Buying Your First Car

A Webquest for 9th &10th Grade Computer Applications

Designed by

Scott Bernthisel

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 Trans Am 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

First, you will need to come up with $1500 for your down payment.  You will do this by using the $500 in your savings account and by selling your snowmobile for $1000.

Next you will need to gather information on 10 cars that you might like to buy.

You will then narrow your search to 3 cars and figure out insurance costs and monthly payments for each. 

Then you will create a resume so that you can obtain employment and be able to make your monthly payment. 

Finally you will create a PowerPoint presentation and share your information with the class.

THE PROCESS

1. Create a flyer using Microsoft Publisher so that you can sell your 1995 Ski Doo Mach 1 670 snowmobile for $1000.  Here's a picture of it. Save your flyer into your folder and turn in a hard copy to your instructor.

2. Find 10 cars that you might like to purchase and enter the following information 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 newspapers.  Save your spreadsheet in your folder.

3. Add two columns to your spreadsheet and title one "monthly payment" and the other "insurance costs per year".  Now add this information for 3 cars only - the 3 you would most likely be buying.  You can obtain monthly payments for a 5 year loan at 11% interest (sales tax 6.25%) at;

Yahoo!Autos: Loan Calculator

or

E-Loan: Custom Rate and Payment Quote

You can get insurance quotes at;

Yahoo!/Insweb: Auto Insurance Quote Estimate

 

Save and print a hard copy to turn in to your instructor.

4. Create a resume using Microsoft Word so that you can obtain a job and make payments on your new car.  You can use a template or a wizard to do this.  Save your resume into your folder and print a hard copy to turn in to your instructor.

5. Create a 6-8 slide PowerPoint presentation to share with the class your information on your final 3 cars and the one you would most likely purchase.  Be sure to include reasons why you you would purchase this car and how you would go about doing it. Save your presentation into your folder and be prepared to share your presentation with the class.

EVALUATION

100 Points Total, broken down as follows:

Look closely at the information below to see how your project will be graded and evaluated.

(20 pts)    1.  Flyer to sell your snowmobile.  All relevant information included.     

(20 pts)    2.  Data Collection. All information relevant and accurate.

(20 pts)     3.  Spreadsheet.  Formatted properly, formulas used where appropriate.

(20 pts)     4.  Resume.  Formatted properly, relevant information included.        

(20 pts)     5.  PowerPoint Presentation.  Presentation appealing to the audience, well organized and relevant information included.

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!

CREDITS

New/Used Car Web Pages

http://www.autobytel.com

 

http://www.autotrader.com

 

Finance Web Pages

E-Loan: Custom Rate and Payment Quote

http://www.wheels.eloan.com/cgi-bin/autoloans?context=auto&user=sc1

Yahoo!Autos: Loan Calculator                                                                 http://autos.yahoo.com/leaseloan/input?cf=autoloan 

Insurance Web Pages

Yahoo!Insweb: Auto Insurance Quote Estimate  http://insurance.yahoo.com/a1.html 

 

Questions?

Last Updated 11/15/00

Special thanks to the following sites for images:

http://www.autotrader.com

http://www.free-clip-art.net/index3.shtml

http://www.mapquest.com

          http://www.ebay.com