Getting A New Car

Car Shopping? How to Narrow Down Your New Car Options

Shopping for new cars for sale can be daunting: the average person spends over 15 weeks looking for a new car, and most people do lots of online research prior to selecting a vehicle for sale at an auto dealership. Common things people do when researching vehicles online is compare prices, makes and models of vehicles, and features both standard and custom in cars, to one another.

If you want to buy a new car fast and get in and out of the car dealership quickly, use this guide to help you narrow down your car options. The sooner you do this, the easier your car-buying experience will be when working with your auto dealer to select a vehicle right for you.

Shop when you're ready

If you're still in the curiosity phase of car buying, wait until you are absolutely positive you want a new car before you go shopping for new cars for sale in your area. Otherwise, without a clear goal in mind of what you're looking for, every car — or no car at all — will be appealing to you. Take time to allow the information you gather to sink in before you go to an auto dealership so you have a clearer head of what types of new cars for sale you want to look at.

Pick specifics

What kind of car do you want? Make, model, year? What color? What's your price range? Are you open to alternatives, and if so, which ones? Narrow down your options to specifics you must have in a vehicle, and present this list to your auto dealer. This way, they have a guide as to what they can show you in their lot, and the fewer things your auto dealer presents to you, the less daunting your car-buying experience will be.

Limit what you look at

Keep this in mind: the more options you have to select from when buying anything, not just cars, the more likely you are to buy nothing at all. This is referred to as the paradox of choice, and studies have shown that when offered too many selections, consumers don't buy. When offered fewer options, they are more likely to make a purchase. Apply this consumerism rule to yourself when shopping for new cars for sale to make buying a new vehicle easier. Ask your auto dealer to show you only vehicles available in their lot, or limit the number of cars you look at in a single day to a set amount.