New and Used
Car Buying Guide
How to Buy a Car in
10 EASY Steps
This new and used car buying guide is the 1, 2, 3, EASY and FREE way to learn how to buy a car like a pro. Watch your savings rack up by following these tips...
What would you do with $1000 in savings? Maybe even 3, 4 or up to $9900? Not sure?
Follow my 10 EZ steps to buying a car and save yourself a bundle, then you can spend it on whatever you'd like.
Don't have time to learn or just think you know it all? Car salesmen will love you! After making a huge commission I'm sure they'll know how to spend YOUR money.
Whatever you do...
Don't Let The Car Salesman Spend YOUR Money!
With over a decades worth of experience and thousands upon thousands of car
deals under my belt, I will show you what it takes to buy a car with no
headaches and massive savings!
My experience in the car business has shown me what steps to buying a car...
- Have worked for customers
- Have not worked for customers
- Have worked for car dealers and...
- Have not worked for car dealers
My goal here is to share my experience with you so that you can learn how to
buy a car while avoiding the pitfalls and learn the right steps to buying a car
for maximum time, money and stress savings.
Now 3 Versions!
The most popular version will save you time, but is still jam
packed with extremely valuable car buying information. No need to do anything
just scroll down to start learning or you can skip to it here: Learn to Buy Like a Pro! (About 12-18
minutes)
For the most in depth and comprehensive car buying guide online start here:
Steps
to Buying a Car. (About 30-45 minutes)
Or, the "I want my information fast" condensed version, which cuts some corners and doesn't quite teach all the information I feel is so crucial, but still a good quick guide to buying a car: How to Buy a Car. (About 5-7 minutes)
10 EZ Steps to Buying a Car
Table of Contents
|
Before You Go
Get Ready to Go
|
> > |
Over $3100 in Savings! Up to $6800 in Savings! |
Up to $9900 in Savings in just the first 2 sections!
But wait, there's more...
Once You Are There
- How to Inspect Used Cars
- Successful Four Square Negotiating
- FedEx It! Make it an Overnight Delivery (Important!!!)
- Avoid Scams in the Finance Office
Take Delivery (Bonus Section)
- We Owes / Due Bills
- Buyers Remorse
Extras
No matter what your level of "expertise," I'd recommend reading about the 7 types of car buyer as this will help you to establish a solid understanding of the car buying game - who wins, who loses and why. Never underestimate a car salesman!
This new and used car buying guide works for both buying and leasing, but leasing does require you to learn a slightly new language. Take a look at my new car leasing guide to learn to talk the talk.
Before you start your search for your new car there are some extremely important steps in this car buying guide you must follow. These steps will set the foundation for either a good experience or a not so good one!
1. The Credit Trap
If you will be financing your next new or used car, then you'll need to learn how to buy a car on credit. Is your credit rock solid? Are you sure? Have you seen your credit lately, if ever?
It's very important to know what's on your credit report and what your credit score is. If the car dealer knows more about your credit than you do...You Lose!
Of course, if you are paying cash for your next vehicle, then this step of the car buying guide can be skipped.
However, if you are financing you must know how you will look to a lender and
what credit
tier you will fall into.
I've seen it many, many times where a customer thinks they have a 750 credit score and that they'll qualify for top tier interest rates, but numerous factors, such as:
- Small collections (medical is the most common)
- High balances on credit cards (balances over 35% of the limit hurt)
- Incorrect information reporting (very common for a Jr./Sr. and people with very common names)
cause unforeseen problems.
The difference between A+ tier finance rates and let's say a B tier can be 5% or more. A 5% difference on a $20,000 loan at 72 months equals over $3,500 in additional finance charges. That's over $48 a month wasted on interest!
What if you fell into a C, D or F tier and your rate was 18% more? Now we're talking about a huge difference mega bucks wasted on interest rate alone.
Check your credit and score, settle small collections, pay down credit cards
and dispute inaccurate information. You'll save a ton of dough in the long run.
