When you’re trying to find that perfect car, it is easy to fall prey to smooth talking salesman, we have all experienced the Shark and Minnow type feeling, getting smooth talked while having that bad feeling on the inside. It happens everywhere in each state, in each city, generally multiple times. But why is this? We all need a car, but why is the sales model so crappy to be blunt. Where does the root lie? And it is a lie.

It all starts with a need, or what we think we need. But where does this need come from? As you guess it, I have the answer, status. In America, we are bombarded with constant advertisements of the American dream with the pretty wife and the fit husband and the better than average behaving kid. We see these things and immediately we reference our life thermometer and it just doesn’t seem to match up, almost no ones does. But we want this, we want this dream that has been sold to us, or at least we think we want it, and if we don’t want it, our peers want it and they talk about it and then the need nestles itself into our heart and mind, thus creating a drive for better things. It’s called the Jones’ we must keep up with them, but why? We have been told so, therefore it must be true.

Car salesmen and car companies feed on this imaginary but very real desire and create pristine car commercials with appealing ads that are entertaining to watch. They show pictures of people feeling relieved, happy, satisfied and other good emotions that we crave on a daily basis. But the truth is, happiness is being debt free, not getting into more debt buying a car we don’t need and a payment we cannot afford. I wish sometimes the car commercials would show someone not being able to afford a car payment or repossession, but that is just the Pollyanna in me that would want to create a pefect world.

So now we have a person who cannot afford a car, sitting in it, thinking “This is it!” I have arrived, and nine times out of ten it is only a feeling that has been accepted in society for us to feel. The realism then sets in when they get the car payments that can be outrageous. The sad part is that most of the lower model cars, such a Cavaliers are sold more than any car on the market, they are “affordable” to whose income is under 40,000 per year. I should know, I almost bought one! This article is not intended to be a downer, but more of a wake up call for one to analyze the actually need or want when buying a new car.