Know Your Budget
If you are shopping for a used car, do not repeat this, it will only annoy the salesman, and you are unlikely to land a good deal, or get useful help. It is pointless to discuss the new E-Class Mercedes for a clean hour before disclosing that your budget does not stretch far beyond Ksh. 200,000. You might be kicked out of the lot. You don’t have to necessarily announce the money you have up-front, but it only makes sense if you inquire about cars you can afford.
Do: Ask the prices of various cars to establish your area of interest before zeroing in on one or two models.
Don’t: Ask “Where can I get the new Premio for less than 200k?”
Shop Around
It might seem difficult to believe, but buying a Toyota Premio from that showroom next to the Village Market is not the same as buying the same Premio from an Embakasi outlet, there is bound to be a price difference. Consider the area from which you are buying, and use that consideration to guess the trader’s client base (Lavington vs. Kawangware for instance). In the same vein, look for places where the seller will not steal his car back from you before you drive out of the neighborhood.
Shopping around also gives you a ballpark figure for the costs of different cars, making you a wiser negotiator by the time you start some serious haggling. It also gives you leverage, where you could bring a greedy seller back to earth with a price comparison with one of his (cheaper) rivals.
Don’t: Buy a car from the first lot you walk into, unless under very special circumstances, none of which come to mind just yet.
Vetting
Once you have singled a car you want to buy, run a background check on it. It is very easy to make a fool out of a buyer: sell him a stolen/ doubly registered car then set the police on him and recover the car. Now you keep both the money and the car, and look for the next victim.Vet the car. Make sure it has no outstanding police warrants on it (getaway car), nor is it pegged somewhere as loan security. Ensure it is registered, and that the Registrar’s records and the VIN/engine/chassis numbers all tally. If it isn’t registered, ask why, and confirm it is not stolen.