Depending on your relationship with your needs, money, neighbours and approach to mobility – your experience as a car shopper could either be painless, even fun – or harrowing and unpleasant, especially if you make an unwise purchase. These tips may help you to avoid the common mistakes that too many car shoppers make.
Tech has come a long way towards empowering the car shopper, with online automotive retail portals such as Cars.co.za offering buyers thousands of new and used listed vehicles that are searchable by a range of user-defined criteria – and for which news stories and reviews can be found on the same site.
Combined with tools such as an affordability calculator and resources devoted to car finance, -insurance and -warranties, websites like Cars.co.za exist to inform and empower the car shopper (wherever they are on their car-buying journey) to ultimately make a smarter, well-informed purchasing decision.
Still, as the 2nd-biggest purchase most people will ever make, along with social pressures to manifest an aspirational aspect of upward mobility or portray a certain image, consumers are often (mis)guided by a range of emotional needs and responses to their tyre-kicking trip, ranging from to the rarely-rational to the all-too-often-ridiculous. Forethought and knowledge, however, will make you a smarter car shopper.
The feverish car-buying impulses I allude to are particularly prevalent among automotive enthusiasts and amplified in the realm of highly-sought-after models, where the temptation to buy a rare collectable paired with the prospect of the social status it would bring all too predictably steamrollers sensibility.
And all the more so when there are no alternatives to consider as a benchmark, or the purchase decision is rushed for fear of losing out. A smarter car shopper, by contrast, lets their head override their heart.
What to keep top-of-mind when car shopping
Do proper research about a product – study its line-up and model-life evolution. From SUVs to sportscars, certain models are deemed more stylish or “must-have” than others. Alternately, stock shortages of new vehicles necessitate buyers to look to used units. In both cases, the hyped notion of “a must-have” limits the options available to the buyer, and crucially, in many cases, clouds their judgement.
By implication, even though a desirable model has been subject to a recall or is known to suffer from poor reliability, that fact matters little to an eager would-be buyer. Had the vehicle been a parlously-kept garden-variety Toyota Corolla or compact crossover, the car shopper wouldn’t have given it a 2nd look!
So would-be buyers may eye popular models such as Volkswagen’s Golf 5 and 1st-gen Tiguan oblivious to the fact the short-lived twin-charged 1.4 TFSI engine (with a super- and turbocharger) was a piston-muncher best avoided. Or, evolution-wise, that BMW’s B58 3.0-litre inline-6 that replaced the N55 was more economical and powerful; or that the VW Amarok V6 bakkie was offered with 3 outputs over time…
Choosing the wrong model, or even derivative, may result in buyer’s remorse down the line. A smarter car shopper should check out Cars.co.za Buyer’s Guides, which lists the entire line-ups (from early to late derivatives), expected asking prices, plus pros and cons of popular models, as part of their legwork.
Ask for honest advice, not for opinions that will confirm your bias(es). We all know that guy. The one that asks and gets a hundred people brawling over whether the Toyota Hilux or the Ford Ranger is best, but in the end, he buys a Nissan Navara because that’s all he truly wanted all along. And no matter what he’s told, he can’t be swayed, regardless of whether it’s factually the best buy in its segment or not.
See also: Cars.co.za Awards category winners of 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016.
Don’t overlook defects because a model is a “once-in-a-lifetime” find. The rarer the car, the higher the emotion. Oil puddles, smoky engines and rattly tappets are all red flags for high impending repair bills, but all downplayed in moments of besottedness. And, if only a handful of the specific model in question was sold, parts may be harder to source – locally or internationally. It’s not always easy, but keep a level head, or prepare to watch your wallet wilt and/or wait an eternity for parts to surface.
Test-drive more than 1 example of the model you’re considering. So you want a used Volkswagen Golf GTI. In white. With a sunroof. The problem is – so does everyone else; and just yesterday you heard your neighbour was ready to trade in his Polo GTI on the very same car that you’re after: that means you’re about to miss out if you don’t act fast. A smarter car shopper would cast their proverbial net wider.
Bear in mind the DSG ‘box in that Golf may have become jerky and could be days away from needing a rebuild, but you wouldn’t know that because you never even bothered looking at another model, or didn’t do the 1 thing so many itchy buyers can’t: wait for a better one. Even if it’s a bit pricier, it’ll be worth it.
Be prepared to walk away from a deal. The vehicle trade operates as much by selling mobility as it does fantasy. You’re not just buying a vehicle; you’re buying into a lifestyle – procuring “an extension of who you are”. Coke-and-brandy drinkers love big-engined Fords, 2-tone shirt wearers adore any off-roader whose name is prefixed by the word “Land” and BMW M car owners are unashamed of their heavy right feet: Such stereotypes are hackneyed, yet they persist and worse, some people gladly perpetuate them.
A Honda S2000 will forever be cooler than a Civic Type R, in the same way that a Black Series ‘Benz trumps a C63 and a Raptor a Wildtrak: these things matter to motoring enthusiasts; it keeps them up at night. Not grabbing a unicorn when it’s there for taking is sacrilege; conversely, buying (or overpaying for) a clunker simply because you “have to have it” (but you cannot really afford it) is a fool’s errand.
Don’t trade in while holding negative equity. Welcome to the everlasting torture of golden handcuffs. Let’s say you bought a new Hyundai i10 2 years ago when you got your 1st job. Now, you want Duduzile in Accounts to like you, so the humble i10 needs to go, and you’re hoping the local dealer will trade that as a deposit towards the demo i30N in Performance Blue you desire. Perhaps then she’ll notice you…
You’re in trouble, only you don’t know it yet. You’ve barely paid off the interest on the i10, so after signing for the i30N (provided your finance application is approved), you’re effectively paying off 2 cars at the same time. That translates to a lengthy downpayment period, and before the term of the loan agreement ends, you may need a family vehicle; so you’ll be back to square 1 in your search for a family-friendlier Staria bus even before the then-ragged i30N is paid off. And so it starts again: Bond? What bond?
Use our car affordability calculator to find out what you can afford and search based on the result
Not considering the cost of ownership. Congratulations, you’ve scored a low-mileage out-of-warranty sportscar or performance SUV. You’re the (wo)man. You’re destroying GTIs at the traffic lights, the envy of almost every other road user (including supercar owners “who spent so much more to buy their cars”) and Panyaza Lesufi’s blue light brigade pulls over as soon as they see your car in their rear-view mirrors.
But then your freeway bruiser unexpectedly goes into limp mode, or needs new tyres, which go for about R7k or more each from a famous local rubber retailer whose 4-letter acronym spells a naughty word. Perhaps it has 2, 3, or in the case of a BMW X5 M50D, 4 turbochargers: that’s a lot that could go wrong, and none of it is ever going to be cheap, meaning you’ll also swear 4 times as much. Did you budget for that or take out a 2nd mortgage to ensure the prodigiously rapid vehicle gets parked on your driveway?
Lana del Rey sings that hope is a dangerous thing. Yet getting swept up by emotions when car shopping is even worse. Relish the joy of purchasing your dream wheels, but be calm and resolute before you do.
Search for a new/used vehicle listed on Cars.co.za
Check out Cars.co.za’s extensive list of Buyer’s Guide articles
Visit Cars.co.za’s Car Finance page, where we provide you with explanations, advice, and guidance to help you better understand the world of vehicle finance.
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