My First Car

INTRODUCTION

For the past few years you've been wondering what it will be like to be able to own your own car. The moment when you are the one in the driver's seat is here and you need to purchase some wheels. Your parents told you that if you wanted a car, you'd have to 'foot the bill' yourself. You've always said you'd buy a new red Corvette and now's your chance...well sort of. Let's see if you can afford your car and what you'll need to do!

THE TASK

You will need to gather information on 4 cars that you might like to buy. The first 3 cars are your modest choices - it is your first car after all. However, your 4th car can be your dream car - but be careful, do not choose something that only super rich people can afford. Then, you will have to figure out insurance costs and monthly payments for each of those 4 cars selected. Finally you will create a PowerPoint presentation on your new cars.

THE PROCESS

1) Find 4 cars that you might like to purchase and enter the information as shown below into a spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel. Make/model, year, mileage, asking price, down payment and amount to be financed. You can find used cars at autotrader.com or autobytel.com or feel free to go to any other site of your choice that deals cars.

Down payment is $2000.
Amount Financed = Asking Price - Down Payment (MUST BE A FUNCTION WITHIN THE CELL - NOT THE NUMBER!!!)

2) Add 3 columns to your spreadsheet and title one "Monthly Payment" , second "Monthly Insurance Cost", and third "Total Monthly Cost"..
You can obtain monthly payments for a 5 year loan at 11% interest and sales tax 7% at: Yahoo: Loan Calculator
You can get 6 month insurance quotes at: Allstate
Note: Your insurance quote will be based on 6 months. To get monthly insurance = (amount for 6 months) / 6

Your Excel spreadsheet should now look something like this:

Save your work and do not print. I will come to you to see and evaluate your work.

3) Now, create a 6-8 slide PowerPoint presentation to share with the class your information on your cars and the one you would most likely purchase. Be sure to include reasons why you would purchase this car and how you would go about doing it. Your power point slides should also include your job - what are you planning to become once you are done with your education. Go to:

Salary Calculator (http://www.collegegrad.com/salaries/salaries.shtml)

To find out how much is the average salary for the person with the same job title today. Were you able to buy your dream car? Make sure you include your job title, salary, and conclusion on your slides.

CONCLUSION

Were you able to buy your dream car? Even if you weren't, you learned a lot about the process of buying a car. You now have a better idea about the price of new and used cars, financing, and other factors such as insurance that help in determining which car to buy. You have also had to analyze choices before making a decision.

Buying a car is NOT an easy decision for the responsible and savvy consumer, especially in today's economy. In the 1950's there were under 50 different models of cars while today there are over 225. There are many different ways to buy a car now as well. Whatever your choice was, have fun in the driver's seat but...drive safely!

Credit: Scott Bernthisel and all websites mentioned above.