Don’t you just love buying a new car? Whether it’s factory fresh or just new-to-you, there’s something exciting about plopping down in the driver’s seat of your car. Not a test drive, not a similar make and model, but the first trip in a car that’s officially yours. You throw it in gear, start to cruise around your neighborhood, feeling fantastic, and then—
Huh.
You hadn’t noticed that before.
Today, we’re talking about the things you wish you knew before hopping behind the wheel of your shiny new vehicle. Good or bad, benefit or detriment, we all have things we discover about our cars once we live with them for a bit. So, what did your sales person neglect to mention?
I’m between vehicles at the moment (though that may be changing soon — stay tuned), but my last car had its fair share of unknowns. Admittedly, that’s what happens when you buy a vehicle without ever seeing it first. Learn from my mistakes, kids.
When I bought my track-prepped Miata, I didn’t know how high I’d sit above the roll bar. Beyond the car itself, I didn’t know how much clearance you needed under a roll bar to pass tech — if I had, I may not have looked at convertibles in the first place.
Those are the things I wish I knew about my car before buying it, but what are yours? Did a salesperson forget to mention a mandatory engine break-in period, or did a Facebook Marketplace seller never reveal the trailer hitch hidden under the bumper? Leave your answers below, and we’ll collect our favorites tomorrow.