Q. Is it better to buy a new or used car?
A. Since a car loses much of its value in its first few years, you can save thousands of dollars by buying a used car. On the other hand, if you're not too savvy about cars and their inner workings, you might get taken advantage of. You don't know the car's history -- it might be a lemon disguised as a peach.
Still, for some people, buying used cars is the way to go. Here are some questions to ask yourself, to see if you're among this group:
- Am I a skilled negotiator?
- Am I good at determining the real value of things?
- Do I enjoy shopping for vehicles and scouring car lots?
- Am I mechanically inclined, or do I have access to someone handy with cars?
- Am I patient?
The more "yes" answers you have, the more suited you are to used vehicles.
Even if your answers were mostly "no," you might still tap the used-vehicle market, via the many dealers now offering "re-warranted" off-lease vehicles.
If you plan to explore the used vehicle market, a very helpful website to check out is Carfax.com — especially before you finalize a purchase. Private sellers and even car dealerships have been found guilty of repairing "salvage" (seriously damaged) vehicles, taking them across state lines, registering them and getting a "clean" title in the new state, and then putting them up for sale without revealing their true history to prospective buyers. The car you think is one heck of a great deal might have been pulled from a swamp a couple of months ago in another state. Jot down the vehicle identification number (VIN) of any car you're seriously interested in buying and run it through Carfax's free "Instant Lemon Check" service. It could keep you from being taken by unscrupulous car sellers trying to unload some sour automotive citrus fruit (if you catch our drift).
For much more on the ins and outs of the car-buying process, check out the Fool's How to Buy a Car area and ask questions on our Buying and Maintaining a Car discussion board. Here are a bunch of websites that should help you decide what kind of vehicle you want to buy -- and might even help you buy it: Edmunds.com, Autobytel.com, Autoweb.com, Autosite.com, TheCarConnection.com.
If you have any questions, thoughts or opinions on this column, share them with others on our Ask the Fool discussion board.
This question and answer is adapted from The Motley Fool Money Guide: Answers to Your Questions About Saving, Spending and Investing. For answers to this and 499 other common money questions, check it out -- it's a handy resource.
RSS Headlines
Fool UK
