car-shopping

Trying to pick out a car is really difficult to do when you don’t have unlimited funds. I know many cars that I would love to have, but of course they are out of my price range. So how do you go about choosing one, and how do you get your car, buy, lease, finance or steal?

I have been crazy about cars my whole life. I used to sit in the back seat of my parents can and yell every time I saw something I liked. My parents didn’t appreciate this as they always were concerned that my scream meant another car was rearing towards us. I may have also talked my parents into buying cars I liked, maybe they just wanted me to stop after the years of bugging them about it.

I cannot say that I know anything about fixing cars, but really, who does these days. There are so many chips and electronics, most people can’t do much. So it makes sense to have something that is reliable, or at least under warranty so you aren’t on the hook for fixing everything. Reading car reviews and consumer reports can give you information about car reliability. I was also informed that if I were to go used, something less than 5 years old and under 100,000km is the best way to go. But, of course it’s hard to know if that car was driven hard and put away wet. We all know what that feels like.

Living in my neighborhood doesn’t help with decision making either. There are nice cars everywhere and I would hate to be embarrassed about what I drive. I know I shouldn’t care, but I do, I have dreamed about the cars I want for years. Every time I play the lottery, my first thoughts are the cars I’d buy if I won. Even though it will be my first car, I want to really like it.


I am not a big fan of leasing as I don’t want to just be paying for something with no return. Lease takeovers are more appealing as sometimes there are cash incentives and you don’t have to pay a down payment. But, because I’m only looking for a car for weekend driving mostly, I could just rent for cheaper more than likely.

I don’t have the funds set aside right now to buy a new car straight out, so I’d have to pay a down payment and finance. Preferably I’d find a car I like and get 0% financing, but obviously this isn’t always going to be the case. At least with this method I will have a warranty and have less worry about bills for fixing problems. I don’t plan on getting in any accidents of course, and I’m sure this will be the case living in Vancouver.

Another option is to buy a car off a lease, or a demo, or a few years old and get some sort of warranty through the dealership. At least this way the car will be cheaper than brand new and may open up my options for my price range.

I’ve also looked lots on Craigslist and other sites, and man, there are a lot of scams out there. Especially one where nice cars are listed for low prices, then you pay some Ebay holding company and they supposedly “ship” you the car. I think I would prefer to buy from a reputably dealership as finding a mechanic to check out the car sounds like a pain.

There are so many options, so how do you choose? This is the largest investment I’ve ever made. I know cars aren’t the best investments as they are money pits, but I love them. For now, I plan to do my research and go out and test drive a lot. There are some cars I definitely won’t be looking at, but I’m hoping some cars surprise me. I may even let you know when I make a decision and how I came about making it. If you have any helpful tips, please let me know.

Once I get one, I hope I can just remember to put gas in it when it needs it, oh, and afford the gas.

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