Templates for Car Buyers.

4 tools for the sequence a car purchase runs through: which car to shortlist, what condition the one in front of you is actually in, what it will cost to run, and what to keep on file once it is yours. Score the decision instead of guessing at it.

Score the decision instead of agonizing over it

Buying a car compresses a lot of judgment into one afternoon on a lot, with a salesperson who does this every day and you who, most likely, do not. The tools on this shelf move the thinking to before that afternoon: shortlist the cars on criteria you set with a clear head, walk around and start cold the specific car in front of you before you ever discuss a price, know what it will actually cost you per month and per mile once you own it, and keep the records that make the next sale — or the next repair — easier.

Never inspected a used car before, or just want something to carry to the lot tonight? Start free with the Used-Car Inspection Checklist — the ten-minute walk-around and the cold start on two printable cards, 20 checks that each say what counts as a fail, with a worked example shown filled in before the blank pair. No email, no signup. For the full review in order — the walk-around, the cold start, the test drive and the paperwork that has to agree — what to check when buying a used car walks through all four, free.

If you're still narrowing the shortlist, the Car Buying Decision Helper scores up to 10 cars against 10 weighted factors so the choice survives an emotional test drive. Once you're standing in front of a specific car, the Used-Car Buying Field Kit ($12.95) is the print-and-carry kit for the inspection and the negotiation that follows it — 86 checks that each state what counts as a fail, priced by you and computed by the kit into a max offer, read against a walk-away number you set before you ever call.

Before you sign anything, the Car Total Cost of Ownership Calculator works out what a car really costs per month and per mile — for up to three candidates at once — because the sticker price and the loan payment are only ever part of the number. And once the car is yours, the Vehicle & Auto Records Binder keeps the service history, the renewals, and the recall and warranty status in one place — so that whenever this car is the one being sold, you can show what was done to it instead of asserting it.

New to the vocabulary? Read what a pre-purchase inspection is — the paid mechanic's check that a walk-around cannot replace, and how a field kit differs from a vehicle history report, which answer different halves of the same question.

On the money side, read what total cost of ownership means, then cost per mile vs sticker price for why the cheaper-looking car sometimes isn't. If you're weighing financing, affordable vs approved covers the gap between what a lender will hand you and what your own budget can sustain.

None of these tools is a mechanical inspection, a legal opinion, or a substitute for a qualified pre-purchase inspection. Nothing here is legal advice about titles, liens, or a bill of sale — for those, take the specific car and paperwork to someone qualified.