Car Buying Exposes All of My Fears of Inadequacy

Well it is that time again. I need to purchase a car for my wife. Over the years, I have purchased well over 15 cars and I have never felt good about any of my purchases. For me, the car buying experience is one of my most dreaded activities in life! I realize this is irrational and there are bigger problems that I should stress about in my life. However, I would choose to have multiple root canals over buying a car.

I lead a relatively stress free life. I am very decisive, deliberate, disciplined, and I normally don't sweat the small stuff. For the most part, this holds true until a begin the car buying process. All of this is thrown out the window!

With car buying, I stress over the littlest of things. Do I really need to buy a car? Am I selecting the right car? How will I pay for it? Where should I go to finance it? etc. These are all questions that bounce around in my head and that's even before I actually walk on to the dealership.

Once I get those questions answered in my head, I then begin to prepare "my strategy" for the dealer. In my head, I plan a strategy where I will stay calm, firm, and confident when speaking to the sales person. And most importantly, I won't let my emotions get in the way of the strategy. My goal is to walk in to the dealership knowing exactly what I want, what I want to pay, and how I am going to pay. While this strategy works in my head, it quickly disseminates as I set foot on the car lot.

I am mesmerized by the vast variety of cars and colors. I quickly begin requestioning all of the decisions that I made earlier. Am I buying the right car, can I pay a little more if I have to, am I really willing to leave this lot without purchasing a car?

Almost every time I purchase a car, I have some sort of remorse and I feel that I have let myself down.

I realize that there are much bigger problems and stresses in life, but for some reason the car buying experience is the one that gets me every time!