Car Buying Guide - Check the Small Print

Once you have decided on the type of car that youIf in this ad, the dealer is advertising a monthly
want to purchase, you're not quite done yet, you stillpayment, then you need to look even closer at the ad.
need to do a bit more research on the car.Usually these great monthly payments will sound so
You'll want to find out as much as you can about thegood because the payments are figured using
car that you are looking to buy. One of the bestsomething such as a $5000 trade-in value or a cash
places to look is to look locally. So, check the localdown equivalent on top of a 72 month loan
dealer ads in your newspaper to see what salesagreement.
prices might be listed.Again, just as the advertised price these payments
Although this may not be the final cost of your car, itare called teaser payments. The idea is to get you
provides a good starting point and a benchmark foronto the dealers car lot and let the salesperson take
the local price of the car that you're looking at.over from there. If you hear this advertised on the
Just keep in mind that the advertisements you seeradio or television, this is the part at the end of the
from dealers are going to be the car that they can selladvertisement where the announcer speaks really,
at the cheapest price. Most often the dealer will takereally quickly.
the cheapest level of a car and discounted as far asSo essentially both the advertised price of the car and
they possibly can in order to just get you on the lot.or the advertised car payments of the car, are nothing
This is not uncommon amongst any business as this ismore than attention grabbers.
known as a teaser price, and businesses of all typesThere are any number of other advertising ploys the
do this every day.dealerships use in order to get people on their car lot.
But be advised, as you are looking at these ads beThe point is, as you conclude your research on the car
sure to carefully read the fine print in the ads for theseyou want to buy, keep in mind that by and large these
cars. In order to keep things completely legal on theseadvertised prices and these advertised payments are
very attractive prices, the dealer has to have at leastnothing more than a ploy to get you onto the lot where
one of these cars at this advertise price on their lot.the salesman can then direct you to more expensive
So, you should see a stock number of sort in the printand profitable vehicles.
of the ad; this keeps the dealer completely legal.