Car Buying Tips

The Only Car Buying Tips You Need To Know As A Student

Car buying takes a bit of due diligence, especially when looking at used cars. As a student, it makes absolutely no sense to get a new car. Most students need to finance a car and usually, they get the wrong car for their needs. Students buy a car without thinking too much about a few essentials.

1. Get a Common Car

A good idea would be to stay away from exotic or European cars. Even if they might seem like a good deal, parts for these cars are expensive. Get something common with cheap parts and reasonable reliability.

2. Engine Size And Fuel Efficiency

The bigger the engine the more expensive the insurance will be. No student needs a 3-liter engine that offers fuel efficiency of 10 mpg. You will spend too much on gas and insurance. Anything below 2 liters should be just fine for getting from point A to B. If it is turbocharged, it will provide more than enough power even it is a small engine and it will still have decent fuel efficiency. The only downside is that turbocharged engines are not as reliable as naturally aspirated one.

3. Get Something Cheap

For a student, it does not make sense to get an expensive used car, even if it is cheap to maintain. The car will depreciate fast and you will lose a lot of money. Certainly, you should not go for the cheapest car in the car lot but anything less than 10 years old should be fine.

4. Consider Getting a Stick Shift

Even if manual transmission cars are quite rare these days, a manual transmission is much more reliable and quite difficult to break. For a student, it might be worth driving a manual for a couple of years. Automatic transmissions require additional maintenance and if they break they are very expensive to fix or replace.

Once you narrowed down your search a bit, do not just take the first offer you get. Students buy a car with the intention of keeping it for a few years until they get a job to get a better one. Think about how many years you will finance it and how long you plan on keeping it. Do not settle for the first financing offer you get. Car buying is all about shopping around and comparing offers.

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