Getting Organized For Buying a Car

00:00.39

Amy Irvine

Every week. It's our goal to share financial information that helps you in both your life and financial vineyard. We hope it takes you from your roots to the journey of your vines and the influences in the air that help craft your delicious life like wine and find it like. Wine life and finances have different palates that should be celebrated and not judged welcome to this edition of wine and dime with Amy Irvine and Carrie Bean Carrie welcome back to the show. How are you doing today.

00:29.45

Kerrie

Pretty good. Excited to be back.

00:35.30

Amy Irvine

And ah well I know Carrie and your life right now you have been running and going every which direction with regards to baseball games and just life in general has got you going in a lot of different directions.

00:49.43

Kerrie

Yes.

00:53.77

Amy Irvine

Have you come across any wines that you've liked on your journey at all.

00:58.59

Kerrie

Now Not really I've been trying to increase my water intake so that's been my focus lightly.

01:05.18

Amy Irvine

Um, yeah, yeah, we um, let's see Kate and Becky we talked earlier about some wineries on what's called Cayugga Lake I'm sorry canneica diaa lake.

01:20.92

Kerrie

Ma okay.

01:24.54

Amy Irvine

And Canneica Diaa is ah it's one of the finger lakes I don't think it's one that you've actually ever been to. But I've been exploring some of the wines that are out there on that particular Lake and one that I came across that I thought if you're.

01:29.18

Kerrie

Here.

01:42.48

Amy Irvine

If anybody's looking or if if you when when you come out and see us in the finger likes is some point in time I'd love to take you to is called song hill winery up off from like I said Kanna Kannadago Lake song hill winery interesting interesting winery it's been around.

01:51.90

Kerrie

A.

02:02.34

Amy Irvine

Um, it's actually considered to be in Victor. Um, and it's a family run winery which I always love to visit family 1 run wineries anyways, but the grapes are from the finger lakes and from Lake Ontario so it's kind of.

02:11.56

Kerrie

And yeah.

02:20.43

Amy Irvine

You know, 2 different so 2 slightly different regions kind of I mean even though it's the same New York region the lake finger lakes versus Ontario Lake is a different sort of location. So um, they have some interesting wines that. I'm looking to explore when I get back because now this is on my list as I was looking including you know my my favorite cavfronnc they have so I want to give them a try but they also have some brute roses which like is ah a sparkling kind of rose which I always think is fun to.

02:55.44

Kerrie

Yeah.

02:56.76

Amy Irvine

be fun right? And then it's a: 2014

03:00.52

Kerrie

And then.

03:16.74

Amy Irvine

Beautiful views that people can explore when they're there and they have ornaments of their particular logo which I also thought was pretty neat but I don't know just someplace unique and different and.

03:26.67

Kerrie

Um.

03:33.36

Amy Irvine

Not a place that I've ever been which is unusual for me in the finger legs. So I'm looking forward to exploring there and really having you by my side when we do it The um, the topic that I thought you and I could talk about that's not wine related.

03:35.38

Kerrie

Um, to this is.

03:42.41

Kerrie

Sounds great.

03:53.30

Amy Irvine

And kind of stays in the theme of spring cleaning spring organization that sort of thing is the car buying process or the organization of car buying and a few was it about a year ago or year and a half ago you had to. Dig pretty deeply into that process and I think it was to replace your daughter's car am I remembering correctly. Yeah.

04:16.14

Kerrie

Yes, yes, she was I guess um, mainly are probably around her senior year of high school. We needed to replace her car because she was going to be going to college. And the one she was driving was not in good enough shape that she probably didn't need to go further out than about thirty miles so we decided it was time um and we just sort of began researching and a little bit of input from her and. Started that process which isn't always the funnest process even me as a car person I really enjoy cars and I like them. Um and I I know a lot about not necessarily a lot about motors and things like that. But I know you know. Can spot a car and tell you what making and model it is from a long way just because I I don't know I like them so it's a fun process for me. But even as someone who enjoys it. It's very it can be very stressful as well.

05:20.70

Amy Irvine

Um, what did you do um like take us back from the start thinking about how did you get organized to start this process and kind of walk us through you know how you you.

05:32.82

Kerrie

Her.

05:38.59

Kerrie

Yes, yes I think the first sort of thought process was you know Obviously it's kind of easy to do in your mind but basically process of elimination like for her it was She didn't want a truck.

05:38.87

Amy Irvine

You were very methodical about it kind of talk to us a little bit about that.

