Checklist Before Buying Your First Car

This post is on the checklist before buying your first car.

For those who just graduated and are planning to enter the workforce, a car is an important element.

For example in Kuching, most of us drive to work. We cannot rely on public transport. The local public transport is not only limited but inconvenient and not punctual too.

So, having your own car is the best. But, there are important factors to consider before you purchase your first car.

Therefore, I listed the checklist before buying your first car as below.

6 checklist before buying your first car

These are 6 checklists before buying your first car:

1. Ability to pay the monthly repayment (car loan)

I listed this as the most important factor.

One must know their budget well before they sign the hire purchase agreement.

Most banks will require a monthly income of at least three times from the monthly hire purchase instalment.

To be on the safe side, I think it is a good idea if the monthly instalment is no more than 25% of our monthly salary.

This will leave more space for other important matters such as savings and investment.

For this, you might be interested to read my sharing whether shorter or longer car loan tenure is more beneficial.

2. Fuel consumption of the car

Unless someone else pays for your car fuel, you should really consider whether the type of car that you are going to buy is high fuel consumption or not.

I heard a lot of cases where one had to spend the same amount of car monthly instalment for their car fuel.

Bear in mind, the fuel price is increasing from time to time.

It is wise to choose a car which requires less fuel for you to move around. It is environmental-friendly too.

3. Yearly insurance premium of the car

Do check how much you have to pay for the car insurance. And do bear in mind that every year this should be in your budget.

As no car is allowed to be on the road without insurance.

4. The yearly road tax of the car

Imported cars and bigger cars will require a higher road tax compared to locally made cars.

The road tax also should be in your yearly budget.

5. The functionality the car

Do you need a sedan car for your family? Or most of the time you travel alone?

For the family car, you might need a bigger car. If you are driving alone most of the time, you might want to consider a smaller car.

6. Availability of spare parts

This is another important factor that is always not in the considerations of first-time car buyers.

It is normal for us to expect a brand new car to be able to serve us at least until we finish paying the car loan. But, unfortunately, even for brand new imported cars, someday, some parts will need to be changed and replaced.

Perhaps, it can be due to accidents or other matters. So, try to get information on the car spare parts.

You will not wish to know that, later, you will have to wait for months for the spare parts to be sent from the original country. Or worse, the spare part is not more in production.

Final thoughts

In summary, I hope my sharing on the checklist before buying the first car above will provide first–time car buyers with sufficient information.

Lastly, before confirming your car purchase, you might be interested to read my sharing on the actual cost of owning a car in Malaysia too.

At least you are better prepared financially for your new car.