When it comes to cars, I know pretty much nothing. I turn the key, move from Park into Drive, and I’m on my way. When anything goes wrong, I call my mechanic and am only too pleased to have another opportunity to hear his Welsh accent. My first car was a 1996 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight and was truly a Grandpa car: I had purchased it from my father, who had bought it from his. After two harsh winters in Wisconsin, and the Almanac predicting a third, I decided that it was time to scrap the old car and get a new one.
Having made the decision to buy a car, I now had to find out what that meant, in terms of my budget and the subsequent options. When I began my search, I decided to only look at cars within my price range without having to get a loan. However, when I walked into my first dealership and was asked what my price range was, the dollar amount that came out of my mouth was almost triple than what was in my savings account.
Lesson #1
While buying a car is a serious task, have fun while you’re doing it. Experiment with new cars, so that you will better understand what cars are capable of. If you are like me, even flooring your car’s gas pedal will not get you to the stop sign fast enough for the guy behind you. You need to experience what it’s like to just graze the accelerator and have your hair blown out of your face – something only a new car is capable of achieving.
Lesson #2
Listen to what your car salesman tells you and try to understand what everything means. Before September, I didn’t know that cars could have more than two airbags, Electronic Stability Control, or heated side mirrors. One good site to verify or further research what your salesman has told you is Edmunds.com. Go here to check on pricing, specs, car reviews, and lots of articles going over various methodologies about buying a car, from both the buyer’s and seller’s perspective.
As a woman who has no family close by and no local significant other, I was concerned about how I would be treated while shopping for a car. Would people just assume that my main concern was the number of cup holders, or would they treat me as an intelligent individual, seeking to learn about cars in order to make an intentional and informed decision?
Lesson #3
Don’t be afraid to walk away from a salesman based on their treatment toward you. If you feel like you’re not being given the respect you deserve, feel free to let them know that, either directly or by asking for a different salesman. While people sometimes make decisions based on pretty unscientific data, if something does not feel right, change it. Trust your gut. After I went to the first dealership, I visited the used car lot associated with it to do my “real” shopping. It was here that I thought I could use all the knowledge I picked up from the quality salesman and use it to buy a cheaper car.
Lesson #4
A cheaper car may be just that: cheaper. I had only spent three hours searching for a car and within ten minutes of meeting the used car salesman, I was convinced that I could do his job better than he could. He did not know the answers to my questions, he did not have a good read on me, and he was not able to use the computer. Don’t let your conscience get in the way of making good business decisions.
Lesson #5
Since buying a car is a continuous learning experience, don’t be afraid to re-evaluate your initial priorities. If they were based on misinformation, it would be foolish not to change and adapt. After the horrible experience at the used car lot, my budget underwent a change. While I still did not want to go horribly into debt, I decided that five years down the road, needing to buy a car again was not something I wanted to do. So, I determined how much I could spend and began seriously looking at buying a newer car. I went to another dealership and fell in love with my saleswoman. She looked after me, told me what I needed to know, and followed up with me afterwards. I told her just what I was looking for and while she didn’t have a car that met some of my criteria that day, she called me as soon as she got one.
Lesson #6
Do not let your good relationship with the saleswoman get in the way of making a wise decision. While the car she presented me with was terrific, it didn’t meet my standard for gas mileage, nor the age requirement. In the end, I turned it down and my dream of owning a yellow car. I visited another dealership, drove a car that was satisfactory, and was fairly certain that I would purchase it. I felt like the salesman there was a bit pushy, but since the car met all my criteria, I decided to go with it. However, throughout this whole process, my first salesman had sent me two postcards and several emails, asking how things were going and how he could help. My last salesman followed up through email after a while, but it was not the kind of whole hearted pursuit that my first salesman had. Since I hadn’t driven any realistic cars at the first dealership, I went back and took a second look around. At the used car lot, I had driven a 2007 Toyota Corolla and never wanted to step into another one in my life. My salesman convinced me to at least try the 2009 model and the first time I turned the ignition, I knew that this was going to be my car.
Lesson #7
One of the goals of the salesman is to exert dominance and train you to follow their lead. This is done early on, in the test drive, with you being told just where to turn and what to do. By the time you’re back at the dealership, you may be so used to following directions that you agree to things that you would not have even considered earlier. Since I had such a good relationship with the first salesman, for the second test drive, I told him where we were going to go and the next time I saw him, he handed me the keys and said, “See you in a half an hour.” The fact that he trusted me played an important role in making my decision and also allowed me to test the car in ways I did not feel comfortable doing while he was around.
Lesson #8
Having made a decision, if you are not comfortable with haggling, do not be afraid to bring someone in who is. It’s a dance we all go through with big purchases (offering and counter-offering when buying a home), and if you don’t feel like you can do it, bring someone who can. I have many savvy friends in the area and took one with me after I decided on the Corolla. He asked more questions, looked for ways to get me deals, and came with me to make the final decision and try to bring the price down.
Lesson #9
Never forget that this is your life, your financial responsibility, and ultimately your decision. Don’t be afraid to walk away at any point. There could be times where nothing seems to click and you just need to take a step back and wait a bit to buy a car. Try not to be in a situation where buying the car right away is essential.
Lesson #10
After letting your salesman know about your decision, when you are taken back to sign the papers, you will be asked about a lot of extras: do you want special coating on the outside of the car? If so, over the entire car or only on sections? Do you want rust protection under the car? Do you want special protection on your seats to guard against stains? Do you want to be involved in the dealer’s plan to protect you for x number of months, with a free car wash every once in a while? Do you want to buy into their super, super plan? Be prepared to answer these questions, since your budget needs to accommodate the price of the car plus all the extra bells and whistles.
Lesson #11
If you’ve never had a new car before, you may not be aware that while you may want to treat the car with kid gloves on, this is not the recommendation. I was told not to use cruise for the first 1200 miles and to take her over 60 mph at least once a week for the first few months. This gives the car’s parts a chance to break in and get used to how you drive.
While I didn’t initially consider a brand new car because of the immediate decrease in value once you drive it off the lot, I am very happy with my decision to buy new. She’s beautiful, sporty, and a fabulous color…oh, and she has all the safety and mileage requirements that I wanted, too. I like to tell people that we were made for each other.
