Buying a car should be an exciting time but for some people, it can be very stressful. Here are some things to consider when buying your new or pre owned car. First, you should find out which car you want and remeber to look in terms of practicality. After you decide on which car you want, do your research. You can go to a number of sites that will let you build and price your car based on the options you want. What you want to do is build your car with all of the options and look at the invoice price. Most people buy their cars off of the MSRP price and this is a definite no no. You always want to buy your car based on the invoice price. After you have seen what the invoice price will be compared to the MSRP, it is time to do the dirty work. You will want to go to the dealership and find a car with either the same or close to the same MSRP price. Remeber that you will have the invoice price and the MSRP price after doing your research on your car. Now, once you find an MSRP price that is close to the one you have, you know that the invoice price is going to be the same as well. No you have some ammo to deal with the sales people. What you want to do is tell the sales person that you want to buy whatever vehicle and that you are willing to pay say $500 over invoice price. Now, at first, they may look at you like your crazy or try to tell you some crazy story but show them your numbers and stick to the game plan. We all know that MSRP is the price that the dealer puts on the car and not what they actually paid for it. If the sales person does not want to take your offer, leave and go to the next dealership. I can almost guarantee you that they will take your offer becuase they absolutely need your business. Everything is negotiable at a car dealsership. On a side note, you always want to buy a car based on the BOTTOM line price and not payments. When you become a payment buyer, you are in a world of trouble. Money can be moved around to look like you are getting a good deal but in reality you will be upside down when you want to trade your car in. Now that you have gotten the price you want it is time to move to phase 3.....the finance department. Here they are going to do the same thing. They are going to try to make up the money they lost on the front end of the deal by trying to get you to buy a bunch of extra stuff you don't need. If you decide that you want something that they are offering, negotiate for it. Remember, everything is negotiable! Say you want gap insurance. They tell you $300 but you counter with $150. They are going to try and fight you and tell you its not possible but thats when you say I will take it for $150 or not at all. In the end, you will have a car that you know you got a great deal on. Just always remeber to research the invoice price compared to the MSRP and take that info with you. Many sales people will try to tell you that those number dont mean anything but that is a lie. Also, never buy your car based on payments but on the bottom line price which should be at or close to the invoice price. So now that you know how to go in with guns a blazing, you can buy stress free and know that you have the upper hand in the matter. Oh and one more quick fact, there is something called a "hold back". This means that even if you were to get the car at invoice price, they still are making money on the deal. Dealerships hate it when you mention this becuase it is supposed to be a secret. Say that you buy a car at invoice, the dealership still makes oh say $300 due to hold back. Happy car shopping!