Survival+
Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation
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By Kevin M
Have you ever decided to buy something—furniture, an appliance, even clothing—but walked out of the store thinking “I can get that same item in another store for less”?
Why is it then that so often we don’t shop around when buying a car? I can think of a few valid sounding reasons: 
- We don’t feel qualified to make the purchase so we throw ourselves on the mercy of the dealer
- We think, “it’s the same car; all dealers charge mostly the same price”—then hope we’re right!
- We’re overwhelmed and thankful for anyone who will step in and make it easy for us
- Your friend Fred bought his car at this dealership and they took care of him, so they’ll take care of you
- You need a car now and don’t have time to shop
- You just want to get it over with so you can get on with your life
Now at a given time and place each of these may satisfy us that we’re making the right choice by relying on a single dealer to get us a fair deal, but each also has the potential to put us right where the dealer wants us. And that can cost us thousands of dollars more than we need to pay.
Job One in working with car dealers: make it clear that you have options!
Continue reading Never Lock Yourself into Working With One Car Dealer →
By Kevin M
When ever we buy a car, a process known as “haggling” is set in motion. From a car dealer’s perspective, this process has two over-riding objectives:
a) To charge as much as possible for the vehicle they’re selling us, and
b) To pay as little as possible for the vehicle we’re trading in.
Our job in the exchange is to bring about the exact opposite outcome in both cases.
As simple as that may sound on the surface, making it happen is anything but! The dealer has the cars, the slick marketing campaigns, the fast talking staff and, in most cases, superior knowledge.
We can’t do much to counter their fleet of cars and in-your-face marketing, but one area where we can level the playing field is with knowledge, particularly as it pertains to valuations. Value is, after all, mostly a function of simple math that most of us can have even if we aren’t automotive experts. It’s often a matter of knowing where to find it.
If you know the value of the car you’re buying, and the car you’re trading or selling, you’ll know when it’s time to close the deal—or when it’s time to pick up and walk.
Continue reading Know the Value of the Car You’re Buying – and the One You’re Selling →
By Kevin M
Last week we talked about the importance of having your financing ready before going to a car dealer. Today I want to cover another form of advanced preparation that’s equally important—having your down payment in place.
When ever we go into a car dealership—or any business—a series of negations begins. While we might want to believe that buying a car is a single transaction, it’s really a composition of several sub-transactions, including obtaining financing (if necessary), negotiating options or setting a value on your trade-in.
The best chance we have at getting a good deal on the overall purchase then, is to handle as much of the deal before we get to the dealers store—and without his help!
Continue reading Have Your Down Payment Ready Before You Buy a New Car →
By Kevin M
Whenever it comes time to buy a car there’s a strong tendency to go with the one stop shopping dealerships offer. But take advantage of that perceived convenience, and you may very well pay far more for the car than you should.
Dealerships hawk ridiculously low interest rates on their financing, so low that it often looks like the preverbal no-brainer to just go with what ever their offering.
Why not just rely on apparently low dealer financing, and save the hassle of applying through a bank or credit union?
Continue reading Why You Need to Get Your Car Loan BEFORE You Buy a Car →
By Kevin M
A friend of mine spent several years working for a prominent local car dealership in the area, and though I’m not a “car guy”, I got a chance to learn about some of the inner workings of the business from a guy who was living it. And that’s what they do in the car business, by the way—they live it.
If they’re in sales or financing, they’re on the job from the moment the store opens until past closing (there’s always a lagging customer or paper work that needs to be cleaned up). If they’re serious about the business, they work at least six days a week, and rarely take vacations.
Looking at the schedule this guy kept, the first thing I learned about the business was that I didn’t want to work in it. I had a life, and I wanted to keep it.
But the second thing I learned was a curious phrase he often referred to: upside down. If you’re not familiar with the term, it refers to a customer who owes more on his or her car than the vehicle is worth.
Now in my simple mind, this customer looks to be the worst type of prospect a salesman or finance manager can run into. It looks like a clear case of customer-dead-on-arrival, right?
Hardly. The car dealerships LOVE these people!
Continue reading Are You “Upside Down” on Your Car? →
By Kevin M
What does energy use in China have to do with your personal financial situation here in the Western World?
Many of us prefer to believe this is an issue best left to politicians or economists, but hardly worthy of serious analysis or concern by the rest of us. After all, things will play out the way they will right?
Maybe not. We spend time and money planning for any number of future outcomes—our retirement, our health, our careers, paying off our mortgages, our children’s futures—why not map out and plan a viable energy future? World leadership hasn’t done such a good job of this so far, and if energy follows the pattern of the last few years with steadily rising prices over the long term, it won’t be politicians and economists who will suffer the brunt of the problem—it’ll be us.
Continue reading China is the No. 1 energy user – what does that mean for your car? →
By Kevin M
Perhaps more than any other expense I have to pay, I most dislike (OK, despise!) paying for car repairs. It’s not that I expect our cars to run maintenance and repair free, year after year, but I can’t stomach the idea that every time we bring one of the cars to the shop we get hit with charges of $500-$1000.
We just had a recent experience with this, and I stepped out of character and went the full price repair route to handle it. Maybe I need to do that from time to time just to remind myself why it is I’m always looking for a better way.
Now, be forewarned, I’m not a “car guy”. My interest in car repairs is strictly from a financial standpoint; cars are one of the biggest expenses the vast majority of us have, and I’m always looking for- and experimenting with- ways to save money here. But back to the story…
Continue reading Save Money on Car Repairs by Thinking Outside-the-Box →
By Kevin M
The attraction of an auto lease arrangement is that it typically requires little cash up front (the cap cost reduction fee can usually be satisfied with your trade in and/or the rebate program de jour), and the low payments for the initial 24 to 36 months of the lease. In fact for a person who likes to trade for a new car every two or three years, the arrangement seems made to order. And if all that matters is the monthly payment then that may be true–within limits.
So, what’s so bad about leasing?
Continue reading Why Leasing a Car is a Bad Deal →
Rising gas prices might rain on the car buying decisions of those with
short memories
By Kevin M
It’s almost hard to conceive that only a couple of years ago we were struggling to come to grips with the relentless rise in the cost of gasoline, as prices rose from the nearly constant level of a dollar and change a gallon, to over $4 in a space of just a few short years.
$5 a gallon was looking inevitable, and maybe the new standard. SUVs and other large vehicles had become un-salable and were plunging in value.
In the intervening two years we’ve had a mortgage meltdown, a wave of bank failures, a presidential election and a killer recession—it’s no wonder the still relatively recent gas price spike is barely a shadowy memory.
But as much as we may have forgotten that crisis for newer ones, it’s left its mark on our finances. Though gas prices have fallen back from their peak, they’re still at least twice as high as they were before the spike began. And if we’re completely honest, they’re not all that far off the peak any more either. $2.75 to $3 a gallon only looks good because we were paying $4+ a couple of years earlier.
So should we put fuel economy aside as we celebrate an apparent recovery? Are “high” ($4+) gas prices a thing of the past? Is the world now safe for your Escalade?
Continue reading Why Fuel Economy Still Matters →
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