Factors when buying a car

[studentdriver]

Hi, im currently doing a project for one of my classes and as part of the project i have to make a survey based on what factors people find most important when buying a car. So i was wondering, out of the ones listed, what factors do u guys consider the most important when buying a new car?

The choices are price, appearance, performance, practicality, reliability or other.
If you choose "other" please elaborate.

Also just base your decision on your current situation. Like me being a student i would say price would be most important.

Thanks

[lastprodigy]

usually a combination of a couple of those, you know its possible to have 2 but never 3 kinda thing

[ronaldo]

price definately plays the biggest factor, because if you cant afford it you cant have it. i agree with lastprodigy too though because most people wont buy a car based solely on price, alot of other factors play a role as well

[sputnik]

Interesting how people are picking price over reliability.

[studentdriver]

I would put combinations but for the project we're trying to determine which cars are the best based on those factors, and what we want to do is weigh each of those factors based on what you guys voted on.

Thanks so far for all the votes and input though, all this will definately help in our project :thumbsup:

[Weapon_R]

Reliability is huge for me - i need something that will start every morning, no matter how cold it is.

[studentdriver]

what other factors do you guys think is important that i missed?

[BumpinTalon]

Insurance costs play a big part in it ..

and a good saying you might want to toss in there is
Cheap - Fast - Reliable (pick two)
you can have it cheap and fast, but it won't be reliable
you can have it cheap and reliable, but it won't be fast
you can have it fast and reliable, but it won't be cheap

Applies to tuning up your car and to stock ones, too (to a lesser degree)

[cman]

i am a poor student so price.
ask me in a few years and that will change, hopefully:devil:

[FiveFreshFish]

Originally posted by studentdriver
what other factors do you guys think is important that i missed?

How about the car's reputation?

[abyss]

Originally posted by FiveFreshFish


How about the car's reputation?

Ya...like don't buy any car named Christine.....:rofl: :rofl:

[HRD2PLZ]

I think you get what you pay for... but reliability is probably the biggest factor for me. Everything else in the list does come into the equation though. Also, standard and available features are always important to me.

[Xtrema]

I think the "you get what you pay for" doesn't really apply anymore.

Reliability: Hyundai and most Japanese are cheap and reliable. MB is the complete opposite any other european are not that far behind.

Performance: Still kinda true, but if you look mid priced cars at $35K - $50K range car are all now in the 200-300HP+ bracket. Just name a mid priced car that offer this 10 years ago.



BTW, my pirority is reliability. I don't care how good it looks, how fast it run or how cheap it is. It's useless to me if it stays in mechanic's garage.