Need help buying or even selling a car in the U.S.? I can give some pretty good practical advice. Besides buying my share, I've spent a little time selling for dealerships.

I can give advice on types of auto insurance you may need to consider as well.

Buying:

1. Do your research before you ever set foot on a lot.

2. Negotiate the price for your turn-in, the car you're buying, and any financine seperately and in turn.

3. Do your research before you ever set foot on a lot.


One trick I pulled, and to my great pleasure the dealers hated me for it, was I went in earlier in the day on a Saturday to test drive, and without telling them, pick which one I want. (By doing my research ahead of time, I already had the model narrowed down, and knew the dealer invoice cost.) That night I returned about half an hour before they closed and told them I was ready to buy. (Note: they will never, ever, tell you to come back the next day. And being almost human, car dealers don't like being up all night after a long day, so they won't be as eager to play all their bullshit games so long as your bottom line price is reasonable.)

Of course they wanted to try to intermingle the price and financing. I insisted we determine the price of the car before talking about financing. I made like I didn't care about financing - actually, I was already preapproved and never intended to allow them to finance it.

I'm glad you think you got a good deal..

I would not advise some of what you did. However, none of that matters as long as you are satisfied. I learned a lesson many moons ago from my brother, whom I consider to be the second best salesman I know, and that is - 'it doesn't matter how much you paid for anything as long as you believe it is worth the money you laid out.'

LOL, you are so predictable.

I should have known you were setting me up.You are so sneaky.Good one!

LOL, any time I post I am setting you up. I could say the sun rises in the east, and you'd reflexively disagree.

Pray tell, which of my actions were not advisable? Doing research ahead of time? Seperating the negotiations? Showing up late in the day so they can't spend hours upon hours trying to wear you down? Getting preapproved? Do tell.

you're both asking for it from time to time, well and me too

Asking for what?

asking for naughty, kinky sex with animals....

Speak for yourself Mr. "Don't fuck"

In Germany you say "Wer eine dumme Frage stellt, bekommt eine dumme Antwort"

translation: Whoever asks a stupid question gets a stupid answer.

You have no shortage of stupid answers, now you just need to find someone asking a stupid question.

Why don't you two take this someplace else and stop hijacking this thread?

I'm sorry, just pretend I was never here.

/me 's gone

Now that the hijacking is over we can get back to where you left off.

Pray tell, which of my actions were not advisable? Doing research ahead of time? Seperating the negotiations? Showing up late in the day so they can't spend hours upon hours trying to wear you down? Getting preapproved?

Weird how after we got back to the easy questions this thread dried up so suddenly.

Anyone else find it odd that someone would say some of my methods aren't advisable but refuse to tell me which ones? In a thread where he's offering help?

i cant see anything you did wrong, im of the opinion, that there gonna try and fuck with your mind to get every penny they can, because thats how they get paid, so its perfectly ok to return the favour in kind which it sounds like you did
personally though, i usually buy from private sellers and take my friend whos a mechanic, if they wont let a mechanic take a look at it, then i wont buy it.
avoid the dealers markup altogether.

I've never bought a used car from a dealer. The situation I described was buying a new car.

As for whether anything I did was "not advisable" of course there wasn't anything wrong with it. RJ knew it wasn't anything wrong with it, but he can't help himself - he simply HAS to try to discredit anything I say, even if by doing so he ends up looking like a fool.

I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, rasczak. I apologize.

LOL, see what I mean? How about answering my question - supporting your claim? If you do that, you'll have no need to feel sorry.