Buying a car - the basics

For most people, buying a new car can be overwhelming. There appears to be a million things to consider. We can get you sorted in just five easy stages.

Stage one:  What are your needs? What kind of driving do you do? How often? Who do you have to take along? What are you budgetary limits? What can you afford? This is the stage where you take stock and start to think about your profile as a driver, and your thresholds as a purchaser.

Stage two: Start looking at what’s out there. By step two, you already have a very clear picture of what your needs are (you’ve also thought through the pros and cons of buying used or new and the pros and cons of buying from a private seller or dealer) so you don’t have to look at every single car on the market - just the select group that loosely fit your needs.

Stage three: Marry up ‘your needs’ to ‘what’s out there’… Start drilling down into specific models—first, you’ll research them, discover their quirks, and then you’ll begin making a short-list of your best finds. 

Stage four: Find ‘The One’. You’ve done all the legwork, now it’s just a matter of finding the one you’ll call your own. This is when you test-drive a few of your favourites, narrow it down to a few options, and then pick the winner.

Stage five: Keeping the car happy and healthy until the day you find yourself asking the question… is it time for a new car?