Buying a car can be a fun experience; it can also be one that leaves you with a nightmare on your hands. We have over 30 years experience in buying and selling automobiles. Don’t forget, we have to buy and eventually sell our own cars.
Buying a car involves the following practices/principles in our opinion:
Budget, Budget, Budget! We cannot stress this enough. Everyone must decide how much he or she has to spend on his or her car. They must also realize the hidden costs associated with purchasing a vehicle; DMV fees to title and register the vehicle, state sales tax, and dealer fees if the vehicle is purchased at a dealership. There must also be an allotment for unexpected early expenses such as preventative maintenance that should or may need to be performed. For every car there will always be a high price, a low price and a median price.
Shop, Shop, Shop! The Internet is the greatest tool available to anyone in today’s world. When we are in the market for a vehicle we spend one full day evaluating the market and checking what the experts say cars are worth, what they are selling for on different mediums, and critiquing the different variables. Such as a vehicle with maintenance records vs one where there is not one record available.
Reconnaissance, Reconnaissance, Reconnaissance! After deciding a budget and doing preliminary homework, one will make appointments with the cars they are most interested in. We recommend looking into 3 cars at minimum: One car at the high scale of the price range, one at the low range, and the median range. This will give you an idea of what your money will get you and what to look for.
Inspect, Inspect, Inspect! After looking around at what’s available you should have your vehicle inspection by a local professional. This will give you an idea what immediate expenses you may have before buying the car and then having surprises afterwards. Bringing it to an automotive expert is a good idea because they will be looking for things that it may need to try and sell you on their services. It’s a win for either party, except the seller should his car be a lemon waiting to happen. This also includes pulling inspection reports such as Autocheck on the vehicles VIN to get a feel for the history.
Salvage/Rebuilt vehicles can be fixed where even a seasoned veteran can be fooled. This is not to say that they shouldn’t be given a chance. Salvage and rebuilt vehicles can save thousands of dollars for cars that can and will last many years providing tremendous value for the consumer. We have a strategic relationship with Precision Collision in Linden NJ that allows us to rebuild vehicles for our customers and ourselves in the safest possible manner. Call or email us for references on cars we have rebuilt for customers, they have saved thousands and many still own their cars 5 years later.
At Joman Auto Service we inspect used cars for purchase thoroughly. We do everything from plugging in our scanners to putting it on the lift to physically driving the car with you in it to give you our professional opinion. No one is an expert at their first try, but we learn from the personal mistakes we make and pass those extremely valuable lessons onto you.
We also shop for our customers, Call or Email us to find out more about the services we can provide to car shoppers. Along with performing a full report for you on what vehicles we found, what we inspected, what prices you can buy for and ultimately narrowing down the list for you to choose from.