auto

Five Common and Expensive Car Buying Mistakes

September 13, 2008 By Guest Writer 5 Comments

By Jason Lancaster

As a person who worked in car dealerships for nearly 10 years, I can tell you that a lot of people make expensive mistakes when buying a new or used car. Fortunately, these common mistakes are easy to avoid – here’s what you need to look out for:

Buying for an un-common need

Nearly every consumer is guilty of making this mistake at some point. People often buy a pickup truck so they can haul or tow something, buy an SUV or minivan because they want to make sure that “everyone fits” when family visits, etc. That’s all fine and good when those are common needs, but the trouble is that these are often rare uses. Why not rent a truck when you need to tow, or rent an SUV when family is in town? That way you can buy an inexpensive economy car for every day needs, and then use some of the money you saved to rent a special vehicle if and when you need it.

Buying a car without doing any planning

Before you buy your next vehicle, ask yourself what you’re going to be doing in one, two, five, and 10 years. Are you planning on children? If so, it might make sense to buy a four-door instead of that snappy little coupe. Are you moving to a snowy climate? If so, it might make sense to opt for all-wheel-drive. When you don’t make a plan and you have to trade-in your car prematurely, you lose money (sometimes a lot of money).

Negotiating a purchase on the basis of monthly payment alone

A classic car sales technique is to ask the customer to negotiate payments instead of the vehicle’s cost. Instead of lowering the price to get you a lower payment, dealers can often extend your finance term instead. You end up paying more for the car and more finance charges. So, instead of negotiating on payment alone, negotiate the total price AND payments.

Locking in on features that don’t matter

Consumers often feel that they must have a certain feature on their next car, and while it might make sense to mandate a safety or performance feature, you should never get caught up in “non-essentials.” Take color, for example. Color has nothing to do with the way a car performs, yet I’ve seen customers walk away from a big discount because the only car I had to sell them was the wrong color. The same can be said for other non-essential features like leather interior, sunroofs, stereos, etc. It’s important to get what you want, but it’s also important to get a good deal. If you’re flexible on features (especially non-essentials), you’ll always get a better deal than someone who isn’t.

Impulse buying

Impulse buying is expensive for a lot of reasons, but the main reason is this: Car dealers know how to spot an impulse buyer and they are quick to take advantage of their emotional (and often uniformed) state.

Image courtesy of Ben McLeod

The Auto Numbers Game

August 3, 2008 By Guest Writer 3 Comments

By Joseph Ganem

Just about every financial decision we make involves comparing numbers. But, often the numbers shown are not the ones you should compare. The sellers of automobiles and related products are masters at leading people down the wrong financial road with misleading numbers. Whether buying a car or a tank of gas, it is easy to be distracted by the numbers in large lettering on the signs. But always think about the difference between the total amount of money in your pocket before and after the transaction. That sounds obvious, but consider these common examples where numbers send the consumer off in the wrong direction.

Buying a car

Dealers have found 0% financing offers to be one of their best marketing tools. The idea is to distract buyers from looking at used cars by making it appear that they will save money financing a new car. But if you look at the fine print, almost all 0% financing offers are in lieu of a rebate.

Consider a new car advertised for $26,000 with 0% financing for 60 months or a $5000 rebate. What that means is that the car costs $21,000 because if you have the cash you will drive away with $21,000 less in your bank account. If you don’t have the cash the so-called “rebate” is actually a $5000 pre-paid finance charge. Whether that’s a good deal depends on the alternative sources of financing available.

For example if your bank will finance the $21,000 for 5 years at an 8% annual percentage rate your monthly payments will be $425.80, which is $7.53 less than the $433.33 monthly payment that results from the 0% finance offer.

You should still be wary of the 0% finance offer even if the monthly payments that result are about the same or slightly more than payments on a loan from the bank. That is because no matter what happens in the future you will be responsible for the $26,000 owed to the dealer. But if a bank loan is paid off early because you totaled the car or trA 0% finance agreement is the kind of deal I call a “two-headed quarter” for the dealer because it insures that the finance charge will be paid to them no matter what events happen in the future. As a general rule it is better to shop for the lowest cash price for a vehicle and then compare different financing offers.

Auto manufacturers have created other complicated offers in place of rebates to distract buyers. With the high cost of gas making the news some manufacturers are offering discounts on gas for the first three years of ownership. But before you agree to exchange your rebate for gas you will need to do an extensive mathematical analysis of your driving habits, gas buying, and most importantly all the complicated rules and restrictions attached to the offer. It’s a good bet that the cash from the rebate is the simpler and more profitable option.

