Ever found yourself second-guessing a car purchase or worse, stuck with a lemon that you impulsively bought? Buckle up for a ride through the maze of car buying, as Joe and I dissect the highs and lows of automotive acquisition. We're drawing from the well of personal experience, like that '94 Mazda Miata misadventure, to guide you through murky dealership waters. From my daughter's first car-buying experience to my unexpected letdown with the new Bronco, we're sharing the wisdom you need to make savvy decisions without the regret.
Navigating today's seller's market can be a daunting task, but we're here to share insider strategies that tip the scales in your favor. Get the skinny on everything from understanding your trade-in's true worth to the art of leveraging pre-approved loans. We'll walk you through the test drive process, highlighting the importance of meticulous research—backed by our personal tales of victory and the odd hiccup. You'll leave armed with tools like our 10-criteria evaluation system, ready to tackle the car market with confidence.
When it's time to ink the deal, don't let the paperwork intimidate you. We're breaking down each document in layman's terms, ensuring you're informed and ready to protect your interests. Discover the ins and outs of financing, the best times to buy, and how to sniff out—and avoid—a potential lemon. From DIY maintenance tales involving my trusty old Toyota Four Runner to the perks of buying from rental fleets, consider this your masterclass in turning car buying from a chore into an adventure worth taking.
Ever found yourself second-guessing a car purchase or worse, stuck with a lemon that you impulsively bought? Buckle up for a ride through the maze of car buying, as Joe and I dissect the highs and lows of automotive acquisition. We're drawing from the well of personal experience, like that '94 Mazda Miata misadventure, to guide you through murky dealership waters. From my daughter's first car-buying experience to my unexpected letdown with the new Bronco, we're sharing the wisdom you need to make savvy decisions without the regret.
Navigating today's seller's market can be a daunting task, but we're here to share insider strategies that tip the scales in your favor. Get the skinny on everything from understanding your trade-in's true worth to the art of leveraging pre-approved loans. We'll walk you through the test drive process, highlighting the importance of meticulous research—backed by our personal tales of victory and the odd hiccup. You'll leave armed with tools like our 10-criteria evaluation system, ready to tackle the car market with confidence.
When it's time to ink the deal, don't let the paperwork intimidate you. We're breaking down each document in layman's terms, ensuring you're informed and ready to protect your interests. Discover the ins and outs of financing, the best times to buy, and how to sniff out—and avoid—a potential lemon. From DIY maintenance tales involving my trusty old Toyota Four Runner to the perks of buying from rental fleets, consider this your masterclass in turning car buying from a chore into an adventure worth taking.
Today on the Idiot's Guide we're talking about. Are you in the market for a brand new-ish car, but not sure where to begin? We can help, and you know the saying when life gives you lemons, well, a lemon vehicle that is.
Speaker 1:There are laws that help you get a sweeter deal like lemonade, but not if your lemon happens to be a golf cart. I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the Profit Hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, mr Joe Hassel. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide, woo. All right, so I want to start this episode out by just kind of maybe admitting some of my own do's and don'ts that come with buying a car, and I'm not gonna list off stuff. I have some information and I'm gonna talk about that as we go through our discussion here today. But main thing is is like just to kind of let people know there is not a technically, there's not really a right or wrong way about going about purchasing a vehicle. It's you know. I say that and Joe looks at me like, well, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:The reality is is that you can get yourself into an upside down situation because you wanted that dream car, you know the 1994 Mazda Miata that no one has. It's a limited edition, has red leather seating and just so happens to have an engine blown and you can't do anything about it because you spent $2,000 on a 94 Miata. But it's more than that. It's more about the fact of when you are taking responsible steps and looking for a vehicle to purchase. There are some really good things that steer you in the best directions possible, and I say that's where that confidence about you know the there's a lot of options when you take those steps that come available to you when you're looking at purchasing a vehicle. If you don't take those steps, then, yeah, you're on your own and you're probably going to have a clunking, junking piece of crap and it's not gonna last very long, if it lasts at all, and you know, I have one of those sitting in my driveway.
Speaker 2:Now, some of the reason this came up is because I actually went and bought my 16 year old daughter her second car. Now she totaled her last one, neat, but she's fine. But we just went and bought it and I oh yeah, is she okay?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I meant to be Well you know you've been around, but just to let the listener know she is okay. But one of the things I was realizing as I was sitting in there buying the car, doing all this stuff paperwork she would have no idea, if she went out and to buy a car on her own, how to do any of this stuff. She knows some of the basic stuff, what to look for, but and she is still 16. So she went with a car that she likes as opposed to one that's gonna be the best for her. We'll get into that. But when, looking at all this stuff two years from now, if she wants to go and buy her own car when she's 18 and use her own credit, her own money, all that stuff, she would have no idea. Now she was in there seeing me sign paperwork. She was there, we were talking about interest rates and this and that, but the reality is, when it comes down to it, there are very few instructional videos or how-tos when buying a car.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We've got plenty of videos on how to turn down that car salesman, but there's really nothing about what's the process, how do you go into it, what do you look for all these different things. So the whole idea is let's give you a little bit of the road that we've already been down yeah, to help you buy that car. Our listener as well as share some of our horror stories that we've been through. Little catharsis here.
Speaker 1:So, as far as buying vehicles, I've kind of had a mixed bag. I've purchased from private owners I've actually made payments to individuals who are private sellers. I've purchased vehicles from dealerships and kind of. I've had vehicles that I owned and paid cash for and I've had vehicles that at the same time I'm making payments on with a dealership. So that's kind of where I'm at right now is I have vehicles that I'm making payments on and I own vehicles outright. So it's kind of one of those things that when it comes to buying vehicles, I've purchased a lot of them, not all of them. Have I financed? Some of them I have. Some of them. I've haggled, actually, a lot of them, I haggle. But I think the goal in what we're talking about here is to help our listeners be in the best position we can help them be in so that they can get the kind of vehicles that they want. And it might not be the dream car like oh man, I want that Lamborghini. You're like well, functionality, let's just talk that, you know.
Speaker 2:Now, just to be clear, my dream car. I do own my dream car, so I'm just gonna be straightforward with that. However, my dream car is a Toyota Camry. I am a nerd. There is no question about it. I am a huge car guy. I've referenced Top Gear, grand Tour, all those. My dad's a mechanic. I helped him rebuild a truck when I was a teenager. I do love cars and fast cars, but, honestly, my dream car was always a Toyota Camry. I don't know why. They're just, they're great, they're efficient and they don't cost a lot of money. So I do own my dream car and it was actually great, so I bought this in 2016. It was brand new, so I bought it brand new the only brand new car I've ever purchased and it was the Special Edition. Now, those of you who watch know that I like the color blue. The Special Edition came in two colors. One of them was blue, so all of the interior, all of the lighting on the interior, is blue. It's got the little blue thread piping around everything.
