Know Your Needs

Imagine you’re making a pizza and the recipe calls for mozzarella. When you head to the grocery store, would you pick up feta instead? Neglecting the mozzarella may result in a happy miracle, but it’ll more likely ruin your dinner. Similarly, neglecting your driving needs nearly guarantees you’ll be dissatisfied with whatever vehicle you buy.

Only you can determine what kind of vehicle is best for you. It’s important to be objective in your search. If a car is right, don’t fight it and if a car is wrong, don’t buy it. Here are some questions that will help guide you:

• Do you have environmental or fuel concerns?
• How much cargo space do you need?
• Is safety a priority? (Hint: it should be.)
• How often do you drive?
• How many people will your vehicle need to accommodate?
• Can you drive a standard transmission vehicle?
• Will you be reselling the car?
• How important is a warranty?
• Are you going to need to fit your car into small spots?
• Do you need to go off-road?

Asking yourself common-sense questions like these should get you on the right track. Before you make any decisions about make and model, make a list of your driving needs in a notebook—some might call this your car-buying notebook—then find the cars that cater to them.