Negotiating the Price of Your Next Car

New cars are so much fun. There's the excitement of having a car that no one else has owned before, that new car smell, knowing that it's under warranty, and the dreams of customizing it to make it your own. There's nothing about a new car that isn't fun except the process of buying it.

You walk on the lot, and almost immediately you're attacked by the powerless lot rat. He welcomes you to the dealership and asks you what you're looking for, to which you inevitably reply, "i'm just looking". At this point he says, "ok" and just walks away to let you look, right? If you've ever bought a new car before then you're probably laughing too hard to read this after that last question. Understand that the ultimate goal of the salesman on the lot is to get you inside the dealership, so he'll be right there with you, asking questions the whole time, until he gets you to follow him in. Once you're in there his manager will talk to you and prequalify you a bit before sending you on a test drive. After you get back from the test drive it's time for the salesman to get on your side and help you fight the evil manager for a price you can afford, not a price that you want, and they're very good at getting every penny out of you. At this point you're telling the salesman that you have to leave soon to try to hurry him up, but who cares if you're already in love with the car you're getting and you've already agreed on a price. You don't really have to leave and they know it, and since they have the keys to your trade in and they've driven it around to the other side of the building, they know that you're not going anywhere until you talk to a manager that will assure you that it won't be much longer.