2. Get Pre-Approved for an Auto Loan
In your next step of the car buying guide you'll want to arrange your own financing and get pre-approved for an auto loan.
Of course, you could let the dealer arrange this for you, but you'd probably change your mind after reading about car dealer finance profits and how much they make arranging loans.
The Car Dealers Finance Department
Doesn't Work For Free!
Outside of the profits the dealer makes from arranging financing, having a blank check in your hand from your own source allows you to buy like a cash buyer. It simplifies the negotiation process and helps you focus on the only number that really matters, the sales price.
Not too long ago I had compared 40 cash deals to 40 finance deals and found that on average cash buyers paid over $2,000 less. Add that to the average finance savings of $745 and buying like a cash buyer would save the average customer over $2700! That's significant!
See how easy it is to save money by following this car buying guide?
Moral of this Story
You will save money Buying Like a Cash Buyer! MyAutoLoan.com offers extremely competitive rates (currently in the very low single digits) and gets you quotes from up to four lenders. Very easy! Apply for an Auto Loan NowIf your credit is not the best, then you'll want to take a look at my Bad Credit Car Buying Guide to find tips and loan sources specifically for bad credit car buyers.
3. Insurance Pitfalls
In the third step of the car buying guide, let's take a look at the three
most common types of "insurance" and the pitfalls to watch for.
Auto Insurance
Imagine that you've found your dream car and wanted it so bad that you were willing to pay $75 more a month than you had originally budgeted for. It will strap you a little bit each month, but for this car it is worth the sacrifice.
Only problem is that you didn't check auto insurance rates until the day after you signed that very legally binding 5, 6 or even 7 year contract. Not only are your monthly payments higher than you can comfortably afford, but now your insurance is jumping up another $65 a month. Ouch!
80% of the dealerships that I've worked for had very strict no return policies and unfortunately for these customers, they were stuck!
Don't get stuck, especially with something as easy as getting insurance
quotes. It should always be free to get quotes, it doesn't affect your credit
and is typically very fast.
Vehicle Extended Warranties
Buying an extended warranty can be an excellent idea to pay for any future mechanical issues your car may encounter, but you will definitely want to do your homework ahead of time. There are lots of "fly by night" companies that would be happy to take your money and run!
In addition, car dealers can make rather hefty profits selling extended warranties and I'd suggest you get some quotes online to be sure the dealer is not out of line with their pricing.
Be sure to read the warranty contract very closely!
Extended warranties are often confusing and some deceptive finance managers will sell inferior coverage as top of the line just to put a few more bucks in their pocket. Take a look at these 12 very important questions to ask about your Vehicle Extended Warranty.
I'll cover warranty scams more when we get to the 10th step of the car buying
guide.
GAP Insurance
If you will be financing your vehicle and not using at least a 25% down payment, then you definitely want to learn the benefits of GAP insurance.
In a nut shell, if your vehicle is totaled in an accident or stolen and not recovered, then GAP insurance will settle the difference between your insurance companies payment and what is actually owed to the lender.
Without it, you could be stuck paying thousands of dollars to your lender for the difference in what's owed and what it was worth...This happens a lot!
Dealers know how popular GAP insurance has become and charge a
premium for it. However, the charge for it is negotiable and on
average you don't want to pay more than $395 for 72 months of coverage.
Many dealers will try to charge $795 or more for this.
If you are not familiar with GAP insurance and are planning to finance please
do yourself a favor and learn more about GAP
Insurance once you are done reading the car buying guide.
We're Just Getting Warmed Up!
So
far this new and used car buying guide has shown you how to save a
minimum of $3150 and the great part is that we are just getting started!
Now let's move on to the fun part of the car buying guide and start shopping. Before we do that, I'll show you how to set a comfortable budget and how to save hundreds if not thousands of dollars with ease.
We'll also talk about your current cars trade in value and how to figure the car dealers new and used car cost.
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