Kennedy: Shopping for a car: Try not to overthink

photo Mark Kennedy

In theory, buying a car should be easy for me.

After all, I spend about 500 hours a year test driving and writing about cars, and easily another 100 hours a year reading automotive magazines and browsing automotive websites. Unfortunately, all this car knowledge ends up being a burden when it comes time to actually shake hands over a deal.

I'm always telling my wife: "Don't let the 'perfect' be the enemy of the 'good.'" In other words, do your best and don't agonize over the details. But when it comes to buying a car, I can't seem to take my own advice.

If money were no object, I'd buy my wife a Mercedes S-Class and myself a Tesla Model S and be done with it. But that's not happening. Instead, I'm making myself dizzy trying to find the perfect car at the perfect price -- which involves way too many variables.

On top of that, I'm a people-pleaser, so I want to buy a vehicle that everyone in my family feels good about. So far, the feedback I've gotten amounts to this:

My wife says: No minivans.

My older son says: Pickup trucks only.

My younger son says: Not red.

Strictly speaking, this limits my options to not-red pickup trucks. And since trucks are a non-starter for me -- I'm not driving a pickup up and down Signal Mountain daily just so my son can inherit it in five years -- this whole idea of a family mind-meld is doomed.

Which takes me back to square one, grinding endlessly on all the facts, figures and subjective judgments about cars rattling around in my brain.

A friend who knows I'm car shopping stopped by my desk the other day and said, "You know, you should write a book on car buying for dummies." At least that gave my mind something else to obsess about. On my midday walk I asked myself: "What could I tell someone in five minutes that would actually help him or her buy a car?"

Here's what I came up with (assuming the friend has a smartphone and some basic web-browsing skills):

* Install the free Car Gurus app on your smartphone and punch in the car or truck you are interested in. Not only will this handy app search the horizon for your dream car (right down to the color), it will prioritize the responses based on the best deals and send you instant email alerts on price drops.

* If negotiating a car purchase makes you nervous, do it online. Every dealer now has an Internet sales staff dedicated to online customers. Exchanging emails is a lot less intimidating than bargaining across a desk; it also gives you time to ponder counteroffers. Asking for online price quotes, even from local dealers, is a snap.

* Get a subscription to Consumer Reports online for $7 a month to read unbiased reviews on the cars and trucks on your wishlist. Most other car reviews are geared toward performance enthusiasts and, while Consumer Reports does road tests, it also has metrics for reliability and buyer satisfaction based on huge reader surveys that you won't find anywhere else.

* If you need an incentive to buy a vehicle now, please know that interest rates on car loans will probably not be this low again for a generation. That's not a pitch to help car dealers, it's just a fact.

* If you want my opinion on a product, Google my name and the kind of car you are looking for, i.e., "Mark Kennedy and Honda Accord." Chances are great that I've driven the car or truck you're searching for on Chattanooga roads in the past few years and have written a review for Times Free Press that you can read online.

* If you are searching for a used car, look for dealer websites that offer free peeks at each vehicle's CarFax. It will show you the car's maintenance history right down the date and mileage of every oil change if it was done at a dealership or participating service facility. The CarFax report will also alert you if the car or truck has ever been in an accident, and whether it is formerly a leased or rental car. This takes a lot of the risk out of buying used vehicles. Dismiss cars with poor or spotty service records since there are plenty of fish in the pond.

There, I feel better already.

Now, back to the grind of buying a car myself. I've always been better at giving advice than taking it -- an obvious and glaring character flaw.

Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPCOLUMNIST. Subscribe to his Facebook updates at www.facebook.com/mkennedycolumnist.

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