Posts in category Car and Driving →

In view of the soaring gas price (with the USA average $4 a gallon as of today) and its impact on the Memorial day travel, it is interesting that people are facing much harder times in Europe, where the fuel price in many countries has already exceeded $8 a gallon!
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Based on the color of your car, you may be revealing more about yourself than you realize. This is what I just read in this somewhat old news. Unfortunately the story does not link to the original source of the scientific study, so there is an extra job for you if you would like to verify.
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Consumer Reports magazine recently suggested that driving the same car for at least 15 years can save you almost $31,000. That is a nice little sum to boost your retirement savings, or send your kid to a better college. The key points to note are:
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Below is a short sampling of Internet resources that will help you get through the process of buying a new or used car step-by-step:

1. Edmunds: A great site for information on all kinds of new and used cars, excellent reviews and how-to-buy guides.
2. Kelley Blue Book: An excellent place to look up used car prices, and also has lot of other information on both new and used cars.
3. CarBuyingTips: A definitive source for tips for buying new and used cars.
4. Samarins: Another source of car buying tips that is my favorite.
5. CARFAX: The place to visit for used car history.
6. Buying a used car: A Federal Trade Commission site offering facts for consumers.

(This is the last post of the 8-part series An investing-friendly car buying guide.)

You got your car. Congratulations! The car has at least two to three months of dealer warranty to cover for any problem in its early days (unless you bought it from a private seller, in which case you are on your own). Also, depending on the car’s age, it may still carry the remaining balance of the original factory warranty that you should be able to use.
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(This is the 7^th post of the 8-part series An investing-friendly car buying guide. This is also somewhat long, but you get your car at the end!)

You have checked the car inside and out, test drove it, got the green signal from your mechanic, and now back to the seller to “seal the deal”. If you are buying from a private owner, the process is easy. The car usually costs less than it would in a dealership, and depending on the urgency of the owner, may cost even less than Edmunds’ TMV. You may try bargaining down further if the car needs some major repair. Get all maintenance records from the owner (to make sure the car was in good hands). Complete the formalities of title transfer etc. and the car is yours.
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(This is the 6^th post of the 8-part series An investing-friendly car buying guide.)

You have short listed 4-5 used cars in your neighborhood that you are ready to check out and test drive. Give yourself a weekend to complete this process (unlike most of our work places, car dealers are not only open on weekends, these are some of their busiest days).
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(This is the 5^th post of the 8-part series An investing-friendly car buying guide.)

Visit Carfax with your list of cars and their VINs. This is where you look up the entire history of the car, from its birth up to now. Carfax offers a free service too, but it is more than your money’s worth to pay $30 for the detailed history report for unlimited number of cars. The icing is Carfax’s “buyback guarantee”, the offer to buy the car back from you at the price you paid if the report misses any serious violation. Enter each of the VINs on your list, and look them up.
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(This is the 4^th post of the 8-part series An investing-friendly car buying guide.)

You want to buy a used car (why? because of this and this), and have a budget of $10,000. Which one car, among the several hundreds of different types out there, should you choose? For the sake of this discussion, we narrow the field down to the 4-door sedan cars in mid-sized segments. (Everything said here holds for most other types of cars as well.)
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(This is the 3^rd post of the 8-part series An investing-friendly car buying guide.)

So you are going to buy a used car. Great! You have made a smart decision. The next step is to pick a budget – how much you want to pay for your car. This step is important, because your choice will decide how old a car you are going to get. From the depreciation graph, tweaking the budget by a couple of thousand dollars can mean getting a car that is few years newer or older.
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