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CarsGuide offers an interactive tool that generates a list of potential cars for you to buy. Still, my recommendation is to take your time and do your research. But this tool will help you fine tune your thinking on what kind of car you want and need. It uses three simple questions:
Which car fits your lifestyle?
What’s your budget (in increments of five thousand dollars)?
Whether you want a new car or a used car
For the lifestyle question, you can choose from the broad categories of small, medium, or large.
You can also choose from more detailed categories. Things like a family car, sports car, city car, off road car, or utility vehicle are available to select.
Once you’ve answered these three questions, they generate a list of potential cars for you. It comes complete with photos and descriptions of actual cars for sale.
Talk about easy.
Remember though; this shouldn’t be your only source for research. Use it as a starting point.
What cars can I afford?
Once you have a better idea of the kind of car you like, your next concern should be the price.
You want to make sure that your wants don’t outweigh your means.
For this part of the process, I recommend using the Car Affordability Calculator by U.S. News.
You can play around with the monthly payment and down payment to give yourself options.
It’ll also help you shorten your wants list to what you can afford. Remember, though, that you’ll have other costs on a monthly basis (see below). Be sure to give yourself plenty of cushion for these other car-related expenses.
Other financial factors
AAA estimated in 2015 that the annual cost to drive a typical sedan style car 15,000 miles a year was $8,698. That includes registration, insurance, maintenance (including tires), and fuel.
Registration
Aside from your monthly car payment (if you don’t buy it outright), there are other ongoing fees to consider. Some cars cost much more to maintain than others.
It’s a smart financial move to give these factors a lot of thought when choosing your next car.
Call your DMV to find out the annual registration fees for the type of car you’re considering. You may find some surprises.
For example, in some cases, you have to register a pickup truck as a commercial vehicle in California. Yikes.
Insurance
Insurance will also be a significant expense. Remember, if you have a loan for your car, your lender will need you to have full coverage. Not the least amount of insurance required by your state. One of the most important factors in what you’ll pay for car insurance is the type of car you drive.
Nerdwallet says there are a few things that make car insurance more expensive:
The price of the car (more expensive cars need higher cost insurance)
High-end parts required to fix the vehicle, and
The safety record of the car
Make sure to get some quotes for the specific models you are considering buying. The annual price range can vary in the thousands for full coverage.
Maintenance, repairs, and mileage
The cost of repairs and maintenance will be higher for used cars than brand new cars.
To determine your fuel costs, you can actually do the math:
First, estimate the average number of miles you’ll drive your car per week. Consider everyday things like going to work, grocery shopping, or casual weekend outings.
Then multiply this by 52 (for 52 weeks in a year).
Next, add to this number how many miles you’ll drive for holidays and road trips.
Finally, divide this total number of annual miles by the average miles per gallon for each car.
Then multiply this by the mean price per gallon of gas in your area.
Sound complex? Here’s an example:
Assume you drive 20 miles each way to work every day. Also, let’s estimate you drive about 60 miles on the weekend. We’ll also say you drive about 1,000 miles a year for road trips and holidays.
Here’s the math:
Work: 20 x 5 (days per week) = 100 miles per week
100 (miles for work) + 60 (weekend miles) = 160 total miles per week
160 x 52 (weeks in a year) = 8,320
8,320 (annual miles) + 1,000 (road trip and holiday miles) = 9,320
MPG of the car we’re looking at = 32 (average)
Cost of gas in our area = $2.00/gallon (average)
Final calculation:
9,320 / 32 (miles per gallon) = 291.25
291.25 (gallons used) x $2.00 (per gallon) = $582.50
So after all that, you can estimate spending about $582 during the year on gas alone.
If you’re concerned about lowering your ecological footprint and want to save on gas, a fuel efficient car may be the right choice for you.
While electric cars may be a fad in decades past, they are about to hit the mainstream auto industry in a big way.
They’re receiving widespread adoption by consumers, according to a 2017 article in Forbes. There will also be a wider variety of models to choose from within the next few years.
Yes, electric cars may still be more expensive than their gas guzzling cousins. But you may want to consider how much you’ll save in fuel costs over the lifetime of the car.
According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center, the total cost for an all-electric car to go 70 miles is only $2.64. This assumes the cost of electricity is $0.11 per kilowatt-hour.
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