Speaker 2:So yeah so I literally got my dream car, the all blue inside and out Toyota Camry. This is not an ad, so everyone's dream car is a little different. My daughter she wanted a truck. Her dream car was a truck. So we got her a truck. Fortunately she hit some black ice and the back end fishtailed. She didn't have anything in it and so the weight distribution was just off. So that's how she totaled that one. So her dream car switched from a truck to an SUV. This is not the girl that wants, you know, the really fast sports car. You know the little tiny cars to zip around everywhere. She wants the big one.
Speaker 1:And when you say the big one, like an excursion, she didn't want anything that big, but this is a 16 year old.
Speaker 2:She wanted an SUV with the third row seating. Okay so she wants to. There's not very many with like that's a full size. Yeah, she wanted the big one and so, yeah, that's what she went for. It was one that had that full third row seating, the big back end. My other daughter wants a Mustang. That's her dream car. So, yeah, everyone's dream car is different and so you have to look at what do you want and how do you get there.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of in this limbo right now with mine. So I have a fuel efficient car and I before it I had another fuel efficient car. Both were kind of sport coupe stuff. The one before had a turbo in it so it was a little bit zippier. But you know, I the one before it had been many years since I had actually purchased from a dealership. And I had purchased that one from a dealership and I was like I'm never not using a dealership, like I hope. I mean obviously like financial situations. But it really takes a lot for you not to be able to work with any sort of dealership. They literally take anything and the reason why is because you will pay lots, lots and lots and lots Like. So, no matter your situation, you could have the nastiest FICO score, credit score, and they're still gonna take you because they know they can charge an interest rate. You just better make a whole lot of money because your payment is going to be three times the amount of a normal car payment.
Speaker 2:So Well, I would challenge you a little bit there. It's not gonna be three times more if you've got a high interest rate. So it more depends and this is something you know when you're talking about financial matters when it comes to loans and things like that with a short-term loan, like a vehicle loan, where it's four, five, six years, it really matters a lot less the interest rate when it comes to your payment than the term of the loan. Yeah, so I did an example here. So I've got, say, you buy a $10,000 vehicle, so this is maybe your first vehicle, or, you know, an older used vehicle A four-year loan. I've got three different payment options, so a 7% interest rate, which is about normal for what it is used to be. Three, that was nice, that was a few years ago before all the Fed rates went up 12% interest rate and a 25% interest rate.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, the difference in price and this is a four-year loan, the monthly payment, the difference between the 7% and the 25%, so that's more than three times the interest rate.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're looking at a difference of about $92 a month. That's it from a 7% to a 25% interest rate.
Speaker 1:What are the term differences?
Speaker 2:They're all 48 months, so all 48 months. The only difference is the interest rate. From a 7 to 25, you're gonna be paying, like I said, about $90 more. That's it. So it's really not the interest rate. Really isn't the scary thing. Now, if I tell you so, if I go through the terms now on an older car, I don't like to do anything more than four years On a newer car.
Speaker 1:If you can get an 84 month term, do it, oh yeah, and even then I think for mine I did like they start they won't look at anything less than 60. Right, which is five years, and so if you're looking, you're probably gonna be looking more like six, like a 72 month Right. But 84 is especially for vehicle pricing. Nowadays that's a little bit more reasonable. It doesn't mean that you have to hold onto it like your grandma and grandpa used to do, like that's not the way our society works. It's just a way for you to have a vehicle ownership and then, when you're ready to get another vehicle, you just kind of start that process over again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2:I think I did a six year, so 72 month, on my Camry and I've had it for eight years now Nine years, I can't remember how long I've had it, but yeah, it's lasted that long so it's paid off. I mean I'm not paying anything on it, it's still doing great. So the idea is, on a newer car, yeah, get that as long as possible. I wouldn't do longer than four years on an older car because you don't know how long that car is gonna last and whether there are gonna be any issues with it long term to make it harder. But that gets the payment low.
Speaker 2:So if we look at a 7% interest rate, okay, so the difference in payment from a four year to a three year. So if you do a three year loan at still same 7% interest, okay, you are going to be paying $70 more a month. Okay, so over three years as opposed to four years. So the same difference in an over tripling of the interest rate is what you're gonna get for reducing it by 12 months on that payment. So now you're gonna be paying less in interest. So on that one you'd be paying about overall about $380 less in interest over the entire course of the loan. So that's one month's payment in interest that you're gonna be paying more by having a shorter term. Okay, this is what I'm saying the longer the term, the better it is. It has more of an impact than the interest rate on any scenario.
Speaker 1:So I'm curious about like the financing side of it is one thing and I know your numbers, guys, so this is like I eat this stuff for breakfast. You know cause you do? Yeah, I do.
Speaker 2:This is what I do. People ask me every day should I lease this car, should I buy this car? Cause business owners are always looking for cars and everything for sales people or for their own business or whatever, and so this is a very common question Should I finance, should I buy outright, should I lease, et cetera. If I finance, what rate should I get? So this is the conversation I have regularly.
Speaker 1:You know, and over the course of the last four years, so actually pre pandemic. So COVID kind of made some mess of some things. But in 2019, msrp pricing was average discount was about 25, a little over $2,500 under MSRP. Okay, that was a situation where it was a buyer's market. Buyers could walk in and basically say I am willing to pay this much for this car. Okay, fast forward, pay back, fast forward past a pandemic, and all of a sudden, our coastline shuts down, we can't get semiconductors and everything. All of a sudden, the supply and demand issue starts having a problem and you start looking at the fact that most dealers if you're lucky, it's not $1,000 over MSRP right now, and so you know it's really turned into a seller's market where they'd sit there and tell you the price and fold their arms and they're not going to negotiate.
Speaker 2:There are still things you can do, though, to better that, so knowing the numbers is part of that, but before you get into that, I do want to say now this is the reason it's they're not just jacking up the prices because they can.
Speaker 2:I want to be clear. The reason that those prices are higher right now, because supply is low is because people like me who have cars that are paid off my car is a nine year old car I could go to any dealership and I'll tell them what price I want them to give me for my car, because they need stock. So they're looking for anyone who has their cars paid off or close to paid off. That's a car in demand, like a Toyota Camry, and they will pay out the no. So I'm in charge of that sale at that point. So I'm going to the dealership and I'm saying this is how much I want for my car, and then they have to turn around and sell that to the next consumer, and so that's why the prices are higher, just because it's a seller's market for used vehicles, right. So that's the reason prices are higher. It's not because dealerships are trying to take advantage of you. It's just because their costs of acquiring are higher, right now, and that is a major factor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cost of acquiring vehicles, but also construction of the new vehicles. When you're wanting something straight off the line, it's still. The prices are significantly higher just from the manufacturer, and so you're always kind of playing this negotiating game. But recently, as of last year, last May, there was note that said, basically, the average discount now is about $600 under MSRP, so that's a good sign. That means that it's gotten better. That doesn't mean that across the country this is what you could expect anywhere you could still have a really hard market where somebody is just like that that economy in that particular city isn't there yet and so you still have the vehicle pricing there. That's gonna be different than buying it from Tulsa, oklahoma, like it doesn't matter. And it's just one of those things to consider is that the kind of market that you're in puts it. It's perspective, when you walk in there to have a little bit of adjustment in your expectations because the terms of negotiations has gotten stricter, it's gotten more difficult or tighter, and that's not a bad thing. It's just I mean some good things to do before you even know that this is the vehicle I'm buying and this is my loan and this is my term. Those are really really good aspects of this.
