Getting a new car can be totally stressful. There’s not much you can do to avoid that stress. If you try to save money by getting a good deal on Craigslist it’s just going to cause a major headache because frankly it’s a total crap shoot and you’re most likely going to throw a 2 or 3 or 12 on the come out roll or a 7 have the point has been established. You could try to buy a car off a family member but that can cause major stress if something going wrong in the early days and Christmas will be totally awkward. You can look around at the parking lot of the super market but again if these people are trying to sell a car by putting a For Sale sign in the window, who knows what other car type things they’ve half-assed.
The best thing to do is to establish a price you want to pay and try to find something that fits in those parameters as opposed to trying to get the cheapest version of whatever car you think you want. Remember, if you do it right, you get what you pay for. So why would you want to get something that someone else has cast off as a cheap version of the thing that you want? That’s insane logic and a great way to end up regretting the decisions that you’ve made. So first set a price and then start looking.
It’s a good idea to go to a dealer or at least look at a used car situation like on www.downtownnissan.com. The reason for this is there’s a bit of accountability that can go on when the car is being sold from a reputable dealer. Also, since they have professional services to touch up the used cars, it’ll arrive in better shape than maybe a used car you get off the internet. Check it out for yourself: http://www.downtownnissan.com. All the used cars are indeed used but they look nice and clean because the people at the Nissan dealer actually put in some care polishing it up. Keep in mind the car could still be a mess, but at least you won’t have to worry about the cosmetics.
The other thing you need to do is not go for the crazy features that drive up the prices artificially. For example, leather interior is stupid and not only that, it’s more uncomfortable. So you’d be paying for something that is more expensive and less comfortable just because it seems cool. Same goes for things like built in GPS. Everyone has that on their phone now and not only that, the Google Maps app is a much better GPS unit AND gets updated whereas the in-board GPS is hard to use, and often inaccurate. Why would you spend money for something you know ahead of time is an inferior product? Come on man, use some sense, and you can save some cents.