Criteria To Consider Before Purchasing A Car

Are you buying a car? Can’t wait to drive your dream car? Feeling excited? Going to buy that dream car of yours when you see the price is unbeatable?

Hold on, cowboy!

Have you ever thought about other factors as well? Below are four main factors you need to consider before purchasing a car.

Price

Personally, price matters to me the most. And price determines what sort of car you can get. Wider the price range you can afford, more cars to choose from.

Usually, typical student budget is around A$5,000 to A$15,000. Some even reach A$30,000 to A$50,000. But that’s not usually the case (well, not in my circle of friends).

Set a budget. Then only start searching for cars under your budget price range. Another thing, a car that sale for A$15,000, usually you will end up spending more due to the extra charges (documentation, ownership bla-bla-bla). So, it is wiser to look for cars around A$13,000 if your budget is A$15,000.

Reliability

It is important to know the reliability of the car. You can look for these information easily from internet.

Go to car forums, read the reviews and comments, and possibly approach owners who owns same car and ask for their honest opinion.

Besides that, it is also valuable to know what are the potential set backs and limitation of the car. Is the engine prone to overheat? The wiper won’t work when the car is too hot? The manufacture default parts are problematic? etc.

Second hand value

If you plan to return to home country when you complete your studies, second hand value plays an important factor in what car to buy. Usually Toyota, Honda and Mazda has highest resell value.

Many factors contributes to the value of second hand car, which I will not discuss in this topic. If you are interested in knowing more, consider joining local car forums.

Personally, I believe brand of the car plays the largest role. The best bet is to stick to Toyota and Honda. Do not trust Protons, they are made up of Milo tins.

Size

Do you prefer to drive a two seaters or five seaters? From my experience, usually three doors cars are more troublesome if you hang out with friends. Five seaters are much easier for friends to disembark from your car.

Smaller cars are easier for find car parks, though. And usually fuel efficient. Such as Honda Jazz. Larger cars includes Honda Euro and Honda Civics. These cars tend to consume more fuel but they gives better power, comfortable at longer journeys (e.g. Gold Coast) and easier to exit at highway.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, it depends on what purpose you need a car for. Value the factors above and decide which is most important to you. Based on your own valuation, you might find a car that fits in your category (though is not a car you really like. but it serves the purpose). Everyone has different factors to consider, choose types of cars which suits your requirement.

Good luck in purchasing your new car :)