Speaker 1:But there are some things that can position you so that when you show up to a dealership or show up to purchase a vehicle, you have leverage to be able to negotiate. One of those things is research the vehicles. I don't know, honestly, unless even a private seller. A private seller is listing it somewhere. That's how you found out about it, Unless you drove down the road and saw, ooh, I really like that car with the for sale sign in it. There's a chance. But that's the few and far between. But even you have a marketplace on Facebook. You have local car listings, newspaper listings. We have an advertisement through one of our news stations here. That's like basically a Craigslist. But you have Craigslist. You have lots of options for if you're a private seller. There are also dealerships that use those platforms as well to add to their already moving advertising campaigns. They advertise on those platforms but getting on and seeing and doing the research, knowing, hey, ooh, I want that Toyota Camry and I want it in blue and I want it to be special edition, like it's limited, so let me see here that one's blue. So you really have to start looking and refining that search.
Speaker 1:Well, going on to your favorite website, I remember when the Broncos were not quite out yet and the new ones, man, I went on to their interactive website and I built the coolest looking transformer, looking Bronco, and I was like that's my gold car. And then I find out I was like, well, crash tests they actually failed so miserably so they're not really functional. Like as far as the vehicle I find out, they have four cylinder engines in them. I was like that's not a Bronco, okay, I'm like no matter what you say, I don't care what you call it, you just took a Bronco frame and stuck a GeoMetro engine in it. Like that is terrible Tech. These days a four cylinder will cut it, but it's just, it's hurtful. And the way you feel that is when you're trying to go 80 on the freeway. You're going to feel that engine trying really hard to move those massive tires. Like that's where you know, unfortunately, you've worked on cars, I've worked on cars.
Speaker 2:It is part of the equation the weight to power ratio. Yes, that's really important. Yeah, you've got to be able to look at that.
Speaker 1:So, looking at features, looking at what you want and having a good idea, looking at locations that may have those options, so that you also know where you're looking, you're targeting. So if it's a dealership, if it's, you know, anything like that, you want to be able to go like I want this car that you have on the lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if always finance, even if it's through a personal purchase, through an individual, you can go to your bank, you can go to your credit union and get an auto loan, even if you're buying it from an individual. And it's a little bit kind of a difficult process when you're working with the bank directly because you don't have that dealership that's doing all this work for you, but it works just the same. So you can get that loan, you can finance it whatever you need to.
Speaker 1:And, honestly, you can do what the dealership would do if you went in and you were talking to the dealership. You can do a safer credit poll with your own bank. So if you work with a bank, you don't have to work with your bank. You can go into any bank and do this, cause they will. You know, like that's basically what a dealership is doing is shopping your credit around to the highest bidder who's willing to work with you, and. But getting pre-approved is really, really helpful. That gives you a clear understanding of what you can afford and you know, so that you're not getting your hopes up about that dream car that it's just not, it's out of reach right now. So I don't I want to go into this going like well, you know, I, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 1:At the same time, it also gives you a little bit of negotiation power, especially seeing some of these discounts under MSRP that you're looking at. You know, trade in for, for, for whatever. Like if you're, if you're going into a dealership with a pre-approval of a certain amount, you can walk in and say like look, I can't get any more than this and they will work with you on that Because you already have basically cash in hand For them. That's, that's 80% of the work. After the after, you say, yeah, I want that one, you've already done all the rest of it. So you walk in and you're like who do I sign the check to? That's it, that's a, that's a dream for a dealer, for a car salesman. Like they're like you mean I, I don't have to do anything.
Speaker 2:You're like you, just yes, and honestly, if they cut it down by $1,000 on the price of that car, that's a win for them, because they either take that $1,000 less today and have cash in hand for that vehicle, or they have to wait another two months, three months, for that vehicle to sell at the price that they're listing it, which all that time they've got that lot, that spot on that lot, filled, that they can't put another vehicle in there and that may sell better. It's that opportunity cost that they're losing if they don't take that offer, even if it's $1,000 less. So that's where, coming in like that, it is really, really great to be able to just say here you go.
Speaker 1:Another part of that planning is also knowing your trade-in. If and this may not apply let's say, with your daughter and she wanting a particular vehicle because she no longer has another one. Like it's not the same scenario, but if I'm driving my car and I want a different one, I have a trade-in that I get to walk into the dealer and be like what do you take for this? Well, instead of me walking in, going I hope you'll negotiate with me on this I wanna know how much my vehicle is worth, well in advance to being at that dealership and the reason why. And there's lots of different ways you can do that. Kelly Blue Book is one. Actually, where I got a lot of this information is a website called Edmunds. Yep, Edmunds is a great one, Great, great. They have a appraisal as a free tool. You go in there, you basically fill out the criteria. Most vehicles are considered basically clean or fair category. There are very few that get outstanding, unless you just bought it, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and along with that. So dealerships will a lot of times use Kelly Blue Book as the value. Banks and credit unions actually use a site called NADA guides N-A-D-A, and so when they're doing the financing, when they're looking at the value of the vehicle, the credit unions go to NADA guides, not KBB, kelly Blue Book, and so that's a really important thing to recognize. If you go to Kelly Blue Book and it says it's worth $5,000 and you think everything's great, and then the bank says no, it's only worth 4,000, it's because they probably used NADA guides to be able to look at that. And so look at all the sites to get all of the pricing that each of these sites value it at. It's like the three different credit scores you know, whether it's Tran Union, equifax, experian, whatever All the different ones, they give you a different credit score based on your region or different things that they track, and so each one of these sites Edmunds, kelly Blue Book, nada guides they track different things. So it's always important to get the value of your trade-in from each one.
Speaker 1:And let's get right into it. I think one of the things that I should mention from previously is not only do you have this trade-in, but oftentimes even Edmonds does what they call an instant offer. So they'll give you what your trade-in value is, but then they'll kind of put themselves in a position as a dealership and say, well, this is what the instant offer would be, and that's because of the demand for used vehicles out there. You have that leverage, so you know.
