When considering a vehicle purchase, it's important to look past the sticker price and consider the related costs. Owning a car can be more expensive than you'd expect when you factor in the cost of property tax, registration and insurance.

When you lease a vehicle, you (the lessee) contract with the owner (the lessor) to make payments in exchange for driving and operating the leased vehicle during a lease term. As lessee, you pay for fuel, insurance and other operating expenses but not repairs.

Automakers offer consumers various incentives to buy a new car, including zero-percent financing and rebates. Zero-percent financing is essentially an interest-free loan over the entire loan term. In recent years, some makers were offering a choice between zero-percent loans and their historical practice of offering rebates to auto buyers.

If you decide to buy a vehicle with a loan, keep in mind that the lender will hold a lien on your vehicle until the loan is paid off. The lender may also require you to obtain more extensive auto insurance of the vehicle to protect the value of the loan collateral.

If you have enough cash at your disposal, you can potentially save hundreds or thousands of dollars by avoiding interest payments on a loan. Before you tap into your savings, however, consider the opportunity cost of draining your account.

When you consider how you wish to pay for a vehicle, your options generally include borrowing or leasing. One of the first things you will want to know when deciding what car to purchase is how large of a monthly payment you can afford.

When looking for an auto loan, it's a good idea to start with a lender with whom you already have a relationship. Your current lender is probably the most familiar with your loan-repayment history and may also have pre-approved you for a consumer loan, which can be used to finance most vehicle purchases.