I used to laugh at my husband when it came to car shopping. He would get out his computer and start creating a bunch of Excel spreadsheets to figure out which car was the best deal. First, we would do some initial test drives, but once we had an idea on which cars were on our short list, he would begin his painstaking process of number crunching. It seemed like an endless endeavor of analyzing purchase prices, interest rates, how much gas would be etc…. Even though he did all that research, we have made some grave mistakes in purchasing a vehicle.

*This post is a sponsored post for Kelley Blue Book, however, my opinions are 100% my own and the stories in the article are as true as can be. 

This One Car Buying Tool Can SAVE you Thousands of Dollars and it’s FREE & FAST!

Our Biggest Mistake when purchasing a Vehicle

A few years into our marriage we were lucky enough to be able to purchase a luxury car. Our new business was no longer new and we were ready to trade in our reasonably priced SUV for something with a little more pizazz. Like I said earlier, my husband broke out his excel spreadsheets and went to work. He broke down everything from insurance and DMV fees to the annual costs of gas, but the one thing he did not think about, the increased cost of upkeep on the car.

We expected the upkeep on our new car to be more cause it was a luxury brand, but what we didn’t anticipate was how much more. The everyday maintenance was more than 4x what we were used to and tire, oh the tires. We found ourselves not only paying about 400% more for tires but we also had to replace our tires twice as often.

Basically, we realized next time we need to do a little more research on the upkeep on a car.

This Car Buying Tool is a Complete Game Changer

Kelley Blue Book has a tool which breaks down the 5 Year Cost to Own a car of every model on the market today. In literally 30 seconds you will have all the information you need to make an informed decision on how much the car will truly cost. All the hours of research that my husband spent on his precious excel spreadsheets can be accomplished in no time at all.

What is the 5 Year Cost to Own?

The 5 year Cost To Own is the total amount of costs you will likely have to incur over the 5 years of owning a vehicle. Kelley Blue Book takes into account all the major expenditures you are likely to spend on your car. We are talking about:

• Fuel Costs
• Insurance
• Repairs
• Maintenance
• Financing
• DMV & State Fees

They take all those numbers and then add in the anticipated depreciation of the car and voila, you have the 5 year cost to own your vehicle.

 

 

How Does it Work & How it Saved us Thousands of Dollars

It’s super simple. All you do is go to KBB.com choose the cars you are interested in purchasing and then you can analyze the overall cost of owning one vehicle over another. It’s amazing to see the difference between two cars that are priced the same to purchase, can be so different in prices after 5 years.

When shopping for my son Camden, we were looking at the Kia Optima or the Mazda CX-9 because the price point was around the same. After pulling up the cars on Kelley Blue Book 5 Year Cost of Ownership the choice was clear. Choosing the Kia would save us over $9,000 in ownership costs. What a Difference!

You Can Also Choose from the 2019 5-Year Cost to Own Awards

Lastly, if you just want to see what the best bang for the buck is for your next vehicle. Kelley Blue Book has its 2019 5-Year Cost to Own Awards. There you will see all the winners from over 20 different categories of vehicles. What I truly love about this program is that there are no more surprises. We know that our son’s car will cost about $8,000 a year to maintain. Now, we can go over with him how he needs to budget to pay for these expenses.

No More Surprises

I still remember the shell shock when our tires already needed to be changed after just one year on that first luxury vehicle we bought. And then when we heard about the price of the tires, I was floored. This tool will save you from those moments and also the agonizing hours of trying to figure out how much to budget for your vehicle. Yes, if course I am sure some surprises might occur but it is nice to have a solid foundation of information to guide you in your buying decision.

For more information: Visit Kelley Blue Book at KBB.com

Have questions? Feel free to Ask me in the Comments

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