Your New Car Checklist

This post is part of a sponsored series. All opinions are mine. 

So you’re in the market for a new vehicle. Sometimes it’s hard to even know where to start, isn’t it? You may have an idea of what you’d like to purchase, and how much you want to spend. But you’ll soon find that you’re going to need to know a few more things about your future vehicle. So in case it helps to ease your nerves and make your life a little easier, here is a new car checklist for your shopping pleasure.

And for a little more advice, our New York GMC dealer recommends going into your search with some set criteria. So the following checklist is going to definitely help establish some of your goals when it comes to finding the perfect new vehicle for you and your family.

New Car Checklist

Print this off and fill out your answers.

___ Know your budget. What’s your ideal car payment? $____ per month. (You can calculate your purchase budget based off this information using an affordability calculator here.) Put that number here: $_______

___ What type of vehicle do you want? Are you looking for an SUV, a truck, or a car? How many doors do you want, is a 2-door okay or do you want 4 doors?

___ Do you have a color preference? (Don’t make this as a huge deal breaker for you however)

___ Do you prefer AWD, FWD or 4WD? 

___ Trade in. Are you trading in your vehicle? If so, how much are you hoping to get for it?

___ Safety ratings. Once you’ve gotten as far as narrowing down your options, its a great idea to check the safety ratings on each vehicle. If you have kids, make sure that it’s especially safe in the back seats complete with airbags.

___ Gas mileage. If you are a commuter or if you drive a lot, then you’ll probably be particularly interested in the type of gas mileage a vehicle gets. Maybe gas mileage isn’t important to you, if so, then go ahead and check this one off your list.

___ Inspection. Has the vehicle had an inspection recently? And will the seller allow you to take the vehicle to your own mechanic to double check that all is well under the hood?

___ Cargo space. Does it have ample room for the types of activities you would need it to transport? Anything from kids backpacks and school projects, to golf clubs or hockey bags.

Now once you’ve got it down to a couple options and you’re going on test drives, be sure to check out our test drive checklist for narrowing down your selections from there!

Pin me for later!