Speaker 2:Personally, I would hesitate to use anything like that. I've never used those. I've had some bad experiences with similar programs obviously not through any of these three sites, but I would hesitate to do something like that just because you may end up getting dinged later down the road. So just keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that I'm more emphasizing in that is just perspective. Not necessarily for you to take any sort of offer from those scenarios, because this gives you the opportunity to walk into a dealership knowing, okay, I'm pre-approved, I know what vehicle I want and I know how much my trade-in value is.
Speaker 1:So now I know I'm in a really good position because I have all of the cards that you're gonna use against me if I'm negotiating at the dealership for this, and I'm not trying to paint a car salesman as this bad guy. However, car salesmen are always notoriously this way, and so it's part of the training to be in that position where you have to negotiate and you have to always be in the mindset for the dealership, not for the buyer.
Speaker 2:Well and it's not only that, but any job is that way we paint car salesman as this typical bad guy image of they're trying to take advantage of me and all this. They're gonna try to get the best deal for themselves. Everyone does that, we're always doing that. You go to the store. You're gonna look for what coupons you can get to get 50 cents off that can of corn. You're looking out for yourself at your job. You're going to be somewhat cutthroat hopefully not too cutthroat, but you're gonna try to excel. You're gonna raise yourself above everyone else in your job performance so that you get the raise, so that you get the promotion. That's what we all do every single day. It's just car salesmen are the only real encounters that we have, where we're coming face to face with this interaction on a regular basis, where everyone deals with this.
Speaker 2:And so we paint them in this negative light. They're just the higher sale they get, the less they negotiate that price down. The more commission they get, the more they can pay for their household budget. That's what it's all about. It's just like the rest of us. We're just looking to be able to take care of ourselves.
Speaker 1:One of the things to do and I thought about this is you can also, with vehicle history and knowledge and knowing about trade and value is something called Car Facts. Car Facts gives you kind of like if I was a terrible car maintainer and I never changed the oil and I just drove it into the ground and when I went to go trade it in the oil and the engines close to churned butter and that would be terrible it would seize the motor. But my thinking is this is that if I didn't take care of the vehicle, rotate the tires, all those sorts of things that are essential just to make sure that the vehicle is maintained, then my value of my vehicle is not gonna be great, and also if I did take care of my vehicle. Every single time you go to take care of something, like you go to a car shop, they always check your VIN. The reason why they check your VIN is because your VIN is registered in vehicle identification number. That's what VIN stands for and essentially it is a registration number that makes sure that that.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like our social security number.
Speaker 1:Right. Car Facts basically tracks the VIN and anytime you have it in a repair shop it's going to have that information on file so that you can pull a Car Facts record and see this vehicle has been maintained quarterly or every five years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's got all the records of any time it's been serviced oil change, title changes. So I've got 10 criteria that I always look at when I'm looking at a car that I'll get into. But two of the criteria come from those Car Facts reports the number of previous owners and damage history. And it's great, because of Car Facts, as soon as there's any damage on that car that'll go through. Now you can buy your own Car Facts report. I think it's $45 right now. Last time I checked to get a single Car Facts report. Most dealerships they have a subscription with Car Facts. They just get a Car Facts on every single car that they have and you can just it's in the link for on their site when you're looking at cars. You can just download it.
Speaker 1:I literally I've had my car for now three years and I just chucked the folder. It was in the back of one of my seats, like it's not necessary to hold on to it. I just it was there and I didn't need that section of my car.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you always check it and you're looking at how many service visits are there on that vehicle, how many owners has it been through? Where has it been? Has it been in the same state? Has it been in a state where there's a lot of cold weather, where there's no cold weather Cause? All of that impacts how that vehicle will last, and so it's important to look at all of that history when you're looking at those car facts reports. Car facts is a great company, not a sponsor, but they are a great company.
Speaker 1:But if you would like to, we'll take any sponsors that are willing to sponsor us Well within reason.
Speaker 2:Jiffy Lube, no matter how much you beg us, we will not let you be a sponsor.
Speaker 1:Okay. So one of the other things is you get to this point where you've done your homework, you've kind of prepared yourself. You are now a financially responsible human being with a good perspective about your value. You know, now I'm gonna granted, it's not self value- but your own vehicular value.
Speaker 2:Hopefully you have self value.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you do have self value. But okay, now you're getting to the point where you need to locate and then talk about a test drive Now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, before we get into that, I do wanna jump into my 10 things here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was actually gonna say that, so go ahead, Sorry no, you're good, Jump the gun on ya, you're good, all right. So when we went and bought fortunately my daughter is very similar to me and so she was comfortable with this process, but I had her pick out six cars or we had a list of cars she picked out six that she liked, she picked her top three and then I picked three cars that I liked, and so we had a total of nine cars that we were looking at to see how they all stacked up against each other. They all had similar characteristics. All this, so here are the things that I look at the year. So newer gets a higher score.
Speaker 2:So what I do is I put these all into an Excel spreadsheet and then, each one of these categories, I do the rank formula for these against each other. So, ranking one to nine, a one would be the newest, a nine would be the oldest Price. So the lower the price, the better ranking Mileage. So how many miles does it have on it? The higher, the lower the ranking, the lower mileage, the higher the rank.
Speaker 1:And then miles per gallon.
Speaker 2:So I compare city, highway and combined. So there's a formula at how to get the combined. I think it's 70% weighted for city driving and 30% highway or something like that, I can't remember.
Speaker 2:And then each one of those are individually ranked and then consumer rating. So the consumer rating I get that from JD, power and Associates, so they have a really nice ranking and these are people who have owned these vehicles, who have submitted their rankings. So these are real, these aren't tests, these aren't anything. Real consumers who have said this is how they feel about this vehicle and it's by year, by make, by model Safety rating. And that comes from the NHTSA, I think, is what it is National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. So they rank it out of five stars. So a five star will obviously get a higher ranking than a four star.
Speaker 2:Fortunately, my daughter didn't pick anything less than a four star safety rating. The number of previous owners and the damage history so each record of damage history is an extra point. So if it has no damage history, it's a zero and that obviously ranks higher than something that has two accidents in its history. And then, if it's, they rank it moderate or minor, moderate and severe damage, and so a moderate gets two for every, severe gets three for every. So that way there's an average ranking across all these.
Speaker 1:And so what I do?
Speaker 2:so I, literally rank all these and then I sum them up and divide by 10. So I take the average of their ranking and these nine cars, then I am able to rank as their score in their average rank.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And so, fortunately, when my daughter did this, her favorite car, the one that she really wanted, ranked the highest. That's good and I thought was weird, because it's a it was a GMC, something, I can't remember what it was- An SUV would be like a Sierra or a GMC terrain. It was a GMC terrain.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So we didn't go with that one. We went with a different one Cause when we got there, it didn't have the third row seating. Deal breaker it was for her, yeah, but when we got there, test Rover didn't have the third row seating, so we decided to go with a different one, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know why a teenager's like well, I have lots of friends and I want to transport them all. You're like okay, all right.
