Buying a car can be quite an exciting process, regardless of if you're buying your first car or if you're about to upgrade to a newer model. Unfortunately, buying a car isn't as straightforward as buying new clothes or products from a shop. It's a huge, long-term investment that you'll probably spend many years paying for. With that level of commitment, you'll also want to choose a car that is both useful and fits your personal style.

When going through the process to buy a car, we may rely on others to find the information we need to make the right decisions. Unfortunately, asking friends and family for advice about buying cars may also result in them passing on to us common myths or misconceptions about purchasing a new car. During this process, we may come up with a few assumptions of our own that aren't based on facts.

As mentioned before, buying a car isn't a straightforward process, like purchasing a product from a shop. Other than choosing the model and colour of the car (which is probably the most fun part of the process!), it also involves financial concerns and after-sales issues like maintenance as well.

Let's look at a few common misconceptions that you might come across when you're buying a car.

"I can buy it. Therefore, I can afford it."

When choosing a car to buy, it can be tempting to go for options that are way beyond what we can afford. Bear in mind that just because you can walk out of the dealership with a car in your name, doesn't mean that you can actually 'afford' it. 

But what does it mean to choose a car you can actually 'afford'? It means picking one that you will be comfortable paying for, without it being an excessive burden on your finances for years to come. Remember: a car is a long-term financial commitment, which means that you'll probably be paying your car loan down for many years. Because of this, it would be smart to choose one where the monthly loan repayments are easy for you to pay off.

This might not seem like a big deal at first, but you also have to remember that a car loan isn't the only thing you'll be paying every month. Cars require maintenance and repairs from time to time, as well as a constant supply of fuel. All of these costs will add up, and you should think about them before deciding how much you can afford to pay for the car itself.

There's a perfect/better time to buy a car

If you do a quick search online or ask your friends and family, you might hear the idea that there's a 'perfect' time to buy a car. People might tell you to buy a car at the end of the month, the quarter, and especially at the end of the year. The reason for this is that car dealerships have sales targets to meet at these times and will offer you more goodies to sweeten the deal. Others may tell you to wait until prices drop for a particular model you're after.

While there may be some amount of truth to these ideas, allow me to offer you another perspective to help you decide. Think of the reason you're buying a car in the first place. You need it to get to work and to run your daily errands so that your life can move smoothly and efficiently. If you have a family, one reason you're buying this car is so that your parents, spouse, and/or kids will be comfortable when you drive them around.

Once you've found a car model that you like and can afford, perhaps that automatically makes it the right time to buy the car. If you've found the perfect vehicle already, why wait? Ask yourself: how much could you really gain from waiting longer?

Buying a used car will save you money.

Some people are comfortable with owning a used or 'pre-owned' car. To be fair, there are plenty of pre-owned vehicles out there which are in excellent condition and are much more affordable than brand new models. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

The challenge with pre-owned cars is that you never know how it was handled by its previous owner. There could be problems with the vehicle that don't make themselves evident until after you've owned them for a while. Furthermore, depending on how old the car is, its warranty could already have expired. Suddenly, the money that you saved on the initial sale doesn't mean much since you're spending so much more on repairs!

This isn't to say that all pre-owned cars are problematic. But if you decide to buy one, be sure that the vehicle is thoroughly inspected first, and only purchase from a reputable dealer or a trusted seller.

Car salesmen are trying to cheat you

Some people might tell you that buying a car is a zero-sum game, meaning its a challenge of you versus the salesman. This gives the impression that the salesman is out to cheat you or get the most of your money so that they can profit from the commissions they earn.

While there are a few bad apples in any industry, this misconception is quite unfair to all the honest car salespeople out there. There's no need to be paranoid, but you should be cautious and take some precautions when deciding who to buy from. As usual, go to reputable car dealerships, or better yet ask your friends and family to refer you to where they purchased their cars from. This way, at least you'll know you're dealing with a dealer or salesperson with a good track record.