The fastest way to save up for a new car is to first reduce the amount you’ll have to save. Putting 20 percent down on a new car has been the golden rule for years, but you can scale down the amount necessary for the down payment on a car in just a few ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ve probably heard countless times on radio and TV commercials that promise: \u201cZero down!\u201d Yes, these loans are out there, but they generally require a very good credit score \u2014 700 or above \u2014 and your monthly payments will be higher because you\u2019re financing more of the purchase price. Monthly payments will be about $20 less for every $1,000 you put down upfront. Your interest rate could also be higher unless you also qualify for a zero-rate annual percentage rate, or APR. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t give up if you can\u2019t manage a zero-percent-down deal. Search possible rebates instead. Rebates are money-back incentives offered after a buyer has already paid for something. Mike Rabkin, owner of From Car to Finish, a national new-car negotiating service based in Rockville, Maryland, suggests looking into possible rebates. \u201cIt\u2019s up to you to ask the dealer what all the qualifying rebates are at the time,\u201d Rabkin says. \u201cThey may not offer this information.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some rebates come from the manufacturer, not the dealer, and they lower the price of the vehicle. This means the percentage you\u2019ll have to put down will be less \u2014 10 percent of $20,000 is $500 less than 10 percent of $25,000. Special rebates are out there for military members, senior citizens and first-time buyers, to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your current car has any trade-in value, this can act as your down payment with no cash required. Rabkin says you can get an actual offer for your trade-in ahead of time on Autotrader.com. Plug in the required information about your car and you\u2019ll get offers from local dealers. \u201cTheir offers can be adjusted when they see your vehicle if it\u2019s not as described,\u201d Rabkin warns. You can remain anonymous until you decide to take one of the dealers up on its offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you end up putting zero down \u2014 or near zero down \u2014 on your new car, consider purchasing guaranteed auto protection or gap insurance. If your car is stolen or totaled within a set period of time after purchase, usually no more than two years, this insurance pays the difference between what you owe on your car loan and its value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is an important distinction from regular auto insurance, which only pays the actual value of your vehicle at the time of the incident. New cars can depreciate up to 35 percent in the first two years, and that lower value is what insurance companies normally pay out. If you finance most or all of the purchase price, there\u2019s a good chance the amount of your loan will exceed the car\u2019s value and you\u2019ll be responsible for paying the balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Decide when you want to buy a new car and divide the amount of the anticipated down payment by the number of months you have until that time. This will tell you how long it should take to save enough money. Then visit dealerships and ask about those rebates. Use a personal finance software, such as Quicken<\/a>, to help you budget for your future care in the meantime as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fastest way to save up for a new car is to first reduce the amount you’ll have to save. Putting 20 percent down on a new car has been the golden rule for years, but you can scale down the amount necessary for the down payment on a car in just a few ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"The Fastest Way To Save For A Car","_seopress_titles_desc":"The fastest way to save up for a new car is to first reduce the amount you'll have to save. Putting 20 percent down on a new car has been the golden rule for years, but you can scale down the amount necessary for the down payment on a car in just a few ways.","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budgeting-savings"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The_fastest_way-to_save_for-car.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4635,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions\/4635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quicken.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}