Speaker 2:But we were looking at, you know, when comparing. We were looking at Fords, we were looking at other cars that you would typically rank higher in my thinking GMC, I always think, well, that's not a great car. You know, they don't have good safety records, all this stuff. And then when it came back and that GMC terrain was the best vehicle on the list, like wow, I Honda's were on the list as well I really was surprised that this GMC actually came back as the best compared to the ranking of all the other ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it you never know, a car, a manufacturer or a year may have a bad history or a bad image in your mind, but it may not actually be true. And so looking at all this data, looking at all of it, you really get a good picture. Now she decided to go with something different. It's actually older, higher miles, so it ranked pretty far down the list. But then when I took out those known factors so she wanted it older, she wanted the, she didn't care about the mileage. So when I took out some of these older factors and I just looked at safety, consumer rating history so the number of owners, the damage history didn't have any it actually ranked second. Another GMC it was a GMC Acadia. This time it ranked the highest. Yeah, ranked even better than the, the terrain that we were looking at, and so I was really surprised, after doing all this analysis on it that came through, that it would actually be a really good car. And the consumer rating is how reliable it is, how long it lasts, all this stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they equate, like my gas mileage. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, they do. It's a really good consumer.
Speaker 1:How many cup holders are just kidding? No?
Speaker 2:And so those are the 10 things that I look at, and I really go in depth. I'm a nerd I've mentioned this many times before, but I build spreadsheets for fun, and so, by putting it all in, I actually got what will likely be the best car, the safest car, the most reliable car for my 16 year old daughter.
Speaker 1:So I think what's good is like on the finding the Acadia and saying, ok, well, we want to go and we want to test drive this vehicle. Obviously, that's, that's, that's pretty much a given, unless you're buying like an old Model T that you're not going to touch, it's going to be delivered on a trailer so the wheels don't ever move Like, yeah, that's, that's the only time I would say you don't need to test drive it. But other than that, you should absolutely test drive your vehicles and, and that being done, like how you, how you do, that is again there's. There's kind of like this dance that you begin. You have all of these things that you've done your homework to prepare. I am officially ready to let the world know now I want to buy a car.
Speaker 1:Little did you know. Like most everybody does this completely backwards goes to the dealership and says I feel like I should buy a car today, and that that salesman is like salivating oh yeah, because you just landed into a shark. You're chum, that is what you are, ok, and and they're, they're looking forward to it. So you know, in this sense you've done all of this homework. The way that we're recommending is really. It positions you quite well and you know more about that, so that when you walk in you're not going.
Speaker 1:You know, ooh and awing from all the benefits that the dealer might be touting about this, you're like, yeah, cool, yeah, I already know, don't worry about it, you're wasting your time, let's go to the test drive. So part of the ways you can do that is contacting the location that has this, making sure they have that vehicle that you're looking for. It's not, it hasn't been reserved for something else or it hasn't been sold off the lot since they listed it, or something like that. But and then schedule a time to be able to go and do that test drive. This is more formal than the dealerships usually operate in, but they absolutely accommodate that for the sake that. You are now a serious contender for that vehicle. And what is the one thing that they want to do? They want to sell the vehicle.
Speaker 2:So, um, so years ago, I actually. So we bought a highlander. This was gotta be like 10 years ago, but we were looking at that. One specifically found it online, called the place that sold it. It's a place that we bought cars from many times before. But we called up and said, hey, this is the one we want to look at. And they've got five different locations.
Speaker 2:Well, we didn't realize it was at their Wyoming location, and so we call hey, we want to look at this one specifically. That's the one that my wife wants. And so they said, well, that's up in Wyoming, you know. We say, well, can you bring it down? Well, we're not sure. And he said, well, let me get some financing information and see what that. So we gave them our name, they looked up our credit score. We'll have it down there for you to be able to view whenever you want. And it was great because you know they knew that by looking up our financial credit score, oh yeah, we were going to be able to afford that car. That's the car we want. We've done the research, they know we're going to buy that car, and so they will drive it down so that we can look at it. So they had it down there. In two days we went up there and looked at it and we bought it. Yeah, that's the power of doing the research, yep.
Speaker 1:Don't. Don't just show up on the weekend on a busy you know sale event and think that you know they don't have the cards. You know they do. They absolutely do, and so being able to do this homework ahead of time helps you to have more of a prepared and mindful decision about your future vehicle for the next foreseeable future. You know, and salesman can be very helpful.
Speaker 2:Again, we always give them a negative connotation here, but they can be very helpful. So this example with my daughter, we went there. We looked at the car. Didn't have the third row seating. Well, she told the salesperson that we were working with. This is what I'm looking for.
Speaker 2:And so he's like well, we just got a car in recently and I think it had been there maybe a couple of weeks, which for car guys that is recent and they like okay, so we've got this one. It's a bit older, it's a lot cheaper. Do you want to look at it? Well, okay, well, took it for a test drive. She liked it. It's obviously a little bit more rundown. So this is the one that we actually bought, but she liked it. She liked the features, it ran well, everything looked good. Well, we talked to the salesman afterward. He's like all right, so can we run numbers for you? No, I haven't done my research on this car yet and so you don't buy until you've done the research. Even though he showed us this vehicle, it's the one we ended up buying and it ended up turning out really great. Now, again, he was a good salesman. He knew what we were looking for, helped my daughter out, get the car that she eventually bought, but you don't buy, right then?
Speaker 1:Here's another good point in this right now is if you're in that situation where you've found a vehicle that you want and they are like, oh, let's run the numbers, maybe working with the dealership. You're kind of in that position where I remember years ago, when I was first doing this, I had a bankruptcy in my past recent and so it was something that I knew was going to govern my qualifying. I was like, well, I don't want to go around trying to find a bank that would talk to me. So I had them run those numbers. But it wasn't before.
Speaker 1:I knew what I was doing, and we live in a day and age right now where technology and information is at our fingertips. So if you find a vehicle that you want and you're in that position before you say, oh, let's start running numbers, go get dinner, yeah, sit at that table, get on your phone and you can do everything we just talked about with that. Even if you ask them, hey, can I have a couple pieces of this VIN so I can go do my research on this vehicle right here, and they're going to accommodate If they don't, then you can go to the lot and look at the VIN number yourself. It doesn't matter, it's right there. But we live in a day and age now where just going down the street to a McDonald's, sitting there preferably somewhere you can think clearly, and not a McDonald's, but going to a cafe, sit down, get a cup of coffee or cocoa or whatever you drink and go over these numbers, go over this information, so you can go back knowing that is now an informed decision moving forward. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And some salespeople will tell you oh, these cars are going fast, Someone else is interested in it. They never are.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Cars do not go fast on these lots Now some do. If it's, you know, something that's really popular, really there's a lot of hype behind it, just like anything, that'll probably go pretty quick. But you know you're probably going to pay a premium on that and you're going to pay a lot more than you should on a car that has a lot of hype. So I wouldn't recommend that anyway. But no one's going to come in and steal that car from under you. Take the time. So we took two days. So we went back up two days later to actually buy the vehicle after we'd done the research, made sure everything looked right, all that. Take the time. It's not going to be sold out from under you. Some dealerships now this one didn't, but some dealerships you can even put a down payment on it or a holding fee and pay a little bit of money. They'll hold it for you until you're ready to make that deal and most of the time that's refundable if you don't buy the vehicle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so the idea is or it goes toward the price of the vehicle. If you do buy the vehicle and the idea is you know you're holding that vehicle, but you have to take the time to do the research Right. You have to take the time.
