If you tell them you have a trade in before you agree on a price, they’ll make sure you end up getting nothing for your trade in when they tally the final numbers.

Neil

Ottawa Used Car Classified

A few tips on the research side. I was buying a car only a few weeks ago and I joined the forums at carspace.com — a lot of really helpful people there. Actually, statistically speaking you’re likely to find car-savvy folks just about anywhere you look, so if you’re already a member of a forum you can ask there for help, too. And there’s also a more playful research site at carfunfootprint.com that combines fuel efficiency scores (“green”) with fun scores (based on driver polls, etc) — that sort of helps to weigh the wants versus the needs, as you put it.

Finally, my advice would be to find the car you want…and then contact the AAA rep at the dealership (if you’re a AAA member, but who isn’t these days). Last two cars I’ve bought I’ve gone through the AAA guys and there was none of that over-bearing salesy attitude. I went it, they offered me the lowest price, and that was it. No uncle needed, ha!