Happy Halloween! On this haunted day, I thought I would share my most recent experience helping my
good friend Bill purchase a new car – no ghosts involved. He tends to buy a new car every 2-3 years
and the process of how he arrived at his decision was very interesting to me.
Like many people out there looking for a new car, Bill found
the choices to be overwhelming. Buying a car in today’s market is not only a ”pricing” decision, it’s also a “lifestyle” decision. Let me explain a
little further. Once Bill, or any buyer, decides how much they can afford on a
lease/finance/cash purchase, they need to decide what their needs are from a
lifestyle point of view. While many adults would like to drive a sports car, as
a practical adult or parent you may need to consider aesthetics vs. functionality.
Back to Bill – his wife has an SUV so they don’t necessarily
need another big car, but at the same time he regularly has to haul his kids
around to school during the week and to various activities on the weekend so he
needed to have the ability to carry passengers when need be. He had decided
that a four-seater was a must, but there are several sporty four-seater coupes out
there that can handle the occasional passenger trip. We took a look at a few of
these but Bill decided that the additional benefit of four doors outweighed the
benefit of a sleek looking coupe. So it was decided that he was going to buy a
four door car. Now we needed to figure out which manufacturer he would go with.
Many people find it an overwhelming time to buy a car in this segment because
there are so many brands with tried and true as well as new models. Lexus,
Cadillac and Infiniti have recently refreshed their models, whereas BMW and
Mercedes are several years into their product cycle. This was Bill’s next biggest
decision. I know a number of people who prefer to go with an older design that
has likely already been tweaked to perfection as opposed to a new design that
may or may not have issues in the first year or two of production – these are tough
choices to make!
The decisions don’t end there, you have variations in
technology, size, warranty, safety… I could go on forever. At the end of the
day, once Bill had identified his price and lifestyle needs, the determining
factor was how the car drove. After all, everything else becomes irrelevant if
you don’t feel good in the car or it doesn't drive as you would expect. As a
result, we narrowed it down to 5 cars to test drive, and at the end of the day Bill
chose the one that he was most comfortable in, now that we’d already covered
the initial constraints of price and lifestyle.
The lesson learned here is when making a significantly large
purchase such as an automobile, you really need go through a thorough process
that identifies both your needs and wants so you don’t end up with a car that
you are unhappy with – which can mean significant penalties to either get out
of the lease or sell the car. How did your last car buying experience go?
- Dave