Speaker 1:And it's a really, really big red flag if they don't want to honor that. Yeah, yeah, and you know. The other thing you can look at is check sale prices, check warranties. Sometimes these vehicles not typically a, you know, nearly 20 year old vehicle, but it fits within about five years you still have some warranties that are holding on there. And then the other thing is recalls I recently had one that I was. I was. I have a check engine light that comes on on my car and it's driven me nuts Like it's. I hate it. It's just always on and I'm like, well, I'll just deal with the fact that I have a check engine light on. Well, I went to the, to the auto shop, and they're like, yeah, we've seen this with these vehicles and it has this issue. It's like a $1,200 repair and I'm like it's my vehicles of 2019. So I bought it a year old. So it was. It was nice and great shape. I've had that check engine light on and off for the same problem for now two years.
Speaker 2:So this is the other reason why it's advantageous to buy used cars. So I rarely buy anything new, so, like when there's a, say, a new software or new iPhone or anything like that, I never buy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because there are always bugs. There's always something.
Speaker 1:Well, and this one when I talk to the shop and the point of it is basically there might be a recall Mine was a recall I got a letter in the mail that said hey, we've noticed this, this is on us, and so all I have to do now is take it over to a dealership and they will honor the entire repair and I'm not out $1,200 because I don't have to take it to some humdrum shop that's going to try to do this work.
Speaker 1:So it's worth even that. Information like checking recalls, checking sale prices, checking warranties these are all things that are going to benefit you in the long run. If you have a warranty that protects you for another two or three years on a powertrain and anything happens to that engine when it goes, you're covered, you have the peace of mind knowing you're driving off the lot with something that's still protected for a number of years, and so that's a really good deal. I think the other thing is look over all the numbers, look over all the information, and then I would say probably one of the last things to keep in mind is when you're closing the deal, when you're doing your paperwork. Joe, can you show the stack of papers?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I do want to go over this whole. I'll list what everything is in here, but we're running long. Today I'd love to go over, like, what's in these contracts because it really is important to understand. So our listener out there, if you'd like us to do that, leave a comment. If you're watching on YouTube, leave some kind of comment on whatever podcast channel you're listening on. The comments help us. It shows engagement, but it also helps us to know what you want to us to talk about.
Speaker 2:Sure, we try to use our experiences, but this is for those of you watching on YouTube. You can see just how much paper and this is on a used car, this is on a 17 year old vehicle that all this paperwork is on 21 pages of paperwork, and that wasn't even there. That's just what I print out here. I mean there's the car facts that was in with the stack of papers. There was a couple of the things on the financing that was in there. I mean this is just the finalized signed contracts. It is a massive stack of paperwork that you have to go through and it could be daunting, and don't be intimidated by that.
Speaker 1:That is a process. I mean, if you look at like purchasing a house or leasing an apartment, all of them have stacks of paper that you were going through, and so it's normal. It's part of the process is being very, very fully informed, and a lot of this is information that makes sure and confirms you're signing off, that you have been informed about this part of the process the financing, the vehicle, facts, all of it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so these are the disclosures, the paperwork that goes along with it, the motor vehicle contract of sale. That's just one piece of it and that's actually only two pages. I think that's the smallest number of pages out of everything on here the installment sale contract, the warranty, title application, odometer disclosure, insurance acknowledgement, transaction disclosure. So the motor vehicle contract of sale, installment sale contract and disclosure or transaction disclosure all have the same information, but you have to sign it three times because of how many times consumers have been tricked into deals that they didn't know that they were signing, and so you have to sign all three different versions of it in order to make sure that you are covered. Now, some of these are I think two of these are Utah, specific states.
Speaker 2:Other states may have more paperwork that you would have to fill out and then the last two are the maintenance agreement, which I always recommend. Always do the maintenance agreement, always a good deal, because that ensures that you're not going to Jiffy Lube for your oil change, that you actually get a really good oil change, in my opinion. And then the gap insurance. Again, always one that I generally recommend is the gap insurance. Again, I'd love to go into more detail. We could probably do an entire podcast on just that disclosure and paperwork side of it. So if our listener.
Speaker 1:That sounds perfect for a hot potato finance. Subject Reading contracts. Yes, that's where I feel like that fits in nicely.
Speaker 2:Let's put it out to our listener, if you would like it, in a podcast where you can see Adam falling asleep while I'm talking, or if you need something to go to.
Speaker 1:You guys won't see me. I'll be behind the camera. The whole time recording Joe doing this.
Speaker 2:If you want to something to fall asleep at night too and you want a nice long podcast for that, then let us know in the comments If you want to see this. On the hot potato videos I've got a whole list of hot potato videos that we will start doing again. It's just been crazy times. Let us know, put it in the comments, put it in whatever chats, anything. Just let us know which format you'd rather see that in, because this could be these disclosures. I could go over each one of them in their own hot potato finance video. So just let us know what you guys want to hear. Because we've been down that road. This is the whole idea behind Idiot's Guide. We've been down this road. We've bought a lot of cars. Not everyone has, not everyone's been through the situations we have. So we want to share our history of idiocy so that you don't have to follow that same path, so that you can learn from our mistakes.
Speaker 1:So I have four questions I want to answer real briefly and then I'm going to move into our subtopic. These are basically because of frequently asked questions. The first one was basically how do you go about buying a car? And we just unpacked that entirely in a way that positions you to be in more negotiating power, at least feeling like you have some of those answers before walking in to try to haggle or negotiate. But know that that is the reason why you do that is so that you have some of that power and some of that strength when you go to talk about a vehicle and possibly negotiate that down in price, which, overall, is going to save you money. So these are things that will save you thousands of dollars in the long run.
