| g a new car is a big buying decision, and you want | | | | – front collision, side collision, rollover, etc |
| to be sure that you make the right choice. | | | | – and you should take every test into |
| First of all, you should make a list of what you | | | | consideration. |
| need your vehicle to do / be / have. For | | | | Reliability Ratings |
| example, when I bought my vehicle, my list | | | | If you go on MSN or other car websites, you can |
| included: | | | | get reliability ratings on past year's models based |
| -- 4 wheel drive | | | | on customer feedback. While there will be |
| -- towing capacity for a bass boat | | | | variation between years, it should give you some |
| -- a nice stereo | | | | idea of a model's overall reliability. |
| -- etc | | | | User Feedback |
| Making that list will help keep you on track to | | | | If you know people who own the model you are |
| choose a vehicle that meets your needs. Once | | | | considering buying, ask them for advice. They |
| you have your list made, you can pretty quickly | | | | may not only be able to tell you if they are happy |
| narrow the options down to several vehicles that | | | | with the car, but give you information on which |
| have the features you need, and that you like. | | | | features are hot and which are not. |
| Now is where the work begins – finding | | | | The bottom line is: the more data you can gather |
| out which vehicle is most likely to give you the | | | | from different sources, the more likely you are |
| most reliable, safe use. Here are several important | | | | to make the best buying decision. Your dealer is |
| factors that you should check and consider. | | | | an excellent source of information, but it's |
| Safety Ratings | | | | important to gather data from other, un-biased |
| Your dealer can probably provide you with safety | | | | sources, as well. |
| data on the new cars you are looking at. | | | | Happy new car shopping! |
| Remember that there are multiple safety tests | | | | |