Thursday, February 26, 2009

Buying a Used Car For Your Family

By Stuart Cartright

If you have been looking for sometime to purchase a car, but are unsure of what type of car to buy, then your best bet is to buy a used one. You will want to do some research and establish the right car that will be for you, and this will probably depend on a number of choices or preferences of your own: a car, SUV, pickup truck, or mini-van " and will be dependent on whether you have a parter and family, and how big that family is. You will find that cars will run more mileage on one tank of gas, but you will not find that larger vehicles will do the same, so you may need to compromise on the choice of car that you choose.

When you are looking at the market and different dealerships, you will see that there is a huge choice of different trucks, SUVs, and mini-van manufacturers, who have conducted extensive research on the issues surrounding gas economy. They have been looking at a number of ways to improve and change models, over the years, to enable you to get more miles to the gallon. Some makers have moved to making a new type of car that will have a different type of gas formula " ethanol and gasoline. When these two are mixed together, it provides the vehicle with a Flexible-Fuel factor that will help you when you are thinking of a cost effective used car. Certain guidelines have been put in place which means that any manufacturer who makes one of these cars will need to conform to certain standards, thus you will know that you are buying a quality used car.

You will want to consider buying your used family car from a manufacturer that is an international company selling across many different countries, as these types of larger car companies will tend to distribute and sell parts across different states and will be easier to hey a hold of than other smaller manufacturers. This will be beneficial when there are adaptations to the used car in later years as you will be able to update some parts to be more efficient and even reduce the cost of putting gas in to it.

If you are looking at a used family car and thinking of buying a mini-van then you should consider a forward thinking company. The mini-van will need to be fairly aerodynamically as it will need not to cause a massive amount of drag when you are driving it - thus causing rubbish fuel efficiency. You should be able to see if a particular company has aerodynamically designed mini-vans by looking at their design specs and how they are rated on their fuel efficiency. If you have not been able to find this sort of information then you should look at the front of the van to see if the front slopes upwards like the front of a plane or boat and if the back goes downwards - evaluating both of these will see whether the mini-van is fuel efficient or not.

By buying the different parts to make sure your car can accept the combined fuel mentioned previously will save you a considerable amount as it costs far less than traditional gasoline alone which is on the rise. You should also ensure that your fuel efficiency in a family car is boosted by making sure that the tyres on your car are fully inflated as well as new. As you will want to get high quality tyres to ensure that you are kept safely on the road.

There are a number of other things that you should be checking out on a car too - you should be reviewing the amount of mileage that the used family car that you are looking for has done. You will not want to check this and not analyze it against the industry norm or other cars, as you will and you may want to see if there are any similarities in price of a used family car and the mileage that it has on the clock as well as its age. You may find that some have been used as sales cars because of their size and ability to fit a lot of materials, while others may be used to commute around town and take kids to the school.

When you and your family are looking at the number of used cars on the market and looking to buy a certain size you should be aware that sometimes buying a smaller car that just fits your needs could be beneficial than buying an enormous car that could slice through your monthly paycheck. Buying a smaller car that belongs to a lower insurance group will be great and it will most probably be more fuel efficient meaning that you will be paying out less each month.

When you are buying a used car, you should also take care and ensure the previous owner has taken good care of the car and that they have took preventative and pro-active steps to improve the maintenance and running of the car. You should, at the very least, buy a Carfax report to see the history of the car and to make sure it hasnt been in any collisions, or that there wont be any nasty surprises that come about.

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