought this would be a helpful question to answer here on the blog!
5 Things to Consider When Buying a Car
These are the top 5 thoughts and questions I’d consider before making your next vehicle purchase…
1. Think about why you need/want a new vehicle.
Why do you think you want or need a new vehicle? Before any purchase — house, shoes, etc. — it’s important to ask this question and also consider if the purchase is a need or a want.
There’s nothing wrong with buying something because you want it, but it’s important to know the difference between the two so that you can recognize an opportunity to save money and make do with what you have, if it’s not a necessary purchase right now.
Or maybe it is a want, and it would be nice to have a more reliable vehicle, larger vehicle, one with better gas mileage, etc.
I challenge you to think about all the people worldwide who don’t have vehicles and survive without them. Yes, it makes life easier, but we’ve become really entitled to think we need newer, better, nicer vehicles instead of being grateful for what we already have!
2. Figure out what you can actually afford.
We always buy used and we always pay cash. Those are our top two rules with vehicles.
That means we have driven some real clunkers of vehicles and we have some crazy stories to prove it (Some of you long-time readers might remember “Old Blue Van”)! In certain seasons of our lives, we drove clunkers into the ground because that’s what we could afford.
Is it possible to stick with what you have for a little while longer so that you can get into a better position to be able to pay cash?
One thing that has been helpful for us is to pay cash outright and not have the bondage or stress of making car payments. And instead of that, we set aside that money each month in a savings account so that we eventually have enough money to pay cash for a car.
It requires patience and takes time, but it feels really amazing to pay cash for a car and not be in debt to that!!
Note: If you already have two car payments right now and feel stuck, could you get rid of one car and make a short term sacrifice that will lead to longterm benefits? It might seem weird and counter-cultural, but it could really pay off in the long run.
3. Do your research.
My husband is the researcher in our marriage. He researches and researches, and then researches some more before bringing his findings to me so that we can make a final decision together. I highly recommend doing your research and at least knowing these few basics:
- What’s the mileage per gallon?
- How well does it hold up in a car accident?
- Have there been any recalls on the vehicle?
- What’s the Kelly Blue Book value?
In the ideal situation, we try to find a car that has had only one owner and has never been in an accident.
Usually after doing all this research, we come up with 4-5 makes/models of vehicles we’re interested in and weigh the pros and cons of each before making a final decision on our top choices.
4. Watch prices.
After doing our research and narrowing it down to a couple choices, we typically watch prices for a few months, both online and locally.
This helps us know what to expect and know what is actually a good price for the vehicles we’re interested in.
5. Make sure you’re on the same page as your spouse.
Finally, if you are married, make sure you’re on the same page!
Once you’ve made some decisions, talk together about the purchase and decide if you both feel good about it before officially deciding to buy the vehicle.
One helpful tip: Early on in our marriage, we made a commitment to not make any large purchases right away, but to always wait overnight and think on it. This prevents buyer’s remorse, makes sure it’s something we both feel good about, and helps us be really intentional with our finances. So once we’ve decide on a vehicle, we typically wait overnight to make sure we both still feel good about it the next day.
Related:
- 5 Reasons I Love Our Older Vehicle
- Save Over $1500 Per Year By Becoming a One-Car Family
- A Shiny New Car Is Not Always All It’s Cracked Up To Be
- Is It Possible to Avoid a Car Payment?
- Three Cheers for Used Cars!
- Buying a Car With Cash
- Living With One Car in a Two-Car World
- We Paid Cash Testimonials
What other things do you consider when buying a car? Let’s hear your best tips!
Before buying any vehicle, call your insurer and get an estimate on what the insurance coverage will cost you. It can vary widely depending on the vehicle. You may not realize that you’ve got your eye on a car that’s considered a “sport” model and thus significantly costlier to insure.
That is a really great tip! Thanks for sharing! -Jordan, MSM Team
One other thought when budgeting would be to look at your emergency fund. We paid cash for our used minivan and also set aside an extra $1500 for repairs just in case something somewhat major happened sooner than we’d anticipated. And then we immediately started saving for the next vehicle and adding to the car maintenance/repair fund. If you have a very healthy emergency fund then great but at the time ours was not good enough to cover my husband losing his job and a major car repair. So we went under budget for our van and saved the rest as buffer repair money.
Related: youtube videos are great for walking you through how to do some car repairs yourself.
