I have had my car for a little less than four years. It was by far the biggest purchase I have made so far in my life. It is a 2007 Saturn Ion, and other than the AC not working (which is not fun at all in the summer), it has never given me any issues until now!
For this weeks Weekly Rewind, I am going to talk about my very first car. Like I said, I bought this car as soon as I got my license. We shopped around and test drove a lot of used cars. The Saturn I got ended up being more expensive than a lot of the other cars I test drove, but buying it was definitely worth it for me because it was a lot nicer than a lot of the other cars that I looked at.
One thing I recommend if you are looking for a car is to do your research and take your time. The Saturn was actually one of the very first cars I saw. Because it was a little more than I wanted to spend, I looked around at a lot of other cars and then ended up going back to the Saturn. So don’t rush! I think it’s really important to weigh all of your options before you purchase a car because after all, you are about to spend a lot of money! It’s worth it to take a little extra time to look around.
Another thing I recommend is being practical. My car is not fancy at all, but it got me from point A to B. If you are young and working with a tight budget, it’s okay! I didn’t care that I didn’t have a super fancy car, I was just so excited to have my own. Buying a car is a really exciting thing, no matter what you get.
Another suggestion I have when buying a car is to pay attention to how many miles it has. One of the reasons I bought my car was because it had 80,000 miles on it. That is still a lot, but a lot of the other cars I looked at had over 100,000. One of the reasons my car was more expensive than the others was because it didn’t have as many miles.
My last piece of advice is to bring someone with you (especially if you are like me and know nothing about cars)! It’s good to have someone with you to ask questions that you might not have thought of and it’s nice to have someone to help you make the decision. My family went with me when I got my car and having them with me really helped me make the decision.
So anyways, after lots of driving to and from school, road trips and many miles later, my car is having some problems. I don’t know what is wrong with it yet, but it is getting looked at tomorrow and I’ll find out how much the repairs cost. If the cost is really high, then I will have to start looking for a new car, which I don’t really want to do because I love my car! Hopefully, it isn’t to expensive and I am able to get it fixed.
There are so many ways to get a new car, like getting a lease, financing a car or just buying an older, used one like I did. My question is what is the best thing to do? I have read some blogs that say that leasing isn’t a good idea to do in college, but I don’t really know too much about it. So, if anyone has any tips for me when it comes to getting a new car, let me know what you recommend! I’m really interested to hear others thoughts on this because I have read so many things. If you have any advice or have leased a car before, let me know what you think in the comments.
Thank you so so much for reading today’s blog. I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please share this blog, subscribe to get email notifications when I upload and follow me on Instagram which is on the home screen! As always, thank you for your support!
Signed,
Ashlyn
Good luck on your car!