Where To Find The Car That Best Suits You
Remember, we’ve gotten away from looking for your "Dream Car". That’s the car you’ll buy when price isn’t a concern, and let me hasten to add, if that describes you, then I’m still going to show you how to keep more of your money. I just don’t want to refer to the product of the first chapter’s analysis as a “Dream Car”, because what that analysis produced for some isn’t going to be their “Dream Car”.
Let’s use an example here. Let’s say the best car for you is a 4-door sedan that gets at least 25 MPG. One of your first considerations should be to check the reliability track record of vehicles of this type. There’s a wealth of information available at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website which is http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov
There are several places you can buy a used car, and of course if you’re out to buy a brand new one, then the dealership is where you’ll go, but if you’re buying a used car, then you could purchase from an individual.
There are several pro’s and con’s to buying a used car from an individual. The pro’s consist of, lower price, no dealer fees, if it was a one owner then you can usually get all the maintenance records, you don’t have to deal with “dealership anxiety”, and cash talks big-time when negotiating with an individual (a cash deal is actually not good for a dealer – they want your finance money too!). The con’s consist of, individuals usually do not take trade-ins; reputable dealers do a legitimate safety inspection of cars before they put them up for sale; financing is readily available at dealerships; extended warranties and other “goodies” can be easily obtained from dealers (if you’re an "additional goodie" freak; and you can usually find EXACTLY what you are looking for in a short period of time by looking around at several dealerships).
The focus of this site is helping you save money whenever buying a used car at a dealership, but several of the same principles can be applied if you decide to buy from an individual.