Most college students don't have lots of money to splash on cars, which means they have to be extra careful when shopping for a ride. If you are buying a car in college, especially your first car, use the following tips for guidance:

It Should Be Cheap To Maintain

Most families find college expensive, so if you are buying a car in college, you don't want to affect your finances even further by buying an expensive-to-maintain car. Instead, make life easy for you and your family by buying a car with a low cost of ownership. Here are some features of such a car:

• It should attract low insurance rates
• It should be easy to repair
• It should have cheap spares
• It should be reliable

It Should Be Safe

If you are a typical college student, then you are between your late teens and early twenties. Drivers in this age group are known for their reckless driving, driving under the influence and high statistics of accidents. All of these mean that the demographic attracts relatively high auto insurance rates. Buying a race car or a car known for its bad safety history will only make matters worse for you by increasing your rates even further.

Get a Third-Party Opinion

Assuming you are buying your first car, it's easy to get confused by the numerous cars on display when you arrive at a dealership. You may also get confused by the car negotiation process, which may be muddled with the loan negotiation process as a first timer. On top of all that, you may not have the experience to spot red flags that may mean it's risky to buy a car. Considering all that, it makes sense to bring along a more experienced person on the day of the purchase. This can be your parent or a family friend with experience in car buying.

It Should Last Many Years

Lastly, you should also buy a car that you can use for many years before buying another one. This is because when you buy a car in college, it's likely to be the car you will be using in your first job. Therefore, buying an unreliable car or a jalopy that will only serve you for a couple of years or so would be an expensive gamble.

Hopefully, the above tips will help you get a car that will serve you all you all your college years. Don't forget that it's better to buy your car from a used car dealership instead of an individual if you want to increase your chances of getting a good one.