Buying a car can be stressful at the best of times, but especially if you’ve never done it before. There’s many things that need to be considered: Price? Loans? Insurance? And having never done it before you probably don’t have a reference for what these numbers should be or if you’re being conned. Have no fear, this article is here to help you succeed in your first car purchase. 

A Car You Need

Your first step, before you ever set foot into a dealership or even consider loans, is what kind of car you need. Not the kind of car you want or really but the kind you actually need. For example if you have a family that needs transportation then you’re going to need a car with back seats, or if you have a job that requires transport of lots of equipment then you’ll need extra storage space. 

For your first car you need to think much more about function over form, it is more important to get a car that suits your needs than it is to get a car that you love. 

Budget

Now That you know what you’re looking for, you need to know how much money you have to work with. If you haven’t before, now is a great time to start a budget. Create a spreadsheet and track all of your incoming and outgoing expenses. Once you’ve done this you can subtract the expenses from the income to see roughly how much money you have left each month. 

That amount is how much you have to work with when you start paying off a car loan, you don’t want to use all of that as loan payments of course but that’s the range that you can negotiate within. Or, depending on how you chose to purchase the car, how much you can start saving. 

How To Buy

There are two primary ways you should be thinking about buying your first car. You can either buy a used car from a dealership, or you can buy it privately online. While it would be great to start with a new car as your first, financially it makes much more sense to shop used. 

Which of these you decide on will determine how the car is purchased, from a dealership you’ll likely get a loan, and from a private seller it will likely be a lump sum cash payment. 

Either option has positives and negatives to consider, a loan for a first time car may be difficult as you’ve likely not got a credit history (though you’ve got to start somewhere), but at a dealership you’ll likely get a shiner, better car. While a private seller will be much cheaper, you’re always at risk of being conned, especially if it’s your first time and you don’t know what to look for. 

That’s why the final tip is this: Never go alone. Whatever you decide, bring someone along who knows what they’re doing.