So if you're thinking about taking advantage, stretching your
dollar is here to help guide you through the process
of buying a used vehicle. And joining me now
is automotive expert, Lauren Fix, better known as
the car coach Lauren. What are the advantages to
buying a used car? Oh, there are a
lot of advantages. You let somebody else take the
depreciation, which is probably one of the best things
you get a, a fully loaded car, someone
else drove it off a lot. They lost about
, you know, 5 to 10% to pay on
the vehicle as they drove off the lot. You
then move in at a two year or three year
that maybe was leased and you can get some great
values. Ok. So I like that you quantified
that they are easy, 5 to$10,000 savings by
buying used. What else should viewers keep in mind
if they are thinking about purchasing a used vehicle?
Well, the first thing you want to do is
if you're buying the brand, for example, you're
buying a Volkswagen, you go to a Volkswagen dealer
, Toyota to a Toyota dealer, et cetera.
The reason you want to do that is you're gonna
get that warranty that's transferrable. And that's really important
if you buy it off a used car lot or
from an individual off of ebay or any of those
other places. And it's not a dealer of that
brand. It's very difficult to get the warranty transferred
. So that's always a major plus because a lot
of things, things go with it, they'll also
go through all the technical service bulletins, all the
recalls, make sure that's all handled beforehand. If
you buy it from a curb stoner, for example
, that would be someone who just puts it on
the corner of a gas station and says for sale
, you kind of get what you're paying for.
If you don't have an A E certified technician,
check it out. Ok. So definitely get someone
to check it out. Should you probably drive it
too to just get a sense really? If you
feel like it is in good condition, right?
First thing is you never want to just buy a
car because it's the car your friend has or you
like riding and you need to drive that we're all
built completely differently. We all have different interests.
When driving a vehicle, you have to feel safe
, you have to feel confident you have to seat
seating position is the number one thing that people forget
about because no matter how long you own that car
, it's not gonna get more comfortable. It might
get less comfortable, but it certainly won't get more
comfortable. And then of course, all those safety
features you cannot add on later. You want the
safest vehicle you can get, you also want some
that your visibility is excellent. You can see out
of it, you can touch the controls, function
of those controls. And you like the, you
like the, the feel of that vehicle. If
you get in a vehicle and you buy it without
a test driving, you kind of a buyer beware
. But taking it again to an, a se
certified technician paying that anywhere between 100 and 50 to
$400 put it up on a lift check to see
if it's flood damage. If there's any problems in
what I call a green, yellow, red checklist
, green, the car is great. Great.
Buy, you shouldn't go buy it, you know
, you shouldn't miss it. Yellow. You know
, you might want to be aware, it needs
new tires or it needs brakes or it has a
problem and red, this thing's been in an accident
. This thing's got problems. Uh, the mileage
is whatever it might be, those are important for
you to know and then don't make an offer until
you get that report. Ok. Uh Very good
to know. What about leasing a used car?
Is that an option? Most places do not offer
leasing a used car and it's usually not to your
financial benefit to do so if it is available.
It will be available from that brand of dealer.
Again, like Ford at a Ford dealer or GM
and a GM dealer. Typically they're one or two
years old, but after that, there's no leasing
options. It's a purchase option and I'm just going
through this with my daughter right now. If you're
going to buy a used car, please don't go
longer than 60 months. They are offering 72 and
84 months to make that extend to that. The
payments are smaller, but basically you're putting yourself in
a negative situation because that vehicle will, you'll end
up paying more in finance charges than the vehicle is
worth. And also in the end trading in that
vehicle, you're gonna be in a negative position and
you'll be what we call upside down, which is
never a good position to be in because you just
keep rolling that forward and you can't get out from
under it. Well, we all know interest rates
are high, likely to probably stay high for a
while. According to the inflation report earlier today,
how should viewers think about financing a used car purchase
? Well, there is a lot of interest,
a low interest rates available through the dealer themselves,
whether it be a used car dealer or a new
car dealer. So check with them first, find
out what the rates are. Uh, I've seen
rates as low as 2.9% because they're trying to get
rid of a certain brand or a certain model that
they're not going to be selling any longer. So
that could be advantageous to you. But also check
with credit unions, they seem to have the best
rates. Uh, they're really easy to work with
. You. Just tell them you want to be
a member and wanna get a loan. I'd be
more than happy to work out the numbers with you
if you're a military. Look at USA A they
have really good low rates. Ok, Lauren?
Fix the car coach with the fix. Lauren,
thank you. Thank you.