What To Do Before Buying That New Car Or Truck - Advice On First Car




Ooohhh, that brand new car smell...

It's so great isn't it? But it comes at a premium. We all know that it's cheaper to buy fairly used instead of new, but if you still don't think you can live without that fragrance of a new car (the real one, not the one you buy from dealerships in the little spray can) - then at least think about following these steps first:

1. Research! If you absolutely have to have a new car, do yourself a favor and spend some time at Nairaland.com cartalk section and research some of the cars that you are thinking about buying. If you have a specific car in mind already, be sure to research the other cars in its class as well. You might even find another one you like better and is rated higher from consumers, has higher crash test scores, better resale value, higher mpg's, or whatever else floats your boat.

2. Once you have decided on a car, lots of dealerships have a great feature for pricing - it's called True Market Value. That is basically how much other people are paying for that specific car. This can give you great leverage when negotiating the price on your new vehicle. But you also must keep in mind that it's not a definite price level, but more of a guide for haggling with the salesman about the price.

3. Dare I say the "L" word? Loan! There I said it, whew. Once you have settled on a fair price for the vehicle you are buying, it's time to think about how you're going to pay for it. Since most of us don't pay cash for new cars, most likely you'll need to obtain a loan for your new ride. If so, then you need to pay close attention to the interest rate on the loan. This is not something that can normally be negotiated, but you still need to be aware of what your interest rate will be - even 1 percentage point lower can save you over NGN700k on an average priced new vehicle, over the life of the loan.

My advice on this would be to go after those low APR loan offers that the dealerships sometimes have. You know, the "buy now and receive 2.9% apr for up to 60 months" type of offers. That can save you some big bucks, lets take a closer look...