Speaker 1:The other part of this, then, is how much do you need to put down on a car? So, like a down payment, a good rule of thumb typically is 20%, but when you're talking about a $75,000 vehicle, 20% is a huge. That's a car loan in and of itself, so you're not typically looking at 20% down the oftentimes if there is a down payment or, let's say, for example, a car asks for a down payment. I haven't seen anything above 10%. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I keep it around 10%, depending on age of the car, like this one that we just bought. They're working on the financing. The financing has to go through because it's so old. Traditional financing will work at 17 years old. They don't like credit unions don't like to finance that. So they're asking for a little bit more, but I'm giving them pushback. I only want to go to 10%. If I have to go to 20%, I can, but I really don't want to do more than 20%. I mean, that's my maximum cap. You should keep it around 10% for that down payment. Try to avoid doing any more than 10.
Speaker 1:And you don't understand. Again, you have the power there and that's what we're trying to do is make sure that you understand what you have.
Speaker 2:Start by offering five.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You start by offering five and then they'll take you to 10, and now you're at a good spot Only with the financing. If there's trouble financing, if you have a bad credit score, if it's an older vehicle, anything like that, then you can go up to 20, but only at the financing side of it, not on the deal side of it.
Speaker 1:What is the cheapest way to buy a car? That one's pretty good, but for mine I would say the rule of thumb is used Probably not used from a dealership per se. Because if you're still in the newer category let's say you're less than five years but you're still buying a used vehicle right now, those vehicles are at a premium on a lot, so you're still paying substantially for that vehicle from a dealership. So when you're looking at used Again, doing all the other homework really negates the purpose of a dealership in the first place. So you have negotiation power with anyone who is selling a vehicle. But when I say anyone, that's in a position where you're not going to have Joe Schmo down the street selling brand new off the factory floor vehicles. So their used vehicles is the cheapest way to buy a vehicle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just know that when you're buying it from an individual, there's going to be a lot of extra process. You're going to have to title it yourself, you have to pay the sales tax to the state yourself, you have to do all the registrations, all that stuff You're going to do yourself that you're paying when you go to a dealership. You're paying extra for that. So just be aware of that. Yeah, it's a lot cheaper. Just understand what it's going to take when you buy it from an individual. Now again, you can still go to it and get a loan. So it doesn't mean you have to pay cash when you buy from an individual, but it will take a lot of extra effort for a lot less money.
Speaker 1:So last question is what is the best month to buy a car? Do you have a guess?
Speaker 2:Personally, I would say probably the fall, because I think all the new lines come out in winter and spring and people are looking for cars in summer and so fall is going to be the off time.
Speaker 1:So December is. If you're buying a new vehicle, December is your cheapest because you're getting highest discounts off MSRP. Obviously because the brand new vehicles are offloading last year's models. So that's the reason why is their outgoing model year, but when you're talking about used vehicles or older vehicles than just last year's models, they're dead on October, November. The reason why is for exactly that. They've gone through the summer for all of these big sales events and they have this inventory left over and it is time to liquidate.
Speaker 2:Now, I did not look any of the up before. I just know financial ideas.
Speaker 1:Adam specifically prevented me from looking at any of his information before we did this podcast, so I am really proud of myself at this moment that I got that dead on right Well, Joe is shining, one of the things you can do all this homework, you can do all the work possible to be in the best situation or best position to purchase something for yourself, and it just goes wrong and oftentimes that is called a lemon. When you purchase a lemon, you could purchase a lemon right off the lot. It could be a manufacturer defect, that happened on the installation line, and so with this, what I want to emphasize is there was an individual that basically he purchased a golf cart and it was a lemon golf cart and he purchased the golf cart, for I mean, this is a substantial golf cart in my opinion. I don't golf, so I don't have like. If I had, like, a huge property and I needed something to go check the mail, like maybe I would get one of these, but I probably still buy a quad.
Speaker 2:I used to know older people love to do this. They get their golf carts and they drive that church on Sunday. That's how they get around One area I live. There was a few older people in the neighborhood and so there I think there were three golf carts every Sunday at the church especially like a 55 plus community.
Speaker 1:I would totally be that dude Like I'd have. I'd have a cane that I could just like nudge people with. Hey, hey, jerry, you know. But this, this situation, unfortunately, with the golf cart, the motor in the manufacturing, something, something was done wrong, contorted the flywheel and it just just wrecked, the engine just seized everything, and so he he's been going back and forth with the supplier was a supplier out of Texas that he had purchased this from, and they were just, they weren't able to do anything, they weren't able to get anything. They're like we need to replace the entire engine and he, he acts. We have a local individual who kind of steps in his name is Matt Gephard. He's he's a news, a news anchor that goes and does these investigates, and it's called get Gephard. Okay, I personally have benefited from him, so I'm going to speak highly of him.
Speaker 2:My experience with him and his predecessor not so great From a consumer perspective. The the in my experience. So two specific experiences that I have had that fly in the face of his consumer protection values. So I personally don't have a great view of him. But for the media idea behind it and getting people to stand up, there is some value to that If you have a good enough story social leverage.
Speaker 1:I think that's. That's the point is when you are, when you have this. This story about the lemon golf cart was a year long process that this guy has gone back and forth with the supplier and just saying, like yes, we have to replace the engine. And he mailed the engine back out to these people and they're like well, we don't have an engine to send you. And like we, we were waiting on parts, we're trying to get an engine. And eventually because he included Gephard, they would get part contacted them, they initiated, they just pulled an engine from one of their other models and sent it out to him. So you know, since then they've been really really good.
Speaker 1:Obviously, like I said, social influences is really really powerful and honestly it's. The truth is like businesses don't want a bad name and this really puts a stain on a business If you, if you just are running someone ragged and and there's there's no, there's no help there and you're just being a big business, great, you know. So you know, in this scenario it was a win, okay, but but I think the the the moral of the story is sometimes you can do all of the homework you possibly can do and still end up with a lemon. Yeah, the reason this came to this advantage is this is a golf cart, an ATV, an off-road vehicle, something that climbs over rocks or crawls across finely groomed grass, is not qualified under a lemon law.
Speaker 1:It has to be legally allowed on any state and federal highways. That is the. That is the permit. So even if you have a dirt bike, it has mirrors. You're like oh, it's street legal, it's not highway, or like, you can drive it on the highway, but that doesn't mean that you're going to be driving it from here to Boise. You know, you might want to try it, but it's not qualified under the lemon law. It's an off-road vehicle.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:And so that's one of the things. The other thing that I I saw the wording of and it's kind of interesting, but they said that it's it's the. The lemon law protects vehicles. I kind of see vehicles built for recreation are not covered. Thank you, yeah, they call them expensive toys. That's basically what they call them. I can't remember where it says this, but basically it just said new vehicles that are legally allowed to be on the highway. So, oh, there you go. The lemon law is designed to protect consumers who bought a brand new car. That continues to have issues. So, that being said, my mind immediately goes to that Acadia and says is it protected under the lemon law? It's highway legal, but do the laws only protect it if it's a brand spanking new vehicle, Because most of the vehicle class that's out there are not brand spanking new, Yep. So this law, then, is limited to a very small group of vehicles.
