This past summer I purchased my first car. I had $5,000 in my savings account to use towards the purchase of a used car. This decision involved high perceived risk, high felt involvement, and high cognition. The magnitude of this purchase required the use of a five-step decision-making process (Hoyer and MacInnes 14). The first step is problem recognition. I live in Ohio, but my job this summer was in northern Michigan, thus I needed a car to drive to my summer job. Step two is searching for information. I started this process by looking online at several used car websites. I narrowed my choices down to a Toyota or Honda sedan with automatic transmission. I based that off of successful family and friend history with the brand and their general strong reputations. I printed off information about car dealerships and private owners that carried cars I was interested in considering, and I visited these places to test drive the prospective cars.
The next step is an evaluation of the alternatives. I test drove two Honda Civics and a Honda Accord. The Civics were from a Honda dealership and the Accord was from a private owner. All models were in very good condition, similar year models, automatic, black exterior, and all within $500 of each other in price. The decision was a very difficult one. The fourth decision is to make a decision. I decided to purchase the Honda Accord. My selection came down to the fact that I trusted the private owner more than the dealership, and two of my good friends had the same model of car. They had very minor or no problems with the car and had each generated over 150,000 miles on their engines. The final step of the decision-making process is the post-decision analysis. After driving my car for almost four months now, I am very happy with my decision. I have had no problems whatsoever with the Accord, and I plan to use the car for as long as it can stay on the road, or until I get enough money and feel the need to buy a new car.
This process taught me a lot about the differences between a minor purchase and a major purchase. The purchase required much cognitive thought, extended amounts of research, and high involvement. Buying a used car is very risky because of the uncertainty of how it will perform and it's driving history. I am pleased with how I approached the decision-making process, and hopefully my purchase will continue to perform as I envisioned.
This is such a long process but so worth it! I also bought a car about 3 years ago but completely different situation. I bought my car on ebay! It was an intense process and obviously harder because I physically could see the car and test drive it. I had only pictures and email to go by. There are many steps you simply cannot do when the car is in Kansas City. There is a very high involvement because it is a huge chunk of change, and you are not seeing the product until after you have purchased it. You must build a strong trust when you're buying a car. Especially online purchases are hard to do this because it is hard to connect just through emailing and phone calls. Skype would be a great tool as well but its still not the same as face-to-face.
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