Now, speaking as someone who has never bought a car, but has spent an odd amount of time researching vehicles and the purchase process, here are my thoughts:
* Car prices are generally negotiable, and in tough times they are even more so. This has been just about the worst 3 months ever for car sales. New-car sales joints are still trying to move '08s; repos and job losses mean there's a glut of used machines on the market, and nobody wants to buy unless they're sure they're going to keep a job. And they're not sure -- hence Hyundai's new campaign, offering to buy the car back if you lose your job.
* On haggling in general: (See NYTimes this week... even department stores are apparently open to haggling).
* If you're going used, you can use CarFax or whatever to get a history of that specific vehicle so you know it's not a lemon.
* If you can avoid it, don't finance. Or get 3rd party financing from a bank rather than from the dealership -- at the very least, at the financing stage of negotiations, you can show them the bank's rate and make them beat it.
* It will take at least twice as long as you think it should, so be patient. They want you to get impatient and just get it over with and overpay.
* If you get a "certified-pre-owned" vehicle, make sure that both the dealer and the manufacturer are backing the guarantee and the certification, not just the dealer.
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* Car prices are generally negotiable, and in tough times they are even more so. This has been just about the worst 3 months ever for car sales. New-car sales joints are still trying to move '08s; repos and job losses mean there's a glut of used machines on the market, and nobody wants to buy unless they're sure they're going to keep a job. And they're not sure -- hence Hyundai's new campaign, offering to buy the car back if you lose your job.
* On haggling in general: (See NYTimes this week... even department stores are apparently open to haggling).
* If you're going used, you can use CarFax or whatever to get a history of that specific vehicle so you know it's not a lemon.
* If you can avoid it, don't finance. Or get 3rd party financing from a bank rather than from the dealership -- at the very least, at the financing stage of negotiations, you can show them the bank's rate and make them beat it.
* It will take at least twice as long as you think it should, so be patient. They want you to get impatient and just get it over with and overpay.
* If you get a "certified-pre-owned" vehicle, make sure that both the dealer and the manufacturer are backing the guarantee and the certification, not just the dealer.