Car Buying Mistakes: Don't Get These Wrong

Buying a car can feel intimidating, from the time it takes to pick the right car to negotiating for a good price. Do you have any tips or advice you'd share with someone who's buying a car for the first time? Let us know in the comments below!

I think Brian left out an important thing in the section about trading in vs. selling privately. In many places, you only pay tax on the net selling price which gets reduced by your trade in. That could be a significant amount of money.

This video is priceless! Check multiple dealerships: I was in the market for a 2024 Jaguar F-Type entry trim. One dealership had it at $80K brand new. Another dealership had TWO used 2024 F-Types at $69K and $61K. Get this, those cars only had 102 miles and 20 miles on the odometer. Nearly $20K less for just a few measly miles! Drive the car: I always do two test drives, one where I'm the passenger so that I can listen to the engine and truly focus on the feel of the drive, and one where I'm the driver. I test drove a BMW Z4 thinking this would be a great car. I quickly found out that you cannot rest your arm on the center console if you want to have a water bottle in the cup holder. The center console has to be open to use the cupholders. There are no other cupholders in the car, and I love to rest my arm. Yes, that is a big deal for me!

This video is perfect and comes just at the right time!!

1:21 this is why I’m excited about the Slate Truck because their system of having an affordable base truck and option in only what I want and nothing that I don’t is very appealing to me. Instead of being forced to buy a whole other trim level for the one thing I might really want.

Yep you have to do some work to get a deal. Look at dealer reviews as well.

If they know you are ready to buy or Need it soon… might as well show them your jugular. Get ready to walk…. I’ve done it several times… and wait for another… time is your best negotiator.

You forgot one, going on bring-a-trailer or carsandbids with a functional credit card. Lol

Don't let dealers fool you about the "tax savings" of trading in your vehicle. If you sell your current car yourself, you may come out ahead. Their pitch is that you only pay tax on the difference between your trade and the sale price of the vehicle you're buying. Say your sales tax is 10%. If you want a $50,000 vehicle, tax would be $5,000. If your trade is $30,000, then tax would be $2,000 (10% of the $20,000 difference.) However... Say you can sell your trade outright for $35,000. If that's possible, then you pay $5,000 in taxes on the new car, but get $5,000 more than they would've offered in trade. A wash! If you sell the car for $36,000, you come out $1,000 ahead. You gotta do the math and weigh whether or not it's worth your time to sell the car yourself.

I feel that this video missed a key component to buying a car - it's the amount financed. The buyer needs to know this number before going in and making a deal, and it doesn't matter the cost of the new car or the value of the trade-in. All that matters is that the dealer meets the buyer's target amount financed. The dealer can fudge the numbers any way they want to (as long as the financed amount is what the buyer wants). Also, you missed that trading in your vehicle has a huge financial benefit. The dealer may not offer you as much for your trade-in, but you're saving more in taxes, which makes up the difference when you sell it privately.