Making sure that you are thinking about every aspect when it comes to buying a car

When it comes to buying a new car, if finances are tight, you are going to straight away going to go away to a dealer or a used car website and try and find the cheapest car. For starters never go to a dealer, this is because they have had to buy the car in the first placed for what it is actually worth, they have then had to mark it up in order to sell it on. If you do go to a dealer make sure that you haggle extensively as they will do pretty much anything for a profit. Online websites are usually put on the market by individuals meaning that they are a little more desperate to get rid of their vehicle for whatever reason. They might need the money or they might be looking for an upgrade.

However there is something you should be doing first before you start thinking about what car you want. Firstly start thinking about your needs. Do you have to do short city drives? If yes you are going to want a car that is easy to park with a small engine so that the fuel and road tax isn’t overly expensive. If on the other hand you have to drive on a motorway every day to work, you are going to want a car that gets its peak fuel economy at 60-70MPh. Now that you know the type of car that you need, you are going to have to start looking at the insurance band that your car will fall under.

You are going to want a car that is in one of the lower bands as otherwise all the money you saved when shopping around for a car will be wasted if you didn’t check the insurance cost in advance. Certain cars are safer and therefore will cost less to insure, furthermore if they are more friendly to the environment, they will cost you less to tax. You have to think about the whole picture as if you are able to make lots of little savings, it will all add up. [Source: www.financialupdate.org.uk]

Once you have done this, you can start haggling on your insurance price. Even though you have chosen a model from a low insurance band you can still get a cheaper price if you start by using online comparison sites,  once you have a few quotes you call the cheapest few and try to haggle them down further, but remember always buy the car first and then the insurance, otherwise you could be insured for a car that you do not own if the deal falls through, but if the insurance deal falls through you can always go to another insurer.

Written by Kevin Donovan from www.businesstimes.org.uk. He often writes about how we can improve our personal finances using methods that are simple and achievable.