Are you planning to buy your first car? It’s true that in our culture, the last obstacle on the path to adulthood is car ownership. It is something every driver’s license holding person goes through in their journey to being a responsible citizen. And it’s best not to put it off, especially if one is a college student.
A credit rating is something everyone who has borrowed money has, whether you are a builder, banker or bar tender. And when you borrow money from a bank or other service, your ability to pay back on time with the weekly installments goes toward a good credit rating. And buying a car is usually what kick-starts this process for most people. As they usually have to borrow money for it. Unless they’re rich.
If you keep some granny’s old vehicle that would be great though.
When you have a good credit history, you can go on to use it as leverage to borrow money for other larger projects, such as a house, or a better vehicle.
If you find an amazing vehicle that ticks all the boxes, but it’s well over your budget, think of what life will be like while making the ridiculous payments on this vehicle. You may even starve. Owning a beautiful sports car is not worth being homeless and starving.
Buy an affordable old car for cash that will get you from A to B, won’t break down all the time, and won’t break your bank account.
This is like the cousin to the preceding tip. Do you need an exceedingly fancy sports car? No, you don’t. You just need something that will ensure you get to those important morning lectures at the university, and then on to your boring minimum wage job at the supermarket.
Don’t worry about whether or not your friends will be impressed.
Should You Buy a New Car or a Used Car? Well, second hand cars are cheap. If you’re buying your first vehicle, chances are you are a young person, and young people tend to be climbing the ladder of life, and that ladder’s bottom rungs are of a lower economic status than the higher ones. You can hunt through scrap car buyers to get the cheap vehicles.
Also, if you’re buying a second hand car, you will need to check its history. This will give you a good picture of the type of problems you will have during your time with it. Make sure also that you take it for a test drive, to make sure that the condition you are buying it in is such that you won’t automatically be buying loads of repairs as well as the machine itself.
If you follow this advice, you should be starting out on a good footing in a long illustrious life of auto ownership.