Guide to Buying Your First Car

Buying your first car is an exciting time and a significant life event, but there a lot of factors that you need to consider. Car ownership comes with a large number of ongoing expenses that you’ll need to be able to pay for.  With some careful money management, you can run a car without breaking the bank. This article contains some gathered tips and tricks to help get you finance and run a car without spending more money than you are able to afford.

To start on the road towards owning your very own vehicle, the first thing you’re going to need is money saved.  It’s always a good idea to set aside money for a deposit. Having a large enough deposit can knock hundreds of pounds off the total cost of your car and will lower your monthly repayments as you won’t need to borrow as much. For example, with a deposit of £2,000, your monthly repayments for a car priced at £7,000 will leave you with a typical monthly repayment of £190 vs a potential repayment of £265 a month if you didn’t have a deposit.

Of course, the final price of your car will depend on the brand and model of car you end up with. As this is your first car you might be less likely to go for something in the top range of what’s available, but everyone has their own requirements. But when you are trying to factor in long-term costs, it’s a good idea to find out how fuel efficient it is to help keep your on-going fuel costs down and if the manufacturer you’re looking at is likely to retain its resale value.

When you’ve figured what you want you can then start to budget towards your deposit. Use an online savings calculator to help you figure out how much you can realistically set aside – don’t set aside more than you can as you’ll quickly get frustrated and give up. You still need to have fun and live – just make some adjustments to your spending habits. Give yourself an end goal target and stick to it. This will give you a figure to aim for and will help keep you on track. If you want to add some extras to your car like Personalised Plates, then you will need to look at the cost of these on average and see if you are able to afford them as soon as you buy your car or a little bit after.

You don’t have to budget yourself. Ask family for help or at least for a point in the right direction on where you can pick up some extra cash and where to go for financial assistance. Many banks now offer guidance or useful information that will help you out. Here, you’ll learn that there is an extensive list of saving recommendations and advice on what you should look out for when you are shopping around and advice on how to go out dealing with car dealerships.

Depending on what time of year you start to save for your new car, you can keep your costs down even further by buying at the right time. If you are looking at using car dealers, a handy thing to remember is that they have quarterly targets to meet and will generally have ‘sales’ at the end of March, June, September and December and maybe more willing to discuss costs and give you a cheaper price for you during these periods.

With all these tips you can work towards a savings plan that will get you on the road in no time! Just remember that there will be running costs that should form part of your long-term plan. Have a think about the costing of things like petrol, insurance, road tax, and regular MOT checks. All of these expenses are necessary and should be factored into your costings.