5 Steps to Buying A New Car

1. Do your Research
Know which style of vehicle is the best car to suit your needs. It is easy to get ditracted when you get on the lot and see all the shiny, new, technology filled automobiles. You may even be tempted to test drive that convertible, when you know you will be driving in snow 5 months of the year. And, you should have a good idea of what you can afford to pay for the car you want. Do you really need that V6 or would you rather go with the 4 cylinder model and put a little extra money into your retirement account?

2. Use incentives and rebates
An incentive is anything that gives you an added reason to buy a particular car. In the car world, incentives comes in the form of a cash rebate, free vehicle maintenance, or low-interest financing (APR).
Example of Cash Back: A car priced at $25,000 but the manufacturer is offering $3,000in cash back for a final price of $25,000.
Toyota and Scion are currently offering customers a coupon booklet for all scheduled maintenance services required under Toyota’s maintenance guide for up to two years / 25,000 miles, whichever comes first. This is estimated to be $500 value.
Example of APR: APR is being offered at 0.%, that would mean that a $25,000 car financed for five years at 6 percent would have a monthly payment of about $535. But with zero-percent financing, the payment is roughly $461. That's a huge savings to you.
Check RiceToyota.com/specials for Special Offers from Toyota and Scion.

3. Price the Car
The incentives and rebates you researched and printed in the previous step are automatically factored into the final price. In other words, the incentive is deducted from the lowest negotiated price. If you are going to use low-interest financing, calculate your final buying price, then use our payment calculator to find your monthly payment.

4. Sell Your Old Car, if you need to
Research what your car is worth with our Black Book tool. The you can sell it yourself in the newspaper, on ebay or Craigs List. If you are trading in your old car to a dealer, you will probably not get as much money toward the price of a new car as you would have if you'd sold it yourself to a private party. However, trading in offers some advantages. Let the dealer worry about findign the buyer for a hard-to-sell car, running advertisements, and dealing with tire-kicking buyers, or long DMV lines. In some states, you will even pay less sales tax on a deal that involves a trade-in.

5.Go for a Test Drive
Schedule a test drive at your local dealer. Be sure to share with the salesman your wants and needs as well as your budget range. That way he or she will be able to direct you to the models that best suit your requirement, without a lot of time wasting or feining interest in something that you know simply won't do. Keep an open mind too, the car you have looked at online may not be the one you buy, The salesman know these cars and chances are they have had another customer with your similar wants and needs in front of them before. If they have a suggestion that doesn't break your budget or take you in a new direction all together, give it a chance.

6.Make it Yours
Make your decision, share the incentives you have researched, negotiate a price and sign the papers. If you are a first time car buyer and want to know more about what to bring with you check out our Tips for First Time Car Buyers

Rice Toyota located in Greensboro, NC sells New Toyota and Scion vehicles, as well as quality used cars. We sell new and used cars to customers who live in the Winston-Salem, High Point, Danville, Burlington, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill areas.