Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr
If you’re in the market for a new car, you’re in for a wild ride. According to “Car Buyers Facing Changed Landscape“, written by Gregory Karp, and published by the Chicago Tribune on July 29, 2011, the traditional advice about buying cars has been turned upside down.
Here are eight things you need to know before you go shopping for a car.
1. Late Model Used Vehicles Are Hot!
The “new normal” in the car buying market is that some used cars are going for almost as much as a new car. Why?
Because there just aren’t that many of them around. People are holding onto their cars instead of trading them in for a new one. Plus new car sales have been slow for several years. The result is that there are fewer used cars on the market now.
Repos are also down, since banks have tightened up their lending standards. If you can’t borrow too much money, it’s hard to buy more car than you can afford, which means there are fewer cars being repossessed and going into the used car market.
2. Car Dealers Are Offering Top Dollar For Trade-Ins
The old advice was to sell your old car yourself, instead of trading it in. Dealers didn’t offer much for trade-ins, so you could make more money selling your car yourself, instead of accepting the car dealer’s offer.
That has all changed. With fewer numbers of used cars available, car dealers are offering much higher prices for trade-ins. If your present car has low mileage, and is in great shape, you’ll probably get a generous offer if you’re willing to trade it in.
Remember that car dealers would rather buy a used car they can see, rather than taking their chances at the wholesale car auction.
3. Consider Leasing A Car
Leasing a car used to be a pretty expensive way to get a set of wheels. But lease deals today are much better than they used to be. Instead of being stuck with a long-term lease on a luxury car, you can now get a short-term 24-month lease on a compact car.
Some people are also taking over leases. This is a direct result of a shortage of Japanese cars resulting from the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. People would rather take over a lease for a year instead of paying high prices for Hondas and Toyotas, which are in short supply. These folks are planning to buy a car next year, when more cars are available, and prices return to normal levels.
In Part Two…
which cars are more reliable, why you may want to buy your leased vehicle, and why you may not want to wait til fall to buy a new car.
