This is part one of a two-part series, so make sure to check out Steps 4-7 in the blog here!
Much of the battle of not buying a car off of emotion comes down to making sure you have a plan like we\’ve talked about in past episodes. This plan can be a plan to spend, a budget, or a vision. Having a plan in place when you buy a vehicle will prevent you from buying the wrong vehicle or one that does not match your plan to spend.
To help you even further, follow these steps below!
Step One: Seasonality & Needs
The first step comes down to understanding where you\’re at from a seasonality standpoint.
Everyone is in a season of some kind. You might be single and going out on adventures, maybe you\’re a city dweller, or you might be married and have a family. Understanding seasonality and your needs is extremely important to make sure that you only buy the vehicle that fits your needs.
With this, you will want to look at your needs versus your wants. You also want to look at your location and make sure that you buy a capable vehicle to deal with the climate. If you live in a place that gets a lot of snow, keep that in mind, and make sure not to buy a vehicle that would not handle the winters.
Step Two: Safety
The second component comes down to safety. With safety, it\’s essential to realize that the auto industry is highly competitive. However, not all vehicles are created equal.
The resource I would encourage you to use for this is iihs.org. I want to compare the same vehicle we looked at earlier in this series, the 2019 Ford F-150, as an example.
If you look at the website specifically, it allows you to select the vehicle\’s year. Different years will have different crash test ratings, so you\’ll want to look at them accordingly as technology advances and as cars hopefully get better and safer.
As you\’re looking at the crashworthiness of your vehicle, you will see that there is a ranking scale. The rankings go from good (green) to poor (red). Good is green, acceptable is yellow, marginal is orange, and poor is red.
For the Ford F-150, you\’ll find that the crashworthiness has a good or a top rating in all main categories. That would include the roof strength in the event of a rollover, side impact, or the other aspects of that crash. Beyond that, they look at crash avoidance and mitigation. In particular, the headlights on this vehicle were rated poor, so you can see the ratings apply accordingly.
I would encourage you to look at whatever vehicle you\’re researching and make sure it does measure up based on the safety needs of you, your spouse, and your family accordingly.
Step Three: Options
Step three comes down to having options to ensure you\’re not making an emotional decision. To do so, you\’ll want to determine the options that really matter to you.
I would encourage you not to buy a stripped-down version of a vehicle like a Ford F-150. I know that certain job sites don\’t need anything more than the rubber or cloth seats with the roll-up windows, but I would also look at not buying something at the other end of the spectrum. While it\’s a vehicle that maybe has massage seats and everything else, it will have a more profound and faster depreciation curve, based on bringing it to an equilibrium with the other vehicles that the people would be comparing when buying that vehicle specifically.
When you\’re looking at options, keep in mind that there may be a luxury counterpart to a brand. For example, you may have a Honda, the entry-level version, but an Acura would be the luxury version. You may have a Toyota, the entry-level version, but a Lexus would be the luxury brand.
Many vehicle companies have different levels of vehicles within their portfolio. For example, if you\’re looking at a brand new Toyota 4runner, there\’s an option from SR5 up to limited. But if you\’re looking at the top-tier nightshade edition with all the options, you\’ll see that the vehicle is about $1,500 difference from a Lexus gx460. You can get a lower version of that GX460 and still have the baseline options at that top-end version of that forerunner.
Now, something to keep in mind is both of these have excellent resale value. So it may just be a personal preference not to want the nameplate because you know your neighbors and their preconceived notions about driving a Lexus versus a Toyota.
I\’ve owned both vehicles, and they\’re both uniquely different, but they both have great traits to them. I would figure out if you have a personal preference that goes into each vehicle that you\’re looking at and if you prefer the look of the GX460 over the 4runner or vice versa.
Also, figure out if a vehicle is similar to another vehicle that you\’d be able to get the luxury counterpart of for around the same price with the same options. It may be something worth considering being that the top version of that entry-level brand may depreciate faster than a lower version of the luxury brand.
These are the first three steps to help you not buy a car off of emotion. You can find the additional four steps by clicking below!
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