Car Buying Doesn’t Have To Be Scary
Things get a little scarier on Halloween. Ghosts and goblins lurk around the corner, monsters of all kinds creep around, and a variety of other frights make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Similarly, buying a new car can be scary as well. Will you make the right choice? Will you spend the right amount? Will you get the best deal for your money? These things can be scarier than Michael Myers. But, car buying doesn’t have to be scary.
Simply preparing ahead of time can make the car buying experience a lot less like A Nightmare On Elm Street and a lot more like It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. So let’s apply a few time honored Halloween traditions to buying a new car to help avoid a decision that will come back to haunt you.
Know what you want.
When we were kids, Halloween meant trick-or-treating. That meant hitting the streets with family or friends, following a route through the neighborhood, and coming home with a big bag of goodies. When you think about it, this is not unlike the process you should follow when buying a new car. Hitting the streets and following a route through your neighborhood is similar to knowing what you need when it comes to mileage and space. If your commute is longer than average, you’ll need a car that gets good gas mileage. If you have a family that needs to get to and from everything on their schedule, you know you need a vehicle that can carry more passengers.
When it comes to bringing home a big bag of goodies that compares to selecting the features you want. Everyone wanted the best candy, and at the end of the night would try to trade away the no-name garbage. When you are buying a new car, you get to select all your favorite features before you shop. Instead of Kit Kats and Reese’s pumpkins, back-up cameras and an mp3 player might be what you desire.
Choose your costume carefully.
Halloween is more fun when you dress up, and getting your costume just the way you want it to look is very satisfying. The same is true when shopping for a new car. You get to decide what car you will look best in, and find it before you even step on the lot. Many dealerships, like southpointvw.com, allow you to get a look at your next car before you venture out to the lot. If it’s on the lot, it’s on our site. The style, colors and interior can all be what suits you if you shop online before you buy.
Avoid the scary house with the lights out.
Every neighborhood had at least one house that had that long, spooky walkway to the front door, or the house that never had their lights on. These houses were just plain uninviting and looked like you might encounter a zombie or vampire if you approached them. As a kid, you knew better and didn’t even try to knock on their door. The same is true with car dealerships. If the dealership looks uninviting, keep on driving. If you are approached by a salesperson that doesn’t know their cars inside and out (let’s call them zombies), you should move on. Or, if the salesperson gives you the impression that they are going to bleed you dry (that’s obviously the vampire), the same is true; just walk away.
Safety first.
When you went trick-or-treating as a kid, your parents put safety above all else. They would bring a flashlight, make sure everyone looked both ways before crossing the street, and kept the group together. As you got older and started going to Halloween parties, safety hopefully stayed at the forefront. You would designate a driver, avoid anything too reckless, and try to be home by curfew. When it comes to buying a new car, safety should remain at the forefront. At Volkswagen, we pride ourselves on safety. We have multiple models that are rated as IIHS top safety picks annually.
Walking into a car dealership without knowing what you want ahead of time is like walking into a haunted house, dark and scary. Having a plan in place and knowing what you want can turn that haunted house into a pumpkin patch where you can happily choose the one you want. If we at Southpoint Volkswagen can help you along the way, we’re happy to help you avoid the tricks when getting your treats.
