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Buying Tips
10 Steps to Buying a New Car
Step 2: Using incentives and rebates.
By Philip Reed, Senior Consumer Advice Editor
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Today's new car market is crowded and competitive. Many new cars are offered for
sale with attractive incentives to make you choose a particular model. In some
cases, the cars with the best incentives are those that aren't selling very well
on their own.
An incentive is anything that gives you an added reason to buy a particular car.
Often, however, it comes in the form of a cash rebate or low-interest financing.
A car might be selling for $22,000 but the manufacturer is offering $3,000 in
customer cash for a final price of $19,000. In another example, a $22,000 car
financed for five years at six percent would have a monthly payment of about $550.
But with zero-percent financing, the payment is roughly $480. That's a huge savings
to you.
Check the Edmunds.com Web site for the latest incentives
and rebates available for the car you want to buy. You can also watch for
TV and newspaper promotions but, remember, the incentives don't apply to all models
and are not offered in all regions of the country. Furthermore, your credit must
be very good to get the low-interest financing. And finally, keep in mind that
there are some hidden incentives paid directly to dealers to push certain cars.
Edmunds.com tracks this so-called "dealer cash" as well, and posts the information
in the incentives and rebates section of our Web site.
Research what incentives, if any, are offered for the car you want to buy. Print
out this information and keep it in your car-buying folder as you move to the
next step.
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