Speaker 2:And this right there those of you that can see on the YouTube there is a specific paper that I had to sign that said this is an as is purchase which, unless it was exorbitantly bad, something that they did not disclose. So they knew that the engine was on fire and sold it to me anyway.
Speaker 1:Here's your extinguisher. And told me that it wasn't.
Speaker 2:That's the only way that the lemon law laws would protect me in that situation. Other than that, I take the warranty of knowing that this is an old vehicle and that's it. If it dies, it dies. So it's always a risk when you buy that older vehicle, which is why you put some of these things in place. Make sure you get like that.
Speaker 1:You're trying to minimize the risk by doing this homework, by preparing yourself, even financially, that this helps you to understand, If you know the history of a vehicle, even the car facts. Information gives you insight into the future If you see that this vehicle continues to. I had a vehicle one time. I loved it. I sold it for dirt cheap and but it had a rear axle on it. It was a Toyota Tacoma or not, not Tacoma, four runner, okay, Old one, beautiful, Like nowadays. If I still had that thing I could sell it for gold. You know, like Toyotas go for everything, they're magnificent.
Speaker 2:Yes, they are.
Speaker 1:So I had this vehicle and it would always on the rear axle, would shred the rear axles. Well, I had a connection with a yard in the area. They called it the Yoda yard. All Toyota parts. I literally would get an entire brakes, everything, the whole assembly from this Yoda yard for like 50 bucks and I'd just take the old ripped up axle to the Yoda yard and I'd take the new one and slap it in and drive down the road for another six months till it shreds that one and then I'd take it out and I was like I should really work on the gears on this rear axle. But I'm like this is cheaper.
Speaker 2:And you know the podcast that we did a couple weeks ago. Knowing how to repair a vehicle is an important skill for little things like this, or befriend a mechanic, someone who will do things for cheap, or as a friend, or anything like that. Fortunately, my family's full of mechanics, and so we've got plenty of resources there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have like four or five shops that now I can just I can walk in and I'll be like, hey, they're like, yeah, I was like can I help like work, sit by and do this.
Speaker 2:So you know, it's good to know those people and be a mechanic in my past, so but that's also why I buy new cars is so that I don't have to be a mechanic.
Speaker 1:That's where I'm at. Like I buy mine now because I don't have to think like, granted, I'm gonna do the brakes on my car. But yeah, the only reason why is because I know how to and I know how much it costs to do those kind of repairs. If it was an engine, powertrain, something like that, that needed the attention, I would definitely not be touching it, I would send it in. But that being said, like it's just one of those things that this stuff helps you to even know that, so that you're not incurring more costs.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you'll get a lemon and in those cases your best bet is to disclose it. You know, try to get as much as you can for that vehicle you know to basically end its life at this point and you know, hopefully it's not in a situation where you're getting a massive loan for that kind of a vehicle. Usually the lemons of you know out of used vehicles. It's really hard for somebody to be that blatantly, you know, dishonest and sell. It happens, but it's really hard for somebody to sell a vehicle that's that much garbage.
Speaker 2:And quick story before we end here. I know we're going really long. But the truck that so we were the truck that my daughter had before she wrecked it. We actually were looking at a truck before that one, and I always make sure that as part of the contract it has to pass the emissions inspection. So that is, I will go through all the financing. But that is an addendum to every contract that I sign when I buy a car, especially an older one, that it has to pass emissions. And so we bought this truck, did all the financing, everything was done, and then all they had to do was finish it up, get it passed emissions, all that Well, after two weeks it still wasn't passing emissions. They had replaced a bunch of things in the engine to try to get it to pass. They knew exactly what was wrong with it, but no matter what they tried, they could not get it to pass the emission inspection. And so after two weeks they said sorry, we can't do it. Here's your money back.
Speaker 1:And most good dealerships are going to honor it that way. We had a van that it took about two or three weeks. They actually were paying for a rental for us for weeks on end while they were working on trying to get it back to. They had some brake issues and some engine stuff, some sensors that were doing funny stuff, and they took care of all of it. I didn't see a dime to make sure that, because they don't want to sell you something that's just going to be an immediate problem, they can't, and so and that's some of the advantage of almost looking at some of the more capable dealerships, as opposed to these little tiny manufactured building that has cars surrounding it and all the lights in the parking lot are run on generators.
Speaker 2:So I will shout out so that was Southtown Mitsubishi. So if you're in Utah at all and you're looking for a good dealership, again, they're not a sponsor. I just have good experience with these guys, other ones, this one that we, and it was, I think, pablo Apallo can't remember his name, I know it started with a P and it was a Hispanic name, but he was great. He helped us through that whole process. He was awesome. We didn't end up buying the car, but well, I guess we did buy it but the contract canceled because they couldn't get it passed. But yeah, southtown Mitsubishi is a great one. Hertz Auto Sales. Hertz Auto Sales always a great place if you have one of those nearby. You're getting the low blue book value on those cars because they've made all their money off of renting them. They've had regular service and none of their sales people are commissioned.
Speaker 1:And enterprises is essentially the same, other than the fact that, well, if you want to, right now they're off loading their EVE fleets. So if you want a cheap electric car, go check out the car rental places.
Speaker 2:My family and I have bought I think we're up to nine vehicles from Hertz Auto Sales, the first salesman that we were there. He was there for eight or nine years every car we bought from him until he finally moved up in the company and he was no longer a salesman. He did our financing on the last few cars and then he went up to the corporate finance so he wasn't in the local office anymore. So Hertz and then this most recent one was from Axio, and so they were great. It's my only experience with them, but they did really well working on the financing, getting everything done. So those are three guard dealerships that I really like. Again, hertz is probably my top number one favorite, but finding older cars from them is a little bit more difficult, so that's why I obviously didn't buy it from them for something this old, but yeah. So shout out to those guys and the salesman at those places that work really hard for what they do. Good salesman, really good experiences Any dealerships that you've had a good experience with.
Speaker 1:Locally, tim Daly. Honestly, colorado Auto Auction. We had one of our best purchases there. They're not like a dealership, so you have to have your homework done to get there, but we had that vehicle for years and years and years. It was fantastic and I purchased. It's parked in my driveway because it was a beat up. It's a Toyota Sequoia, but I got that off of an individual who got it from a Utah Auto Auction and I got it for dirt cheap. I could change the tires and sell it for six grand. That's what it's worth. So for that kind of stuff it's definitely an older vehicle, but it's one of those things where, like when you understand how these systems work, how vehicle purchasing works it's, you really start writing your own ticket. Yeah, so anyway, we have reached the end of our show. We must stop, joe. We must, please. We're like an hour and 15 minutes, I know.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to unpack on this, though it's awesome, there's a lot of information that's needed.
Speaker 1:I like this so life's too short, so keep laughing, keep learning, keep being prepared, prepared, prepared and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes, woo.