Buying your next car
So it wasn’t as hard as you though selling your old car was it ?
Now the old car has gone you will be itching to find the new wheels to put on the driveway so where do we start. In my experience over the last 15 years buying a new or used car has changed a lot and can be an overwhelming experience having to learn vast amounts of information not only about the vehicle but more importantly the seller.
I have broken it down into stages to make it easier to explain and digest so buckle up and hear my thoughts.
Stage 1:
The Search, there are literally thousands of makes models and specifications to choose from not to mention combinations, it helps to identify what you want the vehicle to do say for instance your family is expanding and you need room for 2 kids and a large boot for a pushchair you may narrow it down to large saloon or MPV this will help you to choose the manufacturer and eventually the model, lets take for instance your happy with a large saloon well there are two ends to the market a cheap end and an expensive one. Knowing your budget will help you understand which end your looking at. The cheaper end may lead you to a VW Passat and the other end may see you test driving a BMW or Mercedes. This method of choice reduction works for most categories and manufactures of vehicles.
Stage 2:
Research Now that you have an idea of what type make and model your looking for its time to get searching online, our extensive study of the used car market tells us we spend on average 11 hours researching vehicles online and usually only driving to a dealership to inspect and pay. I always recommend looking for cars on websites like Autotrader and E-Bay as this is where most decent dealers will advertise all there stock. This is where it pays to spend time as a customer its not unusual to know more about the vehicle your interested in buying than the seller does. With all the information at our fingertips these days its not hard to spot a decent motor from a wrongon. Make sure that your chosen dealer has a good website with everything written clearly and always google search them, you don’t want to get home with your new car and find out the dealer is always in court for selling moody motors, and decent dealer will pride themselves on good quality feedback usually displayed on google or Feefo. Don’t forget to run a HPI check this will highlight any discrepancies with mileage and if its been wrapped round a lamppost by previous owners.
Stage 3:
Finance and collection, now you like the car and you like the dealer its time to make a deal, car dealers are not all hard work to deal with instead they will try their best to get you into the car according to your budget. Understanding finance isn’t that hard if the dealer keeps it simple, say the screen price is £10,500 its always worth offering a bid but don’t expect it to be thousands in the used market as there just isn’t bundles of mark-up on them offering £10,000 is fair and not insulting to the dealer, if they excepted your offer then you would need to arrange finance with them usually acting as a broker on your behalf giving you a breakdown of the proposed figures. You must understand there are a few common options such as PCP (personal contract purchase) and HP (Hire purchase) PCP is like a rental agreement meaning you would leave a sizeable deposit of around 2 or 3 thousand leaving the rest of the balance spread across monthly repayments of a term lasting 3 years and on the end date of 3 years you would return the vehicle back to the dealer in the same condition you received it in and walk away or take out new finance on another vehicle. Hp is sometimes a better option it’s the same as buying a new mobile phone you agree to pay a deposit usually 10% of sale price then the rest spread across a term of 2 – 5 years and once last payment has been made you own the car to do what you like with.
Stage 4:
Driveaway, yep that’s it you done it chose it, researched it, financed it and now its sitting on your driveway.
