Save Money when buying a New Car OOG 36

Out of Gas Newsletter - Issue 36 April 18, 2009

Saving Money on
This issue brought to you by

Design Firms St. Louis Missouri

++ Savings Tip of the Week

If you’re thinking about Buying A New Car then you want to check out these spreadsheets first.

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/download.htm

Saving Money The Nitty Gritty - Buying A New Car

Make sure you save / Print your information in a notebook.

Make sure that you have downloaded the spreadsheets I mentioned above.

Step 1 - Figure out (as close as possible) the car that you are going to buy.
One thing I would suggest in doing would be to find the ‘true’ cost of owning that car. A helpful tool for that can be found here.
http://www.edmunds.com/popupinfo/abouttruecosttoown.html

Is it within your budget use the budget template spreadsheet from the Car Buying Tips

I was talking to a guy that owned a tire dealership and he was talking about how people were floored when he told them the price for four tires on their shiny sports car would be over a grand… so think before you buy. Get insurance quotes too.

Step 2 - Find the new car price from the following websites -
Invoice Dealers
Cars.com
http://www.myride.com/buy/index.html

Step 3 - If you’re going to trade in your card - figure out what its worth.
Cars.com
My Ride

Step 4 - Find out any incentives that may be available.

www.edmunds.com/incentives/step1.jsp

Get the Sunday paper - watch the advertisements on your local TV station. Jot rebates and incentives down in your notes.

Step 5 - Get your credit score - Find out if you could get a car loan elsewhere - Up 2 Drive is a good place to start.

For the actual buying of the car I would highly suggest you check out this site (it’s better than many of the paid books out there and it is free).

http://www.carbuyingtips.com/car3.htm

Next Issues and what’s up:

Car -

Buying a Used Car (Tuesday)
Gas
Maintenace

Entertainment -

An Overview
Doing the Audit
Entertainment alternatives

Tagged as: Saving Money