Five Quick Tips for Reducing Car Costs

Buying a car can be an expensive venture.  Auto loans are costly, car prices remain high and the cost to operate cars rarely goes down.  Even moderately priced cars ranging from $15,000 to $30,000 can add result in a monthly bill costing hundreds of dollars.  More money gets shelled out every month for insurance and gasoline.  This can be quite a strain on anyone’s budget.  Perhaps this is why Edmunds.com suggests that all of a person’s car expenses should be 20 percent or less of their income. 

Look for the Best Deal

Car buyers shouldn’t let emotions dictate their buying decisions when they’re ready to make their final purchase.  Instead, they need to make sure they are actually getting the best deal available.  The easiest way to do this is to do a thorough search of car prices before entering the dealership.  Sites such as Edmunds.com or CarsDirect.com and other similar sites can help ascertain basic facts about car prices.  These sites allow a person to compare several deals at one time, allowing one to make a more informed choice.  Then come back to this site and find the best auto loan rates to get the best price and the best auto loan deal.

Low-Priced, Low Rate Financing is the Best

While this piece advice may seem obvious, many car buyers forget it when they get buying pressure from a car salesman.  These tactics should be ignored, no matter how many ‘other’ incentives are offered.  A person must first and foremost look at the car loan interest rate, how high their monthly payments are going to be and how long they have to make these payments.

If it looks like one cannot get affordable financing directly from the dealership, they can try arranging something separately through a bank or credit union.  Compare car loan rates for all types of loans first.  Getting a car loan approved in advance is like getting a blank check to buy the car.  This blank check gives the buyer more negotiating power with the car salesman.  Never rush the price of the car by being over worried about car loans and financing costs.  Do the homework and research on both the car costs and cost of a car loan before haggling the car price.  Look through these pages and compare the best auto loan rates before car shopping.

Find Ways to Lower the Auto Insurance Bill

The companies that offer homeowners insurances or rental insurance tend to offer the best rates for combined auto insurance and insurance for other property.  A car owner can save up to 15 percent in their auto insurance costs by going this route.  They can reduce their costs even more by increasing their deductible.  Unless the car driver has a history of accidents the difference between high and low deductibles on the annual cost of the car insurance can be significant.

Another alternative available for saving on the auto insurance bill is getting rid of excessive optional insurance coverage items.  The downside to doing this is that a person will only receive the amount that their car is worth should they get in an accident not the replacement of the car.

Avoid Excessive Visits to the Auto Repair Shop

Car buyers should only take their cars in if it actually needs repairs.  Getting too many tune-ups takes an unnecessary chunk out of a person’s finances.  Ultimately, if a person doesn’t see the ominous warning lights on their dashboard light up, chances are they shouldn’t take their car in with the exception of normal maintenance such as oil changes.  And of course, keep the tire pressure at the required levels to avoid unnecessary wear and tear on the tires as well as the reduction in gas mileage that comes with poorly inflated tires.

Cut Gas Costs

High-octane fuel should only be bought if a person’s car has a high-performance engine. Otherwise, it’s a waste of money.  In fact, fuels with lower octane levels actually works faster, so in the long run they can be a more efficient choice for less expensive engines.  Gas costs can also be cut by limiting car use.  For example, if one can get to work by bus or subway train, they should consider not using their car.  Such choices will conserve gas while helping the environment.  Whatever the price per gasoline of gas, the monthly gas costs for most households is significant and often ignored.  Reducing wasted trips and using alternative travel methods saves money and is good for the environment.

Tags: auto loan rates, auto loans, Car loan, car loan interest rate, car loan rates

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.