05:57.67

Kerrie

And she didn't want you know a big issue v or anything so just thinking about what is the purpose of this vehicle and how long does it need to last and you know starting from there. So for for us. It was just the process of elimination and then. Starting to think about you know what? what would be ideal. So for her, you know she's going to be in college for the next four years and then potentially get her master so maybe five or six years and so wanting to get her or at least help her get a vehicle that she wouldn't have to worry about. Replacing until that timeframe was over so that sort of helped us get started. Um I think in there and and everybody's different. Every kid is different. She wasn't a very opinionated person on the vehicle. So that's kind of unusual I think for. Kids her age too as an 18 year old. She was just she didn't really enjoy the process like I did and and ah didn't have a big opinion on it. So we sort of just started looking around and actually what I did was I sort of just decided on a smaller suv for her. Um, particularly just because it it felt like it fit her and um, we were kind of going back and forth between a car and a small real small issue v um, so we kind of eliminated that and then part of what I do which.

07:27.30

Amy Irvine

Um.

07:33.60

Kerrie

May or may not be unique is I like to just go and look and drive by myself and you know not take the whole family not make it an experience because sometimes car buying can be an experience and you want to be able to think through. This needs to be. You know it can be a fun decision but it needs to be a smart decision at the same Time. So I kind of started just you know looking myself and would go to the car dealership and get inside of it and go for a little test drive and was actually able to start the elimination from that. Because there was one car in particular that I was pretty much on paper sold on and then when we drove it. It was like the road noise was extremely loud and so I was like okay, not this one so taking that time and whoever it. It may be in the family you know and it may be that you and your spouse want to go or you and your child but it just so happened that I was ah away and in away from home and in an area where there were quite a few dealerships so I did that um at the time which it's a little bit different right now. The. The car industry has some unique things going on right now. But at the time it made a lot more sense but I used Car. Um, so we had pretty much decided on a low mileage used car and then we kind of went from there so I started looking at things like Fuel knowledge.

08:50.40

Amy Irvine

Um, this is skill.

09:07.20

Kerrie

Reliability from a parental perspective safety was a really big deal for us because she was going to be driving in a lot more traffic than she was used to previously so safety wasn't really important for us. So that's where I started just kind of doing my comparison.

09:12.71

Amy Irvine

With the.

09:25.90

Kerrie

And figuring out which vehicle did we feel like was the safest what's going to be the most reliable and most fuel efficient for her so went through all of that and then I Think. With her. You know once I've kind of narrowed it down for her and again I think most kids would probably want to be a little bit more involved than she was. We took her and we went and we said you know these are some of the choices that we feel like best for you and we let her obviously go drive Em. Um, and. And test drive them and see which one she liked and kind of went from there then once we identified what we wanted then I sort of did more detailed research because it's really easy to go to a car dealership and let them convince you to buy? Um, but.

10:18.45

Amy Irvine

Um, with you the hosts.

10:21.52

Kerrie

Um, not easily persuaded in that so I was like no, we're gonna keep doing some research so ended up um, identifying the car we wanted for her and then started just shopping lots of online shopping. Um. Put together a spreadsheet that compared you know that's when you can think about the numbers I think first figuring out you know what's the purpose of the vehicle and then you know what do you want because I think there is you are going to be driving it for a long time. So sometimes.

10:42.28

Amy Irvine

Evening.

10:57.18

Kerrie

1 paper we probably should all be driving teeny tiny cars that are super fuel efficient. But you know there's a lot of other goals in that. But I think you also want to enjoy what you're driving too. So all that needs to be taken into consideration. But once you get all that figured out I think it's.

11:13.96

Amy Irvine

Um.

11:16.36

Kerrie

Figuring out the price that you can afford and and and what you're willing to pay and make those like mathematical and budget decisions ahead of time I think that's probably the hardest part so I would say that's probably the.

11:21.80

Amy Irvine

Me.

11:35.14

Kerrie

The second step is figuring all of that out. You know if you're not, you know if you're going to finance it you know, thinking through you know, don't finance it for too long and how much payment you know, do you want to pay each month and what's the interest rate going to be and.

11:51.74

Amy Irvine

Present.

11:53.10

Kerrie

And working sort of backwards into that versus going to the dealership because I ah ah hate when people ask you? you know? What do you want your payment to be.. It's.. It's it's you shouldn't be at the point at the dealership where they're asking you that and you actually answer that Question. You know these are all things that you should have taken care of ahead of time. So yeah, so that was the this. That's where the spreadsheet came into play.

12:06.83

Amy Irvine

Who.

12:12.42

Amy Irvine

Last.

12:18.60

Amy Irvine

my vehicle they purchased in: 2018

12:35.55

Kerrie

Ah.

