Do You Need a New Car?

New car envy is a real thing. You see your friends and family, as well as people on the street with a new car, and you start to want one, too. You can’t stop obsessing about it, and you convince yourself that you need a new motor – but do you really?

You may need a new car, but then again you may not, so how do you decide? Here are a few factors you might want to think about.

The cost

Before you even think about buying a new car, you should sit down and seriously look at the money side of things. First of all, do what you can to find the best car finance deals, so that you know how much that vehicle you’re dreaming of will cost to buy. Then do some research to find out how much you’ll get for your old car. Are the numbers viable? Can you afford it?

MPG

Another thing you’ll want to look into is whether you’re getting decent mileage from your car, or whether a new one would be more fuel-efficient. Switching from a vehicle that gets 26mpg to one that gets 34mpg could save you as much as £250. Therefore, this is something you should take into consideration.

Repair costs

Repair costs are another major consideration. Is your car often in the garage? If it isn’t as capable as it used to be, that’s a key indicator that it could be time to trade up to a better, more reliable model.

Safety

How safe is your current vehicle? If it doesn’t have …

• Curtain airbags
• Electronic stability control 
• Reversing camera
• Curtain airbags
• Forward-collision warning

… chances are it isn’t as safe as it could be, and buying a new car is probably a good idea, especially if you have children. Of course, the kit listed is the bare minimum to consider, and if you can find a car that also has things like blind-spot monitoring and forward-collision warning with automatic braking, well, that’s an even better reason to consider trading up to a better motor.

The more modern tech you have at your disposal, the less likely you are to be involved in and seriously injured as a consequence of, a road traffic accident.

Extra features

Older cars tend to be lagging behind when it comes to extra features that make the ride more enjoyable. Of course, most of these additional features are not essential, so you need to think about how much that new car will cost against how much use you will get from things like:

• Bluetooth connectivity
• USB ports
• In-built GPS systems

Especially since you can also buy kits that will convert your car so that these features can be added. Do you really need them to be built-in? Can they be added using a kit? What offers the most value?

These are the things you need to think about before you buy a new car so that you make the right decision for you!