Thanks for those great tips! -Meg, MSM Team
That’s a great tip!
My husband bought his last new truck in 1997. Guess what he is still driving it. But we are getting ready to sell it here in a few months. It has over 200k miles on it.
We bought a new car in 2001 and I drove it until 2015. Then my son drove it for a couple of years and then got t-boned and totaled it.
I replaced my vehicle with a great find of a car that was 6 years old and only had 4K on it. Sold it as we were moving to Hawaii and decided the truck was going with us.
We are doing our research on a new to us vehicle. We know what we want and have a budget. Just need to find what we want and fits the budget.
Thanks for sharing your experience! -Jordan, MSM Team
That’s so impressive about your husband’s truck!!
I agree with pretty much everything that you’re saying here, but I think you’re underestimating the value of buying new vehicles if you really know what you’re doing. On I think our best deal ever we paid 24K (after rebates, tax rebates, etc) on a brand new minivan, previous years model, and then sold it just under 5 years later for 16K even. It broke out to $137/month which I think you’d have a hard time beating with any used model, and in our case we road trip several times a year, we had small children and there’s a lot to be said for the features in a newer car. Granted, that was an exceptional deal even for us, but it isn’t as far out there as you think.
We also never pay interest. There are always a ton of zero interest deals, you just have to sometimes be patient, not in any rush and be willing to look at a lot of options and not be honed in on one specific vehicle.
We also put down as little as possible–as in as absolutely little as possible. NEVER pay cash for a new car, as long as you’re following the “pay no interest” rule. New cars come with GAP insurance which covers the difference between what the vehicle is worth and what you owe. If I buy a new car, put next to nothing down and total it two months later I’m in the clear. If I’d paid cash–or even a significant down payment–I would be out several thousands of dollars because a car depreciates significantly the moment you drive off the lot.
Just wanted to also add if you are buying used you should always, ALWAYS do a vehicle history search. If you’re buying from a dealer it’s standard, but if you’re buying from a private party it’s worth every penny to have it done on your own. And don’t think a mechanic will be able to pick up on this, because they usually can’t tell if there’s potential frame damage or a salvage title.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! -Jordan, MSM Team
Thanks for sharing your experiences! We know so many people who have gotten into major headaches and difficult financial situations because of taking out a car loan. Of course, we’re also the weird people who have never had a loan or mortgage or debt (and I’ve never even had a credit card!), so I know I’m coming from a very different perspective than most!
We have saved thousands and thousands of dollars over the years by buying cars with low mileage that are only a few years old. So that’s why I’m such a big fan! It’s amazing how much a car depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot. We have been shocked at how much we save when we compare the brand new price versus the something that is 1-3 years old! We always look at the new price of any vehicle we are looking at buying just to compare, too, and find that to be really helpful!
I recommend getting the car checked out by a trusted mechanic before you buy it. And remember that private sales run cheaper than lot since the car lot takes money of course.
Absolutely! This is a very important step! -Jordan, MSM Team
That’s a great tip!
I love your vehicle purchase thoughts. We do the same, but an added thing we research is major problems with the vehicle and when does it happen on most. For example, we bout a Ford Flex a year and a half ago that’s 2011. We found out the hard way that the water pumps are a common problem with it because it happened to us and we didn’t have motor coverage. 😷😱😳🙄 So, we either had to come up with a minimum of 3,400 bucks or fix it ourselves. My husband tore into it and fixed it but we found out that Ford had the amazing idea of putting the water pump IN THE ENGINE so it was a major tear down. I called everyone I know with a flex and told them what happened and to get coverage on the motor. So now we look at the common/major problems to see if we need extra coverage or if we can afford to fix it if it happens. Just wanted to share that cause no one thinks of that when they want/need a different vehicle. It still doesn’t run right, but runs and I love my flex. It’s huge and good on gas (7 seater…we have 5 kids)
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! That is definitely a great thing to keep in mind when buying used! -Jordan, MSM Team
Such a wise tip! Thank you for sharing!
When I purchase a used vehicle I get a carfax report. Sometimes the dealership will provide it. Last time I got a used car I bought an unlimited one month of reports.
Great idea!!- Jordan, MSM Team
Thank you for that tip!
This is a good read! We bought a used car a few weeks ago and followed these steps pretty closely. We’re very happy with our purchase.
Yay! I’m so happy you were able to find a car that you are so happy with!