12:37.75

Amy Irvine

And I I remember looking at the guy and saying zero like I don't I don't actually want to pay but a kid I want ah a safe vehicle at a reasonable price and you know I I don't want to back into I can afford X dollars per month and so get me that vehicle.

12:41.28

Kerrie

Yeah.

12:54.42

Kerrie

And.

12:56.12

Amy Irvine

You know I want I don't I don't I love that and and I know that you um, you did you plotted out that comparison worksheet. That was you know sort of ranked it kind of in order and it was was kind of per purpose purchase and price.

13:05.98

Kerrie

Um, you have.

13:14.31

Kerrie

Ah, hi. Okay.

13:16.80

Amy Irvine

Right? So or purchase price and purchase. Yeah I could say purpose price and purchase so kind of in that order was the way that you looked at it. Yeah, any any top recommendations that you would have for dealing.

13:20.95

Kerrie

Yes.

13:35.11

Amy Irvine

With the dealers in general you know well I know you said you're not easily swayed but are there and you mentioned like going in with all of the thought ahead of time are there other things that did you like go out to certain websites. You know when you were getting yourself organized for this process.

13:56.46

Kerrie

Yeah I don't know that there was a particular website but I did you know when I was looking at the safety of things and then a lot There's a lot of good list out there that will rank vehicles like in the category that you're looking for. So that's usually pretty helpful. Also there are so many videos on social media like Youtube and Tiktok that have done a lot of this for you already. So that is really helpful but it still isn't the same as doing it yourself.

14:27.70

Amy Irvine

Really helpful.

14:33.97

Kerrie

Because I know you know like when you think about a vehicle for her. It wasn't ah you know how big the back seat was not a big deal but you know if you have a family those are things you really just got to get out there and see with your own eyes and and figure out. But.

14:34.90

Amy Irvine

Um.

14:51.93

Kerrie

I Think you know do as much as you can ahead of time but going into the dealership and and just being patient and no one you know? Ultimately, they're just really there to help you and they're trying to do their job So I'm being polite and just walking through that process and just letting them know like. You're looking. You're not ready to purchase but you want to check out some so that's what I did seem seem to work out fairly fun.

15:15.52

Amy Irvine

Um, when you were getting organized to do all this and and I'm talking about go out and actually drive the cars themselves. Did you bring any documentation with you when you actually went to the dealers was there anything that you actually took with you to sort of have tucked a way to you know to ask questions about to the dealers I'm just trying to think what what ways could people get themselves organized before they actually even. Step foot on the dealership.

15:50.80

Kerrie

I didn't really have any like physical papers I think I Really think it helps to go to the dealers and everybody's different. But. For me, it was going to the dealerships figuring out what I was looking for and then coming back and thinking through it because I think if you go to a dealership and you're like I have to buy a car today. It really changes the game I think you get in there. You're not.. You're just not prepared and I think the you know when they get you in the finance office that can be a very overwhelming experience too. So if you haven't prepared yourself. You know financially to make a good financial decision. That's where you can get yourself in a situation that you might regret Later. So I don't I didn't have necessarily anything physically that I was referring to but I did do quite a bit of preliminary like research about the vehicle. So a lot of the.

16:42.51

Amy Irvine

New.

16:57.58

Kerrie

The questions that I may have had were maybe I'd already answered by the time I was there for the second time prepared to purchase. Um, yeah.

17:04.81

Amy Irvine

Well I think those are all very helpful tips for people that are thinking about making the investment and I know I know it is a very different environment right now when it comes to car buying which is all the more important to be able to actually. Have as much information and be as organized as you possibly can going into that car buying because there is limited availability still and if you have time you can wait for the vehicle that you want you know sometimes.

17:31.16

Kerrie

Here.

17:37.84

Kerrie

You know.

17:40.23

Amy Irvine

But I know in a lot of cases you are paying above sticker price right now and or if you're if you're walking on the lot you're paying above sticker price. So having the patience and the willingness to to actually talk to different dealers that might carry the same vehicle like if you've decided on a vehicle.

17:42.81

Kerrie

Yes, yes.

17:58.86

Amy Irvine

It's also taking the step to actually go talk to different dealers that might sell that vehicle because 1 might do a sticker price. Another might do above sticker price and also if you have a vehicle to trade in knowing.

18:05.60

Kerrie

Rot.

18:10.33

Kerrie

And.

18:16.29

Amy Irvine

Difference between the trade in values and doing some research ahead on that kind of thing as well. So that you don't feel like you are being taken from that environment either because used cars are going full premium right now. So.

