Need help buying used car?

You will NEVER beat a car salesman. Ever. One way or another, they are going to make a profit. If you buy, they win, and they make money on you. That's the nature of the beast. They're not there to provide a public service, they're there to make money, and they will.

In your whole life, you may buy 10-15 cars. A salesman will have sold that in the last month. Everything you can read has already been read by a salesman, whether it's a book, a magazine article, or one of the thousands of "How to Beat a Salesman" articles online. Salesman study the same things you do, except they do it every day, not every few years when the urge strikes to buy a car. They study people, hot points, personality traits, and anything else that they can to better figure out how to sell you a car. You may not realize it, but within the first ten minutes on a car lot, they've already qualified you. Just making small talk, they know your name, what you do for a living, how much you make, marital status, how many children you have, what you're driving, what you want, and what you need. This is all before you ever even look at a car.

Nothing you can say or do is something a salesman hasn't seen a hundred times over. Paying cash? Who cares, we'd rather you financed. Lying about trading in your car, hoping to surprise the salesman at the end? Nope, never seen that before. Threatening to walk out? Here's the door. KBB/NADA/Truecar prices? Here's reality. Shopping a dealer against another dealer? How original. Everything you'll be told to do is all part of the game.

Now that we have that out of the way, you CAN get a better deal. First, be realistic with your offers. If you've "walked out of seven dealers, because they didn't want to deal", they're not the problem, you are. If you have to finance, arranging your own financing with your bank or credit union MAY get you a better rate. However, if the dealer has 0%, or anything close, chances are your bank won't be able to do it (local banks/credit unions NEVER do 0%). That being said, rates are determined by YOUR credit. If you're unsure about something, ASK QUESTIONS. An educated customer will make fewer mistakes during the buying process, and will get a better deal. Remember to READ what you're signing. If you're inexperienced, take someone with you who has a clue. The fact that you're a woman is completely and totally irrelevant. If you're an educated buyer, a salesman will know that. The fact of the matter is, when a couple comes in, 99.9% of the time, the woman is the decision-maker.

Good luck.

It's quite simple, sharmista, if you know the current market value of the car you are wanting to purchase you will always what is a fair deal.

If buying used, you can find the current market value here.

https://www.edmunds.com/appraisal/

If new, search here.

https://www.edmunds.com/tmv.html

Pick out a car you want. Go to www.cars.com and see what similar cars are selling for.

Hopefully the dealer doesn't know that you need it by Tuesday, or you won't be talking them down off jack.

Your best bet might be to see if a friend or family member will come and help you. My wife and I like to play 'good cop/bad cop' whenever we buy a car. We find something we want, but then one of us keeps complaining about something - price, trade-in, options, color, etc. etc.

Car salesmen sell cars every day, and are skilled at getting people to 'fall in love' with a car and then extracting as much money as possible from the buyer - most people only do it every once in a while, and allow themselves to be taken advantage of.

Always be willing to walk away if they won't talk deal.

Why not buy from a private party ? Their prices are lower and you can use KBB to show them if their prices are too high.

Your objective should be to buy for no more than private party value and ideally for a little bit less.

Is financing going to be an issue ? If you are upside down thousands, you may not be able to finance another car until that is paid.