The economic reality of the life of a student dictates that in most cases, you’ll need to be saving money wherever you can.
While a lot of students will be able to do without a car, in some situations it’s necessary – whether you need it to get to work, to get to university from your home, or to visit relatives, you’ll need to sort out an affordable way of getting yourself some wheels.
The first big decision will be whether you should get a new or used car. In this article, we spoke to the Hi Lo Auto Sales team to break down the data to help you decide.
Buying a new car
There are several benefits to buying a new car, if you can afford one:
Warranty
New cars tend to come with attractive warranties, often up to five years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first.
You may even get a 10 year or 100,000 mile warranty, which could be massively helpful. If you’re a student and you’ve saved up a certain amount but don’t want any unexpected expenses to pop up while you’re still studying, warranties like this could be very attractive.
Safety + efficiency
While this depends on the exact car you go for of course, in general, newer cars are safer and more efficient.
If you’re a newer driver and as a result are more prone to accidents than the more experienced drivers on the road, then safety provisions are definitely something to keep in mind. With soaring gas prices, efficiency can also be massively beneficial – with current prices, an efficient car could end up saving you money in not too long a time frame, depending on how many miles you drive a year.
Buying a used car
There are also multiple benefits to buying a used car, with most of them associated with lower costs:
Affordability
While new cars tend to start at around $15,000, you can often buy a used car for a fraction of that, as low as a couple of thousand bucks. New cars depreciate rapidly, and while that’s annoying for new car owners, it’s great for people looking for an affordable second-hand car solution. Of course, some of those cars will be piles of junk, but a lot of them will be perfectly serviceable options that could have years of life left in them. For students operating on a tight budget, getting a used car will often be the only viable option.
Cheaper insurance
As used cars are cheaper than new cars, the insurance premium tends to be cheaper as well. In most cases, annual insurance premiums for younger drivers will be the most significant running cost.
Always check how much a car will be to insure before you buy it; factors such as engine size and weight can have a massive impact, and you don’t want to end up with something that costs thousands a year just to insure.
