Balancing Budget, Safety, and Comfort: Tips for Buying Vehicles

If you child is getting ready to go off to college, you have probably already spent a bundle in everything they need to outfit their dorm rooms. But before you finish shopping, you may need to make one more stop at your local used car dealer. Although your student may be trying to negotiate and get you to purchase them a new car, there are numerous reasons why a used car would be best. 

Its More Affordable

Even if your child is planning to work while they are in school to make the payment, a new car can get pretty expensive quickly. Although the actual cost will vary based on the make and model of the vehicle that you choose, the average cost of a new car now exceeds $33,500. Even if you financed it for 60 months at an interest rate of 3.11, the payment would still exceed $600 per month. This means that your child would have to spend more time working and less time studying. If not, they are going to be looking at you each month to help them with their payment. 

On the other hand the average price of a used car is only slightly more than $19,000. Using the same terms and conditions, this means that the payment would only be $342 per month. This would be far easier to make on the earnings from a part-time job. 

The Insurance Is Less

Do not forget that you are going to also have to place insurance on the vehicle and unfortunately, if your child is going to college for the first time, they probably still fall in the inexperience driver category. Although this varies by state and by insurance carrier, most companies require the driver to have their licenses for a minimum of three years. While being an inexperienced driver will impact your rates, the make and model of the vehicle you purchase will impact them as well. New cars will normally carry much higher insurance premiums than older models. In many states iIf you purchase a used vehicle that you pay for outright, you can decide on whether or not you want to put full-coverage on the vehicle. 

Its Going To Get Beat Up

Even if your child takes great care of their belongings, they are going on a college campus with other people their age who may not show their vehicle the same level of respect that your child will. When you combine this with tight parking, the vehicle will end up with door dings, chipped paint, and many other woes. It will be a whole lot easier to accept these on a used car than it will be on a brand new car.

Head on down to one of the used car dealers in your town. They have many used cars on the lot and surely there will be one that you and your child can agree on.