The process of buying a car

Buying a car for me was a huge thing. I got out of debt, besides my student loans, in October of 2010 and so getting a car was hard because I didn't want to get a back into debt once again. I had a car, but it had some serious problems and I was afraid that one day it would be die and I would never be able to revive it. I thought about buying a car for months before I actually bought one. I research different cars and different ways of financing a car. I talked with financial counselors and bank attendants about the best way to finance a car. Of course banks wanted me to go through them and credit unions wanted me to go through them and so I looked at the interest and I talked to a few people I knew at church who were financially smart. I decided the best way to go was through a credit union, and then I had to figure out what credit union I would go through. You would be amazed at all the different credit unions there are and they all seemed quite good. After a few weeks of looking at the options I decided to join The Gulf Coast Educators Credit Union. I am a teacher and it made since to go to a credit union that was especially for teacher. I think it was one of the greatest moves I ever made. I can't tell you how much more I like being part of a credit union then a bank. Once I got things settled there and a savings started I started looking at cars. I knew that I wanted a crossover, something that would be big enough to carry camping gear and a bike but small enough that I did not have to spend a fortune on gas. I test drove all sorts of crossovers but none of them were in my price range. Then I drove a Mazda CX-9 which I loved. It was a little bigger then what I wanted and it was a little out of my price range, not much but enough to not be interested. I got on line and started looking around at different Mazda CX-9 to see if I could find on in my price range, while I was doing that I came across a Mazda CX-7 and it was in my price range and it was the size that I wanted. I didn't go out immediately and buy one. I went and spoke the financial counselor at the credit union and we talked about all the possibilities and I went home and thought about everything and then I went out and actually started test driving some CX-7s to make sure that it was really want I wanted. I waited about another month and after the month I was still interested and I went back to the credit union and got everything set up and I went on line and looked at all sorts of different CX-7 and I found one in the color that I wanted and I went and test drove it. When I had decided that was the CX-7 I wanted it, I took it in to be looked over by someone I trusted. I could not afford to buy a lemon, when everything checked out I went back, worked with the bank and the dealer, and I picked up the car two days later. I love it! It is a simple car but it looks nice and does the job I need it to do. Overall it took me about 5 months to get everything figured out and set up to buy a car because I was so nervous about getting back into debt and being taken advantage of and I am so grateful that I did because I learned a lot of great things. Don't ever finance with a car dealer, don't give a down payment, don't use a trade in on a car and the best way to finance a car is through a credit union.