Hey Pandas, What Do You Wish You Knew Before Or After You Purchased Your First Car? (Closed)

I live in an East African country. While the main roads are okay(I guess)[my Government might be spying 😆] the feeder roads range from terrible to shocking; filled with potholes, raised speed rumbles etc. Getting a car with low ground clearance,while quite economical, wouldn't be advisable. Forking some extra cash for a bigger car with a bigger ground clearance or better suspensions would make sense

I bought my first car at 23, right out of uni after getting my first job. It worked well, my favorite car to date. I've changed three cars up to this point and I think my biggest regret is not getting a station wagon or a pick-up truck. I live in the Caribbean where the roads are fine enough to have a car but it always annoys me whenever I have to transport stuff and I need to bother my friends with pick-ups or station wagons. I think if I had to do it differently I'd invest in at least a station wagon (before the pandemic when prices were okayish). You can carry most things or a pick-up for large items. I also like woodworking and I'm trying to get into it more but it's hard to transport full length lumber in a 2007 Civic. Lol.

I wish I better knew to take into consideration all the ‘other’ expenses that add up. Especially years later when I bought a more expensive car. Gas & Insurance was just a part of it. There’s also basic upkeep, registration, etc.
Also, the differences in pricing long term regarding new versus used cars…

Get a 4 door. If your still young(ish) you are gonna appreciate the hell out of a 4 door. Because trying to bring home some big a*s thrift find or driving with 2 of your friends will be soooo much easier.

I thought the sticker price on the car was the actual price, like buying groceries at the supermarket. I knew nothing about buying a car, haggling over the price, accessories, taxes, etc. I just found one I thought I could afford to make payments on and paid the price printed on the invoice.

1. You don't have to have full coverage insurance on the vehicle if you bought it outright/own it. You only need full coverage if you are currently in a loan. As soon as you pay it off, get the bare minimum and save yourself a lot of money. If the car is somewhat new you may want to keep the full coverage to help pay for damages but if the car is older, the insurance company won't pay to fix it even with full coverage. They will 'total' the vehicle and give you a check for the car's worth which could be way less than you need to fix the damage. If you can't afford to buy a new car, it might be worth keeping it if the damage is just visual. But there's no point in having full coverage unless your car is worth more than the total loss amount.

2. Keep up with oil changes and tires. It might be a little expensive to buy new tires every few years, but do one at a time and do oil changes at least 3 times a year with a new filter. My dad and grandfather were both mechanics and they told me it's the single best thing you need to do to keep the car running well.

3. Don't waste money on fancy stuff for the car. You just look like an idiot if you have a 2005 toyota carolla with 5k worth of rims on it.

4. Clean any spills on the mats ASAP. I accidentally spilled some pool bleach on one of the mats and thought I would just need to replace the mat, then realized the bleach and heat inside the car actually caused damage to the metal under the carpeting and caused a small hole in the metal over time. Which then rusted. And anyone in the business will tell you rust is the worst thing on a car.

4. Be careful using those auto car washes and look around. If they have a big sign saying they are not liable for any damages, they could literally break your mirror off and not be held liable for it.

5. The most important bit of advice I can give is to make sure you go to a good, trustworthy mechanic. It's worth spending more. I went to Jiffy Lube once to get a tune up because I had a coupon, and my car was never the same. They broke my water pump, ended up keeping my car for days to fix the problem-which they couldn't figure out, and eventually told me to take it to another mechanic. Go to the dealership or a very well-known mechanic in your area to do everything. Mechanics can replace your parts with crappy parts without your knowing, so they can then sell them. They can also cause major damages and it's very hard to win a lawsuit against them so... be smart.

That I learned how to operate a sherman tank. Because the 70 something monte carlo was just too huge for a first car

Wish looking up the VIN and finding the vehicle history had been a thing back then, would've saved me thousands in repairs and stress to know my first car had been previously owned by a Canadian leasing company and someone had driven it into the ground first. Always look for the history!

Cars are depreciating assets. You need to realise that after five years its value is nominally nothing. So you have a choice. Either buy new and accept that you write it off after five years, or, buy second-hand and accept that it has almost zero value to begin with. It's up to you how you waste your money. The only cars that APPRECIATE in value are classics (ie cars that are like 20+ years old and charismatic in some way, like the original beetle or mini).

That my new (to me) car would expire 2 weeks after I bought it

That I shouldn't believe the mechanic in good faith that the brakes had to be completely replaced and he already disposed of the old ones (which he charged me additionally).
I now ALWAYS let them show me the replaced parts.

If you're buying used, have the thing inspected by an outside mechanic you trust. $2500 in the hole due to a massively corroded cylindee that ended up ruining the fuel injector.

I wish I knew how hard it was to wrestle a child seat into the back of a two-door coupe. I should have taken the seat to the dealership and tried it out before buying the car. Installing the seat would have been much easier if I had two elbows on my left arm, and an extra hand on my right.

If you're buying used, always check the condition of the serpentine belt. And make sure the spare tire isn't flat.

I had asked my dad to help me find a car on a second hand website and he asked me my requirements. I didn't realize my parents were planning to get me a car for my birthday during the pandemic because I got really anxious about public transport. I've since given it back to them because I don't need it anymore, as was their proposal.

The one they gave me was automatic (I live in Europe but it does free up a lot of mental processing space compared to manual), had airconditioning and back window heating. Pretty cool for a 20yr old car!

But I forgot to list headrests for the back seats, and those are really important to prevent whiplash. So I always worried when I had backseat passengers.

How hard it was to destroy an old 1974 Volvo. Me and my twin bought it when we was 17 (1990), with the expressed goal to nuke the car on the dirt roads around our village. We tried to force in the reverse gear at 70 kph. The car survived. We used it off road with speed as the lone way to get over obsticles. At the end, we put the thing in neutral, started the engine and fiddled with the fuel injection (it was a 144 GL - and an early fuel injection instead of carburator), put a brick on the throttle and left the car until it died. After an hour or so (with low oil), the engine stopped. After the hiddeous thing cooled down, it just started right up. We sold it then, since we could not be bothered to spank the car any further. Edit: the Volvo 144 had a comfort that was good - if you compare it to being crushed to death in a stone crusher. It had a fuel consumption that was bad even when new. It was as fun to drive as a hearse. The suspension was a joke even in the early 70's. But it was impossible to kill short of crashing it into something big (tree, cliff).
The most stupid car I have ever owned.

80k miles max, and that cars designed to last 12 years before major repairs
Hmm what about certified pre owned and or leasing?

I wish that I had spent the extra for a 5-speed instead of going cheap and getting a 4-speed. I would have saved tons of shifting because I drive often in the mountains on tight curves. Shift, shift, shift!

The $600 dollar was huge considering that the car only cost me $2800 in 1978.