18:18.70

Kerrie

Yes, yeah. Right? I ah yes, they are and the ones that are new. Ironically I'm not this is so funny that we are talking about this because I'm thinking about. In the next few years we're going to have to replace one of the vehicles that me or my husband drives because of the timing of it and then my son's going to need a vehicle. So what's funny is I actually got stuck yesterday in ah in a town nearby for about an hour and wasn't planning to so i. Started my research yesterday for a vehicle that I might purchase in the next two years and and so I mean I actually drove 3 vehicles yesterday with no intention of purchasing. Just starting to think about it and then later I got home and I I told my husband about this one that I really that I liked and I thought this would potentially be an option but did some more research. And if you buy a new one right now. It's so that particular vehicle is very popular and it's selling for 20% above sticker price because it's so popular so it's a terrible time to buy that particular and that was the the one that I kind of liked and I was like well not a good obviously not a good time so

19:45.36

Amy Irvine

Wow.

19:56.00

Kerrie

I don't necessarily need one today. But I think thinking through your cash flow for the next five or six years is always helpful too and not making an emotional decision because I actually love cars. So for me, it would have been easy for me to.

20:05.50

Amy Irvine

Here here. Um.

20:15.39

Kerrie

Not recognize that about myself and just make a bad financial decision but because of course they're they want you to buy 1 on the lot today. Um, so but anyway yeah, um.

20:25.62

Amy Irvine

And ahead.

20:31.56

Kerrie

Started that process yesterday and may not buy it for two or three years so

20:35.42

Amy Irvine

Which I think is fabulous I think you know because recall when I had to buy my new vehicle I had to do it. It wasn't it wasn't a voice right? and so Bret and I even though it's probably.

20:42.73

Kerrie

Yes.

20:53.24

Amy Irvine

I would say at least 5 years out 1 of the things that I said is I will never be stuck in that situation again like I you know I will never I never want to have to make a decision that day again. So.

20:55.17

Kerrie

And.

21:09.67

Kerrie

Rot.

21:11.36

Amy Irvine

I'm much more conscientious of um and I you know we've talked about this probably other times on the podcast but I don't like the vehicle and I don't know if it's because I was forced to make a decision or because I truly just don't like that I don't know if it's psychological or if it's.

21:24.45

Kerrie

Ah. Right? yeah.

21:30.33

Amy Irvine

Actual you know, like what don't if you said to me what if you don't like what don't you like about the vehicle. My response would be it. It just feels bigger than my last one. Well, that's not a reason to like hate a vehicle. So I think some of it.

21:39.53

Kerrie

Are Ah I. And and.

21:48.65

Amy Irvine

Very psychological and emotional is to you know, having been forced in because nobody likes to be forced into doing anything. Um and I I felt like that was that was my only option I had to have a vehicle. Um, so now I'm like.

21:54.60

Kerrie

Rock.

22:05.31

Kerrie

Um, it is.

22:05.72

Amy Irvine

Preparing years ahead. So I and I think that's the smart idea you know smart thing to do is know something about what you might like because also you know the vehicle that you like at this point in time and you know things are gonna change with ah with I suspect.

22:23.71

Kerrie

Rock.

22:25.68

Amy Irvine

Shouldn't say we ever know. But we suspect that things are probably gonna change um with regards to use vehicles versus new vehicles in the future and and the prices of some of that stuff. So now that you know what you like you can actually keep an eye eye out for something in a good price for that something. Yeah.

22:38.84

Kerrie

Right? right.

22:44.56

Amy Irvine

Yeah, well Carrie always delightful to have conversations with you and you're you're our our favorite person to go to when it comes to the dreaded car buying because most of us hate it and you so I ah joked and said I'd rather go to the dentist than ah.

22:53.54

Kerrie

A.

23:02.75

Kerrie

Oh grat.

23:03.40

Amy Irvine

And go buy a new car and I'm not saying anything bad about the dentist I love my dentist and my hygienist but but I I'm also not a fan of it. So um, you know it's just not my favorite thing in the world to do and you you always make it look. Enjoyable. So we appreciate you taking time out to share your ideas and thoughts and tips and I think the number 1 thing I heard you say was that when you get to the point plot out a comparison and rank purpose price and then purchase.

23:35.48

Kerrie

Yes, yes.

23:37.50

Amy Irvine

As far as the process and so again, thank you so much. We hope that you've enjoyed this podcast as always please feel free to share it with your friends like us on Facebook Instagram Twitter and Linkedin and don't forget to go out and leave a comment or rate us on. Apple Itunes or Spotify is the more people that rate us the more listeners that will know about us. We hope you all enjoyed it and we hope you have a great day or a great evening. Thanks everyone.