Buying gas

With gas prices hovering around $4 per gallon, it is now common to spend more per month filling your tank than making your car payment. It certainly pays to search out the station offering the best price on gas. But like buying a car, if you focus only on the numbers shown on the signs you might pay more. Before you set off on a trip to the station with the lowest price, think about the total cost.

Let’s do the math. If you drive 5 miles out of the way to purchase gas in a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, that 10-mile round trip will burn 0.5 gallons. If you drive that distance to pay $3.95 per gallon to fill a 15-gallon tank, instead of paying $4.00 at your local station, you only save 75 cents. But your trip to save $0.75 will cost nearly $2. Instead of saving a nickel per gallon you will actually spend about 8 cents more per gallon.

If that computation took you back to those impossible word problems in high school math, you can easily find out if your trips to purchase low-priced gas are burning more money than you save with this calculator that will compute your net savings on gas after accounting for the cost of the trip.

Extended Warranties

Most auto dealers will push an extended warranty or service contract when you purchase a vehicle. I find it amusing to be sold on how great a product is, only to be told horror stories on all the problems that can occur once I make a decision to buy. But, the reason for pushing service contracts is that the money spent on them is pure profit for the dealer. Extended warranties on cars typically have deductibles and exclude many parts — usually the parts most likely to fail. If you do have a problem you will have to make a claim and negotiate a payment that may not cover the entire cost of the repair.

The deception of extended warranties is that you will always find someone who needed expensive repairs on a vehicle shortly after the manufacturer warranty expired. But those cases are the exceptions. If you make it a rule to always decline extended warranties, you will save more than enough money in the long run to pay for the repairs that you actually need. Warranties do not cover routine or regularly scheduled maintenance. If you invest in upkeep rather than an extended warranty, the chance of an expensive unexpected part failure will be reduced.

Whether buying a car, filling its tank, or having it serviced, shop for the best cash price. Avoid complicated gimmicks and contracts laden with rules and exclusions. Despite what the salesperson says, if you do the math you will usually find that cash is your best bet.

Image courtesy of Ben McLeod

Joseph Ganem, a professor of physics at Loyola College in Maryland, is author of the award-winning book: The Two Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers and Save Money on Everything You Buy. His Website is TheTwoHeadedQuarter.com.

Should Rising Gas Prices Make You Buy a New Car?

April 28, 2008 By Jennifer Derrick 11 Comments

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that gas prices are soaring sky high. As a result, many people are rushing out to trade in their older, larger, inefficient cars for newer smaller, more efficient models. But is this rush to trade really necessary, or even a good thing?

Certainly if you’re driving a Hummer (or other large or extra large SUV/truck) that gets, at best, 13 MPG on the highway, you would be better served financially by switching to something smaller and more efficient. It’s not difficult to find a car that can double that MPG. However, what if you own a smaller SUV or a mini-van? Can you really do a lot better financially by switching?

Looking at many of the major mini-vans and mid-size SUV’s on the road today, the average highway MPG is around 25 MPG. The average MPG for many of the major mid-size cars is around 30 MPG. As with anything, some are better and some are worse, but these are the averages. So if you’re driving a mid-size van or SUV and switch to a mid-sized car, you’ll save some fuel, but only an average of 5 MPG. Even switching to a much smaller, compact or economy car will only get you an average of 32 MPG on the highway, not much different than the mid-sized car. To reap significant savings you’d need to move to a hybrid of some sort, where the highway MPG can jump as high as 45 MPG.

The problem in the U.S. is that we have some of the worst fuel economy standards of any major nation. We simply don’t require that our cars and trucks get the gas mileage that they could. If we adopted the same standards as some European nations, our cars could easily be getting 40 MPG on average, with many pushing fifty miles per gallon. But because we won’t adopt such standards, we’re stuck with lower MPG’s that make switching to smaller cars almost no better than driving larger cars.

Other factors may eat into any potential savings, as well. How much you can sell your current vehicle for will have a big impact on your savings. If you can’t sell your current car for more than or as much as you owe, you’ll have to foot the bill for the difference on your old loan in addition to paying for the newer car. With the market for SUV’s, vans and trucks shrinking, it can be difficult to get the price you need for your current car. This can lead to larger monthly payments (paying for a newer car, as well as paying off the loan on the old car) that eat into any money you might save at the pump.

If you own your car outright, what you can sell it for is less of a factor, although the amount you can get may dictate what you can afford in terms of a newer car. If you don’t have a lot of cash lying around, a low resale on your current car could mean that you have less to spend on a new car, or that you now have a car payment where before you had none. If you’re not currently making payments, make certain to take any new payment into account when calculating potential savings at the gas pump. You may be trading one savings for another expense.

