Posts Tagged ‘used cars’
Finding the right vehicle for your family
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
There are a lot of special considerations when looking at a vehicle for your family. Not only will it be responsible for getting you around town, it will be responsible for your family’s safety and convenience. Making a final decision will take some careful consideration; here are a few questions that can get you closer to your answer:
What’s the cargo? This will have the biggest impact on the style of vehicle you look at. If you have to get a large group of children to and from school, appointments and other events, a minivan might be your best option. If you have kids but also a lot of cargo like pets and groceries, perhaps you should look at an SUV. If you have a smaller family, consider a car as the most practical means of transportation.
Where will you be driving? Let’s face it, gas is not cheap! However, before you jump head first into a hybrid, consider your driving style. If you’re driving mainly around the city, a hybrid might be best for you. However, if your normal trips consist of a lot of highway driving, look into a smaller engine vehicle. Either way, understanding your driving habits will help you out tremendously.
What is the safest option? When it comes to your family, safety is usually your number one concern. Purchasing a vehicle should be no different. Once you have the style of vehicle picked out, look at the safety reports on which one is the safest. There are generally yearly reports, with breakdowns for each type of vehicle, so do a quick search online and find out what is the safest.
How much can you afford? Notice that price is the last talking point? I completely understand needing to fit into a budget but by finding a vehicle that fits your needs first, you will be much more satisfied with your purchase. Also, when looking at the price tag also consider additional costs like insurance and maintenance. Another quick search online will show you the best vehicles to insure and maintain. This can ensure that your new vehicle purchase really does fit into your budget.
Hopefully these tips help you find a vehicle that gets your family safely where they need to go for years to come. If you have any questions on finding the right vehicle for your family, please let me know at: cihde@ewaldauto.com
Tags: automotive, Automotive Advantage, car buying, car dealership, car sales, Ewald, family, Milwaukee, new cars, Oconomowoc, used cars, vehicle purchase, Wisconsin
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Narrowing down what vehicle to purchase
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
An acquaintance of mine approached me after a networking event last week. She explained to me that she had a Honda CRV and that she knew that she needed a larger vehicle, but had no idea where to start. She told me her family had recently added a third child and they were having a hard time fitting three car seats in the back of the CRV. As we talked through her problem, I had a couple of questions I needed her to answer.
How much “stuff” do you need to haul around? In this case, I already knew she had three kids and their car seats to fit in. Since I have two kids of my own, I know that kids come with a lot of baggage and storage capacity is a necessity. This pretty much guarantees she will need some sort of minivan, but if she would have a problem with that, it is important to look at other model types available. However, she was happy with the minivan suggestion, so I was able to very quickly run her through the current models and their strengths and weaknesses. With this in mind, she could start test-driving a few.
What can you afford? Have you thought about this yet? My family is as budget conscious as any other family, so I always want to fit this into the equation when deciding to make a vehicle change. In this case, she knew she could afford around $300-$350 a month. I explained the general rule of thumb that $100 per month gets you $5000 worth of vehicle. This put her around $15,000-17,500. However, her trade(the Honda CRV) was most likely worth a few thousand dollars, so she could reasonably look at vehicles up to $20,000. At this point, we were getting very close to identifying what she could seriously consider for her next vehicle.
What is your driving style? By style, I mean how do you spend 80% of the time in your car? I asked my friend what her typical driving day included. Between commuting, taking the kids to day care and the bi-annual vacation to Colorado, the dominant style was short commuting. She wanted to ensure the kids were comfortable for the long trips they take and that they would be safe on a daily basis. With this in mind, we narrowed her search further to a top safety rated minivan with good highway gas mileage ratings.
When we started out our conversation she had stated that she wanted to purchase a vehicle in the spring. Her thinking was that it would take that long to find the vehicle they wanted. However, as we answered these quick questions during a 10 minute conversation, it became clear that it would be very easy to select the perfect vehicle to meet their needs and wants rather quickly, which may have surprised her due to her own expectations of the sales process. She found out that it doesn’t have to take forever if the right questions are asked and answered during the process.
Thinking through the above questions can help you narrow down what vehicle you are looking for next time you are thinking about making a change. If you’d like someone to run a question by or to help you with the process, drop me an email at cihde@ewaldauto.com.
Tags: car buying, car dealership, car sales, new cars, trade in, used cars, vehicle negotiation
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Understanding the post Cash for Clunkers car market
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
The main problem with Cash for Clunkers is that people thought, and continue to think, that it was the only good time to buy a car. In reality, today’s car buying market is one of the best it has ever been. As a matter of fact, the purchasing programs that are available today are the some of the best the auto industry as ever seen.
An exciting statistic in this market is that interest rates are approximately 2% below normal. In many cases this can save you up to $50 a month on your payments. This means that the monthly payment on a car you buy today may be right inline with what you would have been paying on a Clunkers deal. Furthermore, there are many manufactures that are offering 0% financing on certain vehicles. Such deals make it easy to fit a car payment into your budget.
Another key factor in today’s market is that Cash for Clunkers took a good deal of used cars off the road. With hundreds of thousands of fewer vehicles now in circulation, dealers must pay far more to buy a used vehicle. This is to your advantage because if you are looking to trade in a vehicle, your trade in value could be anywhere from 5-19% above average. Used car values seldom ever go up so this is an extremely rare event that could be to the advantage of anyone looking for a new or used car.
Whether you missed out on Clunkers, are not happy with the car you purchased or simply weren’t in a position to buy at the time, there are plenty of incentives to help you get the car you are dreaming of. If you sit down with me I will help you find the car that is perfect for you and then decide when it is the best time to buy. No dealer worth his or her weight wants to put someone in a car they will not be happy with or cannot afford.
Tags: Cash for Clunkers, interest rates, new cars, trade in, used cars
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