Useful advice for anyone thinking about buying a car

Buying a car or a truck can be a headache. Salesmen are more interested in making a sale than in genuinely answering your questions. Some cars are not what they seem to be. Paying can be expensive. What is a prospective buyer to do?

More below.

Do your homework before purchasing a vehicle

Buying a car or truck is an expensive, time consuming process that few consumers enjoy. You either have to spend tons of time on the Internet or drive all over town talking to one dealership after another, trying to find the vehicle you want, with the features you’d like, at a price that you are willing to pay. The salesmen aren’t interested in you or your needs; they only want to sell a car that’s on their lot right now. What can you do about this arduous process?

The first thing you should do is some research. Find out ahead of time what type of vehicle you would like, how much it will likely cost and what kinds of options you would like to have installed. There are various sources of information available to consumers for this sort of things:

Consumer Reports prints an annual auto issue in the spring. This issue shows cars, suggested prices, safety records and anticipated service needs. The publishers of the magazine take many of the vehicles for test drives and review them.

Edmunds.com and Kelley Blue Book (KBB.com) offer extensive information about new cars and have trade in information about used ones. You can get a pretty good idea as to the value of your existing car at those sites.

Some retailers, such as Costco, offer auto sales to their customers. Buying this way can save you a lot of hassle and headache, as well as money. Insurance giant USAA does the same for its members.

Before you purchase a used car, make sure that you check it out thoroughly. You should have a trusted mechanic check it out for major defects, such as cracked engine blocks, defective transmissions or brakes, and the like. Remember, unlike a new car, you do not generally have lemon law protection when you buy a used one. You should also take the time to run the vehicle identification number (VIN) through a service such as Carfax.com. Carfax can tell you if the car has been in an accident, had flood damage, or whether or not it has previously been returned to the manufacturer as a lemon. Failing to take these steps may mean that you could become the proud owner of a very large paperweight shortly after purchase should the vehicle fail.

Some people like haggling with salesman and trying to figure out what sort of vehicle they want on the lot instead of doing their research ahead of time. You might be one of those people. Others would prefer to spend as little time as possible dealing with the headaches that come with buying a new or used car. If you are one of the latter group, you should take the time to do a bit of research ahead of time. The more you know, the better off you will be when it comes time to buy.