Also remember that any newer vehicle is likely to cost you more in taxes and insurance. Newer vehicles are almost always more expensive to insure because the cost to replace them is greater. And, because they are newer and worth more, the taxes are going to be higher. How much higher, of course, depends on what you get and what you’ve been driving, but do your research to make certain that your fuel savings won’t be eaten up by higher insurance and tax payments.

In most cases, switching just to save a few bucks on gasoline isn’t worth it. Unless you are moving down from a giant SUV, the move from van to car or mid-sized SUV to car won’t save you that much. It may end up costing you more once you factor in new payments, insurance, and taxes. Obviously, if you need a new car because your old one has given up or has become too expensive to maintain you want to shop for the best MPG you can get so that, moving forward, you can save as much as possible. But if you’re simply looking to trade a perfectly good car to save on gas, you might be better off holding on to your old car for a while longer until you really need a newer vehicle.

In the meantime, look for other ways to save on fuel. Some tried and true ideas:

Slowing down is a great fuel saver. Most cars get their best MPG around 60 MPH on the highway. As you go above that, your fuel economy drops rapidly.
Make certain your car is well maintained. Proper air pressure in the tires, clean oil and filters, and proper fluid levels all contribute to help a car get its best MPG.
Don’t carry everything you own in the car because the extra load is a drag on your fuel economy. Similarly, try to avoid using a “snail” or other cargo carrier on your roof as it creates more drag which lowers fuel economy.
Combine your errands and do as much as possible in one trip to save on repeat trips.
Plan your route to do the least amount of backtracking.
Try to avoid sitting in rush hour traffic. Leave for work and home earlier or later to avoid the worst traffic. Similarly, if you don’t work outside the home, time your errands to avoid rush hours.
Don’t go out for lunch every day. Not only does it cost more for the food, but also in the travel cost of getting to the restaurant. Bring your lunch and eat in.
If you can find someone to share a ride with, even if only once per week, do it. Carpooling is a big fuel saver for both parties.
Don’t idle at the drive thru. Turn off the engine while you wait for your food or money. Better yet, go inside and conduct your business.

I want to make one more point about switching cars just to save fuel. Yes, saving fuel is good for the environment. I don’t dispute that. But it’s better for the environment to keep a well-maintained, functioning car on the road for longer, rather than buying new cars frequently. New cars require tremendous amounts of resources and energy to build. The longer you can keep your older car on the road and functioning well, the fewer resources that are gobbled up to make new cars. Additionally, fewer cars end up in landfills and junk yards. If everyone kept their cars for extended periods of time, we would save more resources and energy than if everyone switched to smaller cars.

When you have no other option, when your old car has truly taken its last breath, switching to a fuel efficient car is the way to go. I highly recommend that, when the time comes, you go for the best fuel economy you can get. But until the time comes when a newer car is needed (not wanted), I recommend keeping your old car for as long as possible and keeping it well maintained. That’s the best way to go, both for your wallet and for the environment.

Image courtesy of Cayusa

Can a Brand New Car Be a Better Deal than a Used Car?

April 9, 2008 By Cortni Marrazzo 21 Comments

Since I first became interested in personal finance a few years ago, I have been dead set against buying a new car. As a person who likes to save money, the thought of buying something that would depreciate tremendously as soon as I drove it off the lot made me shutter. Plus there was the fact that I could buy a slightly used one, with possibly more features, for a lot less money. This is appealing because I like to get the best value for my dollar that I can.

That’s why I could hardly believe it when I found myself even discussing the possibility of buying a new car with my husband recently. Somehow I found arguments as to why it could be smarter for us to actually buy new rather than used like we were contemplating. Funny enough, it really had less to do with the “new car smell” (which I honestly don’t even like all that much) or the warranty, but more about the bottom line dollar amount. Sounds strange huh? Well here are the few reasons I found myself contemplating forking out a lot of money for a nice new car.

High Resale Value: The particular car we are looking at has a pretty high resale value, the fact of which competes with the depreciation argument most given by used car advocates. The 2008 model of the car we wanted was going for $20,000, while the 2007 model was going for around $18,500 and the 2006 for around $17,500. So the difference between the brand new car and the slightly used one wasn’t thousands of dollars, but rather only a couple thousand dollars.

Realizing this, I began to weigh the couple thousand dollars against all the benefits a brand new car brings (warranty, known vehicle history, no miles, perfect condition, etc.) I do realize that most new cars drop their values significantly more than this in the first few years, but this particular make holds its value pretty well, thus giving the new one an edge.

Incentives: Since I’m all about saving money, I had to note the special incentive offers that were being offered on only the new cars. At this time it was $1000 cash back AND 0% financing. Usually you have to choose between the cash back and low financing, but these were being offered together. This closed the already low price gap even more.

