Buying a car

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My very first own car was an used Corolla, which my brother fished out for me. It wasn't the studdiest thing in the world, but clean and ran well and did its job. I remember paying what I call "one-way insurance", meaning only liability but no collision, to keep my insurance cost down.

That real job out of college actually paid very decent (considering my standard of a poor college student life for the prior 5 years), so I decided to get myself a new car. It would be my first brand new vehicle. I hesitated at first about the monthly payment, but Mr. TST (the boyfriend then) convinced me that anybody who works hard to earn a decent-paid job and career should deserve to have a pulling-off-the-lot experience. I just needed a little push to justify it, and there we go!

Mr. TST helped me do most of the research. I was able to narrow down to mini to mid size SUVs. The reason I chose to buy an SUV was because I wanted more cargo space. I'm not usually a fast driver so I'll still be safe in an SUV, and I like the fact that I can get better visibility of the road when I sit higher in an SUV, as oppopsed to a sedan. Ofcourse, back in 2002 gasoline price wasn't as inflated as it is now, so SUV was less of an uneconomical choice as it has become recently.

Here are some of our tips on researching before making our purchase, hopefully it can helpful to you too if you're in the market to buy a car:

We looked into consumer report (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/) for same class comparison and rating. Also, kelly blue book (http://www.kbb.com/) is a good place to get a feel for prices. Another useful tool for us was the local newspaper, where dealerships would advertise about their one-at-this-price deals. What this means is the dealership would have 1-2 cars that they would sell at or below invoice price, first come first serve, and buyers usually don't have the option to choose colors or to upgrade, the car sells as it is on their lot. I believe the LA Times Friday paper has these type of ads. These deals are usually pretty good, you can save a few grands, but they go fast. If you're not good at haggling on prices and aiming for this type of deal, I recommend that you do all your research and decision up front. You need to decide at which price do you consider it's a deal, which options are important and must-have's for you and which you can live without, which colors (give yourself a first, second, third preference for colors, and no more, you don't want to regret everytime you look at your car, right?) . Once the car within your specs appears on the ad, quick! be the first in line and go get it. When I say first in line, it can really mean showing up at the dealership at 5am and grab the first salesman you see. You really don't have much time to research and decide once the ad is out.

That's kind of how we bought mine. We turned down the first one-at-this-price deal because we didn't like the hidden costs the dealership tagged on, and also the color wasn't what I had in mind. A month later, Mr. TST found a deal for my SUV model through CarDirect (http://www.cardirect.com/), this time the price was fair and luckily the color I wanted. CarDirect works as a car broker; you submit a price bid with your specifications, and it'll find a local dealership who is willing to sell you a car at your bid price.

You can choose to have a car loan with a bank of your choice, or go with the financing options the dealership offers. For us, we just did the loan with the dealership since they offered a pretty comparable rate anyways, just made things convenient for us. Buying new car from a dealership has its perk is that they'll take care of all the paperwork for you, like getting the license plate, smog check, registration, etc. The down side is they will force you to buy full insurance, so no saving on that part, even if you are a careful driver.

Some tips on saving on insurance :
+ Research and compare prices from different insurance companies. We didn't have (or maybe we just didn't know) things like Progressive Direct (http://www.progressive.com/) when we bought mine. So we just basically called up and ask for their rate, sometimes they made us fill out a form, no big deal, we filled out with semi-true information, whatever it takes to get us a quote.
+ Always ask them for discounts: Most companies give discount for good students, professionals, honor or professional society members. Multiple car discount if you and your family have multiple cars already insured with them. Discount if you or your family already have their house or business insured with them. Always ask, it doesn't hurt to ask.
+ If you have been driving for 8-10 years, tell them that (depends on the company, that cut-off number may vary), and if your age is above 29 or 30 (i think?) you'll get a discount as well.