How to Afford the Luxury Car of Your Dreams

Many folks, including us, would love to drive the luxury or exotic car of their dreams. For some, this could be an exotic sportscar and for others it could simply be a really nice SUV. The barrier to entry for most of us is the high cost associated with purchasing new. While recent economic conditions have hit the auto industry especially hard and made it the best buyers market for new cars we can remember, one of the areas that has not been as affected is the new car market for luxury SUVs and exotic sports cars. It seems that the high-end market is still, well, pretty high end. That means that - for most of us - driving the car or SUV of our dreams may still be out of reach.

One area that has been affected by the recent economic downturn is the luxury, pre-owned market. This is the area that anyone who wishes to drive the car of their dreams, but does not want to pay the high price of buying new, should explore. With minimal research using the website, CarTalking.com, we were able to find some outrageosuly good deals on certified pre-owned BMWs, Lexus’s, and Mercedes all within our own geographical area. While you might not be able to get a deal on a super-exotic like a ferrari, the number of dealers who are practically begging to sell you a pre-owned luxury automobile is at an all-time high. This creates an unprecedented opportunity for you!

A few tips when negotiating the purchase of a certified, preowned vehicle are as follows:

1. Do your research - use a website like we mentioned above to get free price quotes on luxury, pre-owned vehicles. If you use the link here to get your quotes from CarTalking.com, remember to click on ‘Used Cars’ on their website and register for a free account. Pre-owned is just a fancy word for ‘used’, but pre-owned status is usually accompanied by an additional warranty or service contract that typical used cars do not come with.
2. Investigate the warranty or sevice contract that accompanies your pre-owned vehicle. Depending on the dealership from which you end up buying your certified, pre-owned car or truck, you may be presented with some different options as far as these contracts are concerned. May sure you not only compare vehicles when buying pre-owned, compare the warranties and service contracts, as well.
3. Find out exactly what has been inspected on the vehicle you are considering buying. Ask to see the actual inspection report for that vehicle. Make sure the vehicle identification number (VIN) on the inspection report matches the vehicle you want to buy, EXACTLY.
4. Negotiate pricing - using the research you conducted above, make sure you are armed with several price quotes from competing dealerships within the area. Take these quotes with you and refer to them in your negotitions.
5. Don’t back down! Times are tough and many dealers need to sell their inventory more than you need to buy the certified, pre owned vehicles that thet are selling. Remember that it is now a buyer’s market and use that leverage to your best advantage.

Once you understand how to buy a certified pre-owned vehicle and have done the necessary research to obtain competing price quotes from dealers in your area, it may not be as difficult as you first thought to end up driving the luxury car of your dreams - even if it is pre-owned!

How to Afford the Luxury Car of Your Dreams was written by Joe on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 5:23 pm. It was filed under Auctions / Sales, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comments RSS feed.