Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Risks Associated with Buying a Car

In case you are planning to purchase a car, it becomes imperative for you to understand all the risks that are involved with any kind of auto buying. You’ll need to consider a lot of things when buying a car.

You will encounter a lot of interesting incentives provided by the dealers in order to attract a lot additional customers. However, it is very important for you to understand if such incentives are really viable for you within the long run. Some risks that a customer faces while buying a car are listed below.

Servicing

Purchasing a car is obviously not going to be inexpensive, and therefore, you might want to maintain your vehicle for a long time to come, probably even fetch a good price if you were to sell it sometime down the line. Maintenance of a car will reflect on its actual value at any given point. A good auto company should have an adequate number of service centers in your vicinity, so that whenever you have any problems with the vehicle, you are able to get it fixed up easily. The maintenance cost should be low as well, and ideally it is the dealer who should provide you servicing facilities and even the spare parts if required.

Incorrect claims

Various auto companies use unrealistic and false claims in their product propaganda, and hence the customer should not blindly believe on the claims of the company or even the dealer. The false claims could be about mileage, power, etc. They usually provide us information of tests conducted in controlled conditions and these results aren’t true on the road. A test drive is very helpful in these cases. It will give you a correct idea of what the vehicle is, and also you need not pay attention on the claims of the manufacturer. You can choose yourself.

Free of charge Care and Warranty

Each manufacturer should provide the customer with at least some warranty lasting for a minimum period of twelve to twenty-four months. One should not be too much attention to the seller’s warranty and should ideally go for vehicles where the manufacturer provides warranty. Although, in the case of free servicing, it is just the opposite. Several companies claim to provide servicing, however they will have their own set of terms and conditions. If the dealer does not provide free servicing, then you need to completely abandon the idea of purchasing a vehicle from them.

Finance

Currently, financing is available in most auto buying deals. However, there are some risks associated with this financing.

A lot of dealers claim to provide zero interest loans but usually all such claims are false as they include various hidden costs hence customer discretion is very important. It would be wiser for you to negotiate with the dealers in order to reach the situation which is beneficial to both the involved parties.

Credibility

Purchasing a new car is about authenticity. It is always a good suggestion to purchase an auto from the dealers who have proven their credibility in the market. The dealer is a point of contact for both the manufacturers and car buyers. Therefore, you may want to do just a little research about the dealers in order to discover the ones who have proven their honesty over a certain time period.



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