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How to Have a Satisfying Used Car Buying Experience
Having Purchased my share of used cars over the years I have found that the reason for most unsatisfying used car purchases, arise from not knowing 3 simple principles that will will completely change the outcome of the used car buying experience.
Whether you have excellent credit or are one of the many more used car buyers with marginal or bad credit, read on, and set yourself up for a better used car buying experience.
Once you have found a dealer with a used car that suits your needs and budget:
1. Ask to have the car looked at by your own mechanic! This is critical, no excuses allowed. With all the Katrina cars literally floating around you will end up feeling like an IDIOT if you don’t have every used car you want to buy looked over by a professional mechanic BEFORE you purchase it.
2. Know your financial credit situation. If you have good credit (650+) then fine, you are in good shape to have an easy time. If however you have poor credit then PREPARE TO WAIT while the dealership attempts to find a lender who will carry you, AND be prepared to pay A MUCH HIGHER INTEREST RATE. Hey it’s your credit rating. You earned it, now you just have to deal with it.
3. Understand the dynamics of buying a used vehicle on an extended credit contract. For poor credit buyers, the most affordable cars will have at least 60K-80K or more miles on them. This means at best only one to two years of driving before expensive major maintenance work will be required in most cases. If you take out a high interest loan for 3-5 years on this vehicle you will end up deep in debt on a car that has little or no value without additional outlays of major cash to fix it. This upside down financial situation can often cause bitter resentment toward the dealer, and if payments are missed can spiral into even more credit problems for the buyer.
In conclusion: Be Aware, be smart. Know what you are getting into.
People with good credit go in with cash down payments and a high quality credit rating. They will almost always have an easy and enjoyable experience.
People with poor credit however almost always have a universally bad experience for all of the reasons outlined above.
A far better solution for poor credit buyers is to pay cash to a private owner, such as you will find in your local paper or on Craigslist.com . The same rule #1 applies. If the owner won’t let you have the car examined by your own mechanic, walk away. If the car checks out OK, then just pay cash and be done with it. This way you are cashed out on the deal with nothing more to owe to the bank. So you won’t end up down and out of luck, with no car and big debt to a lender.