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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 →
By Kevin M
Last week in New Car or Used Car – Which is the Better Deal? we talked about the many virtues and monetary advantages of buying a used car.
One of the common objections to buying a used car is the higher cost of repairs and maintenance. Well, we may have at least a partial solution to that problem.
Car-Part.com–“Used Auto Parts Market”—provides access to salvage dealers across the United States and Canada. Car-Part.com isn’t a salvage dealer itself, but a database of hundreds of dealers in nearly every state and province across North America. Per the site “about us” description, they’ve been operating since 1998, so they’ve had time to work out any system bugs.
Continue reading Save Money on Car Repairs with Car-Part.com →
By Kevin M
Question: is a car an asset or a liability?
That was a theory question in a sophomore level accounting course I took in college way back when. After some debate among the class, the professor confirmed what we all knew, that the technically correct classification is “asset”, but felt compelled to add, “Of course, in the real world, we all know that automobiles aren’t assets at all, they’re liabilities that cost money and continually drop in value from the moment you drive them off the dealer lot.”
Most of us know this to be true intellectually, but does that reality guide our decisions at buying time?
Cars represent a structural expense, that is, an expense that’s mostly a consequence of an underlying cost structure created at the time of purchase. Once we’ve made the initial purchase, we’re largely stuck with the expense level over a period of years. It’s in our best interest then to make the most intelligent decision at the time of purchase.
With that thought fresh in our minds, I believe used cars are the better choice for most people in most cases.
Continue reading New Car or Used Car – Which is the Better Deal? →
By Kevin M
Buying a new car has never been one of my favorite things to do. It’s not that I don’t absolutely love the idea of having a new car, I sure do! But the flaming hoops you have to jump through at the dealership to buy a car takes some of the fun out of what should be one of the most exciting events of your life
Car dealerships offer an attractive and convenient package of services that make the car buying experience much easier:
- They have the new cars we want (aaahhh, the new car smell!)
- They’ll buy our old cars from us, sparing us the trouble of selling them ourselves
- They provide financing, saving us from having to shop at banks
One stop shopping at its best—but with this ease and convenience comes a high price. Because dealers have all the car buying bases covered, they also have the upper hand at the bargaining table. The minute we walk into a car dealership, we’re at a built in disadvantage. We want a certain car, and the dealer has it—along with everything else necessary to help us get it. How could THEY ever lose?
They can’t, unless we take steps to remove the power from the dealer and stack the deck solidly in our favor.
Continue reading 10 Ways to Buy a Car Without Getting Ripped Off →
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General: Any information in regard to money, credit, personal finance, or in regard to any other monetary topic, provided or shared on OutOfYourRut.com is presented for information and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. It is intended to provide general information only and does not constitute personal financial advice in regard to your specific circumstances...MORE-->
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