Steps to buying a new car
We assume you’ve already decided on the car you want to buy. This quick guide can help you save hundreds or thousands of euros. You’ll also get a sense of control throughout the process until the deal is closed.
Setting goals
After researching to determine which car is best suited to your needs, you will also have an idea of what to pay for it. Buying a car is a great investment, but it can be rewarding if you know you are buying it at the right price.
When you know the car you want to buy, with the options you have chosen, it is time to determine a target price to pay. Let’s see how you do it:
Incentives and discounts
Today’s new car market is competitive and contested. Many cars are on sale with attractive incentives for you to choose a particular model. Be careful, because sometimes the cars with the best incentives are those that do not sell very well on their own.
An incentive will give you one more reason to buy a particular car. Often it’s a cash discount or low interest financing. A car may be on sale for 25,000 euros, but the manufacturer offers 4,000 discount to the customer.
In another example, a ?25,000 car financed for five years at 6% would have a monthly payment of approximately ?535. With 0% financing, the payment would be about 461 euros.
How to locate brands with promotions?
You’ll see them in TV ads, in newspapers and on motor news portals like this one. But look at the fine print. Many times they don’t apply to all models or all engines.
Also, keep in mind that sometimes there are hidden incentives paid to dealers to boost sales of certain cars. Make sure these incentives are offered for the car you want to buy. Collect all this information and see if it pays off.
Price of the car
Car dealers always point to the “manufacturer’s recommended price” of a car as the amount to be paid for it. False. The dealer is always willing to sell a car well below that price.
How do you know how much to pay? How much to pay for it? The new car section of coches.com is the best tool for this, because it offers the best offer that can be found in your province and in all of Spain.
In those prices are not included the optional ones, but you know more or less how much you can press the seller. Keep in mind that, at that price, sometimes you have to add transport and agency costs.
The incentives and bonuses that you had investigated are already included in that final price. If you’re going to need to finance your car, you can use the financing tool of coches.com to find the lowest interest.
How to find the car
Now you should have a concrete idea of the car you want to buy: make, model, equipment level, options and colours. The more flexible you can be about these features, the more cars you will find for sale.
And that will give you additional bargaining power. If you only want one model in a specific colour, it will be more difficult to make a good deal. Why? You will have to pay the price indicated by the dealer… or try to locate another identical vehicle.
In either case, locating the car you’re looking for is easier with the Internet. In coches.com, you can request quotations from several dealers of the same model, in different parts of Spain. The dealer will contact you and that’s when your negotiating power comes into play.
An example “I’m looking for a diesel Honda Accord, I don’t care about the colour, but I do want it to have ABS and side airbags”. The salesman will check his inventory and call you back. If several dealers offer you the same car, you will be in a better position to make a good deal.
Another helpful tip: Write down in a log all the information about each vehicle you locate, including color, options, and dealer name. This will save you time as you continue the buying process.
Internet vs. traditional car buying
Make no mistake about it: the Internet saves time, travel, complications… and it will also save you money. However, many believe that buying a car is too big an investment to make remotely.
So, when you go to the dealership, analyze the salesperson: Do you feel well treated? Are they impatient and aggressive or are they relaxed and open? If you ask them about the availability of a vehicle… do they try to direct you to another car, just because they have a lot of units of that model in stock?
Do they return your phone calls? Do they answer your questions directly or are they evasive and confusing?
By answering these questions you should know whether or not you want to buy from that dealer. Set a day to test drive the car you want to buy, better when the dealer is not too busy, (a weekday morning). But don’t feel obliged to buy the car, simply because you have all the necessary documentation with you or because you liked it very much at the test.
If you’re thinking of selling your old car
If you plan to sell your old car to a dealer, you probably won’t get a new car offer like you would if you sold it to a private individual yourself. However, that avoids problems and saves you time and headaches if you are not very skilled.
A tip: If it’s important to you to get the most value for your car, ask around at several dealerships for the brand you want and ask for offers.
Tell the salesperson that your purchase of a new car depends on the amount they give you for your old car. Sometimes the extra effort involved in getting competitive bids is less than what you would need to sell the car yourself.
If you prefer to sell the car yourself, it’s important to know if it’s time to sell. Once you know that it is, the best thing to do is read our tips for selling used cars, as well as our tricks that help you sell a better car on the Internet, which is currently one of the biggest channels for buying and selling used cars in Spain, if not the most important.
