I recently came across some money to buy a new car. I managed to get my car for more than 2,000 under MSRP (more than a 15% savings). I didn't do this by entering the situation blindly. There were a few basic steps to how I purchased my car that might help you purchase a car too.

Keep in mind YOU HAVE THE POWER.  You have the money, and the ability to walk away.  If a dealership offers you some ridiculously high price or financing options, just walk away!

Step 1 : Find out what car you want.

Do some online research to find out what kind of car you want. Do you want an SUV? Do you want an economy car? Find out what's useful for you, and what's in your budget. Once you've picked the type of car you want pick 3-5 models of the same type of car.

Find a dealer ship for each one of these cars and visit each one of them. The point of this is to get basic pricing and to figure out what car you want. Check them out all out. Find out what features they have, and get a price quote for each. Take each of the cars for a test drive.

Once you've figured out the specific type of car you want, including options, and have gotten a basic price quote for each of them you can proceed to the next step.

Step 2 : Find every car dealership that sells your model within 100 miles and e-mail them all

What!? That's crazy!?  Yup!  Your key here is to pit the dealers against each other.  Call all the dealerships (or e-mail them) and ask for the fleet managers e-mail or fax.  Collect all this data, and when you're ready e-mail all of them.  Tell them the type of model you want, with all the options and all.  Let them know they're bidding (but not in a lame way) by letting them know you're 'taking bids'.  If you get a ridiculously good offer feel free to take it.  If you don't feel like you're getting an amazing keep going.

Wait a week, and e-mail the 3 lowest bidders.  Ask them if they can lower the price any further.  Tell them what your other bids are - and see if they can beat them.  If they can, great!  Just remember to pit the dealers against eachother.

Step 3 : Go to the nearby banks and get car loans. 

Go to a few banks and find the best deal you can get on a loan.  This will give you some pushign room against the dealer in the last phase.  Go to multiple banks (credit unions, large banks, all of them) and see what you can get.

Step 4: Visit the dealer, buy your car

The last step is to visit the dealer who offered you the best deal.  Remember to discuss pricing in the following order.

a. Car Price
b. Trade in Value
c. Finance

Always ask for a better price on all of these steps!  Don't settle for what the dealer offers, this is usually a worse deal then they can give you.  Remember, they're out to make a profit!  The worse deal they give you the more they make.  Ask for a lower price.  Ask for more for your old car.  Ask for a better finance deal.  Scratch that, don't just ask - demand!  Remember, you can walk away.

Walking away is your biggest weapon against the dealer.  If you truly feel you can get a better price, tell them that.  When they refuse, tell them OK.  It's fine.  Turn around and head for the door (they will give you the lower price at this point 75% of the time).  Don't overuse this trick, but use it as much as you can.

Use your bank offers for car loans as leverage to get a better deal.  The car companies want to loan you money - it makes more money for them.  Don't let yourself get suckered into bad deals.

Most of all - DON'T BE SHY.  Don't be afraid to fight for the price you deserve.  Salesmen make their living off getting people to pay too much for something - DON'T BE THAT PERSON.