I figured (and hoped) that on a car marked $21,000, I could talk them down to $19,000 and with the $1000 cash back I could get it for $18,000 — making it barely more than the used 2007. Not to mention all the money we’d save on interest with a 0% loan. “How incredible” I thought. I was really starting to think that we should buy this new car, even though I’ve been dead set against that idea for years.

Warranty: Above I mentioned that I wasn’t too concerned about a warranty on a car, mostly because I’ve never had one and I’ve been fine. But I have to admit that I did start to factor that benefit in when I realized the new and used car prices were so similar. Not having to pay for any repairs for a few years was definitely tempting.

So based on the above, I had pretty much convinced myself and my husband (although he didn’t need too much convincing) that the new car would be the better deal for us. However, I’m not the kind of person to make a quick decision as I tend to think things over a lot, even if I thought I had already made a decision. The more I thought about it and after doing a little more research, I turned my tables again.

The Real Deal Ok, so if the list price on the new car is $21,000 and I would be able to talk them down to $19,000 then realistically I would be able to do the same negotiating on a used car with the sticker price of $17,000 or $18,000. Minus the $1000 rebate, the price gap grew again when I realized this. Plus I’ve heard that dealers have more room to negotiate on used car prices than on new. Oh — and the 0% financing? Upon further investigation I found that it is only for 24 months (can you say too good to be true?) While we do intend to pay our car off within 2 years anyhow, I wanted to do it on our own schedule and not be stuck with $600 a month car payments. Lastly, this particular car has a transferable warranty so we would still receive a partial warranty with the slightly used car.

The bottom line came down to the fact that we could get a nice used car that was exactly the same as the new one for about $3000 less and while that doesn’t seem like a lot of money when talking about a car, it’s still a lot of money for us. This made me think of all the house projects we could do with $3000 (since we do all the labor ourselves).

So now we are planning on purchasing a slightly used car that’s exactly the same model and features as the brand new one we looked at. I have to say that I feel a lot better about making (what I consider to be) a wise decision in regards to our car. I do understand now why some people find it a better option to purchase new instead of used, but I think it depends a lot on each person’s specific circumstance. This was just an example of our particular circumstance and the choice we made.

Image courtesy of smcgee

Gas and 9/10 Cent: What Difference Does It Make?

March 25, 2008 By Shannon Christman 12 Comments

My husband and I often remember prices differently: I think it was $5; he thinks it was $4. Turns out it was $4.99. The difference is how we view the cost — I automatically round up in my mind: $0.89 becomes $0.90, $1.46 becomes $1.50, $1288 becomes $1300. He tends to block out anything after a decimal point. Apparently, most people are like he is. Psychologically, they see $9.99 as “under $10,” even if tax puts the total cost over $10.

That’s why gas stations tack 9/10 cent onto the price of every gallon sold here in the U.S. Chances are, you are so used to seeing this fraction at the end of the ever-rising gas prices that you hardly notice it anymore. But the gas companies don’t forget about these not-quite pennies. Wisegeek calculates that those extra fractions bring in $1.7 billion annually, an average of $4.50 from each customer. (I bet those gas company executives believe in the value of a penny!)

Some people attribute motives more devious than simple profit to the creators of the 9/10 cent pricing. This site points out that rounding 9/10 cent to the nearest penny statistically favors the seller and that fractional pricing creates a false sense of accuracy related to the amount of gasoline pumped. The same site points out that you cannot purchase a single gallon of gasoline at its advertised price – a suggestion that gas stations are engaging in false advertising. At least one gas buyer feels cheated by these practices. He says the gas stations are stealing from us by failing to make change for the whole penny we give them. Seeing how those fractions add up, he may be right, but does anyone want to sue a gas company for $4.50 a year?

Back when gas cost less — say, 30 cents a gallon — the 9/10 cent may have made a noticeable difference to consumers (3% of the total bill). Now it accounts for such a small portion of the sale (about 0.3%) that changing the price of a gallon from 9/10 cent to 7/10 cent would not make a significant difference in the total gas bill. (I can’t imagine anyone making a u-turn to go to a gas station across the street that charges 2/10 cent less, though I have seen such a move made for a penny per gallon difference.)

On the other hand, such a price change might have a psychological effect on the customer. Buyers may believe that a change in the fraction correlates to a change in the wholesale price the gas station pays — if you charge me $3.106 instead of $3.109, it’s because your costs changed by that much. It sounds silly, but the same person who complained about gas stations stealing partial pennies hinted at this idea by saying of Canada, whose penny fractions change, “Sounds like they have a real price thing there.” I wonder if Canadian gas stations are also more likely to give change for 4/10 cent.

Image courtesy of silverxraven