As your life changes, your transportation needs change. When you were single that two door sport coupe was perfect for you and your girlfriend. But now you are married and your baby just turned 4, so it is time for a new vehicle. Or, perhaps the vehicle you had is just on its last leg and is headed for the garbage heap. It happens to everyone, so we all must eventually become acquainted with the techniques of shopping for a car. It can be a daunting task.

We know that retailers get their vehicles at wholesale so that they can sell for a profit. We know that they often try to slip in extras that we may not need in order to boost up the price, and they are also offering their salespeople special incentives to make money. The trick to car buying is to somehow come out, as a consumer, with a little bit better deal than if we just walked in and paid whatever the salesperson wants us to pay. There is a little room for bargaining, and we all need to learn how to use that room.

Smart consumers take the time to learn the tricks of vehicle buying and selling, so that they are prepared for the onslaught of the talented car dealer. They speak their own language, so you need to tap into that lingo, learn it for yourself, and use it to talk the salesperson into a better deal for you and your family. Where can you go to learn that language? Is it better just to try and find a good friend to go with you, someone who knows a lot about cars?

While it often helps sometimes simply to bring a strong willed friend with you to the car dealership, here is a guide that you can read beforehand and bring along with you as well, it’s kind of like the armor you put on before heading into the arena.

Our guide will help you to learn how to spot scams from salespersons, what the best time of the year is to purchase a vehicle, how to get a good buying price, how to finance your automobile, and how to negotiate the opening price. Reading through this guide will give you the tools necessary to talk confidently about your purchase with the salespeople at the car dealership, and give you a better chance of getting a car that will meet your needs without crashing your budget.

So many people are turned off by talking to car dealers, but it is important to remember that they are simply trying to make a living just like you are. Buying a car does not have to be intimidating or unpleasant. This guide will show you how to avoid unpleasant problems, and show you how to have a little fun while you shop.

Most car sales professionals are honest, hard-working people with a job to do. Unfortunately there are a few who fit the bill of the “stereotypical” car salesman and will do everything they can to sell you a car. If you apply for finance through the dealer, this just gives the car salesman another tool to use against you as leverage. Instead, walk onto the lot with online auto loan quotes in your hand and you may be surprised at the difference in how you are treated.

Credit Report Shenanigans

Of course you would never shop for cars without pulling your own credit report, right? Well some people do and that gives the dealer a chance to tell stories.

They’ll tell you how you have a terrible credit score and then act like they are doing you a favor by giving you a loan at all. Of course they will have to charge you a higher APR and possibly additional fees for the terrible risk they are taking.

Understand that they will tell you this even if your credit score is perfectly fine.

Your Loan was Rejected

You sign papers and drive off, thinking you own a new car. Then a couple of weeks later, the dealer says the financing fell through and you have to come back in. They’ll hit you with higher payments, refinancing fees, and all kinds of other nonsense.

Unless you lied on your application, the dealer knows whether you qualify for the loan or not before he lets you off the lot. Do you really think he’s going to let you drive off in a $25,000 piece of merchandise otherwise?

Applying for a Loan by Accident

Even shoppers armed with online auto quotes aren’t immune to loan scams. The car salesman may tell you that he needs to pull a credit report because of Patriot Act reporting requirements. You might even notice the form you are filling out is titled “Application for Credit.”

The Patriot Act does not require a credit report or your Social Security number so don’t be fooled into applying for dealer financing. Your name and driver’s license number should be all they need.

Lies About Online Car Loans

Some car dealers are so threatened by online auto loan quotes that they will tell you anything to get you to abandon them in favor of dealer financing.

One of the common lies is how all online car loans are scams and their checks will bounce. Yes, there are a few bad apples among online lenders, but they are generally easy to spot. Most companies that offer online auto loans have been in business for years and are just as reputable as your bank or credit union.

The best way to protect yourself against these and other loan-related scams is to get your online auto loan quotes before going to the lot. That way you know what you have qualified for and don’t have to worry about the dealer using your loan against you.

If you are looking to buy a car then you might think the safest place to buy from is a car dealer, since they should be the most knowledgeable and trustworthy people to buy a car from. However this is not always the case, some car dealers are out to make a fast buck and so will try anything.

Many people know what car sales men are like, and so hate the experience of buying a new car. Of course not all car dealers are the same, it is just unfortunate that there is no easy way to differentiate them.

Sometimes when you buy a car the dealer will charge you for the advertising fees twice, because they have already been added to the invoice the dealer received. To beat this one ask about advertising fees demand to see a copy of the invoice if you are not completely satisfied. They will usually also add a bogus processing fee of from $100 to more than $500 (the processing fee is pure profit for the car dealer that he does not have to pay any commission on to salespeople).

Cars are like any other consumer product, the more desirable it is the more somebody is willing to pay for it. Some dealers add on additional fees on top of the prices of the cars if they are very popular, this is not completely unfair as it should help to even the demand and supply functions out. However you should never pay over the MSRP of the car or even close to the MSRP, if the car is more highly demanded then the maximum you should pay is the MSRP (or better yet wait a few months until its popularity wains and buy it at invoice).

Some dealers quote a certain figure in an add for a certain car, but when it comes down to it the actual price is much higher than this (you may not be able to get one with no options, etc..). Make sure that you continually ask the dealer exactly what you are paying for and the exact price so that they realise that you are not going to take any messing.

When trading in your car there are also cons to be aware of, some dealers will quote figures when you are outside, but by the time you get inside these figures have vastly shrunk – or better yet, they will switch you to negotiating payments where you have no idea how much total you will end up paying and they will break it down as its only $25 a day, etc…. (Lets see, $25 a day is $750 a month and that is $9000 a year and $45,000 over a typical 5 year car loan – it adds up very fast and that may not include interest and compounding of principle! Lets say you only over pay by $5 a day – that doesn’t sound too bad and the dealer seems like a really nice guy, right? $5 a day is $150 a month, is $1800 a year, is $9000 over 5 years too much you paid! Think about it).

You hear them on the radio and TV everyday. Some have outrageous ads and sales gimmicks. “Push, pull or drag your trade in for $4000 minimum trade”, “Best price in the world!” “Best bumper to bumper warranty ever – we cover everything.” “Repo’d car sale today.” Bet you didn’t know that these ads can be and usually are very misleading and can be illegal.

According to Leslie Anderson, AAA, Misleading advertisements and deceptive marketing from car dealers has been on the rise in recent years. Car dealers, due to a struggling economy are resorting to grey market sales tactics and ads. Many of these ads are either borderline or even illegal in nature. With all the publicity in recent years of scams and illegal business activities by businesses from every state you would think most states would have toughened up their laws and started to crack down on bad car dealers. Only one state, New York, has really done anything.

There are laws already on the books that make many of these advertisements and such illegal, but few states will even look into these activities. In New York, if you run a Push, Pull or Drag sale the odds are you will get fined. The thinking behind New Yorks laws is that if you promise someone a set figure for their vehicle it should not be factored into the discount or markup of the newer, replacement vehicle. This is deceptive advertising. Yet I hear these same ads, with even higher amounts promised on the radio and TV in North Carolina and South Carolina all the time. Then there’s the matter of expressed and implied warranties.

Expressed and implied warranties are actually covered under federal laws. Every car dealer must have a federally approved warranty disclosure placed in the window. This is to show if a warranty exists and what is actually covered. This was done as there was too much discrepency in the past with car salesman blurring the line of what is really covered and what isn’t. On a recent drive from North Carolina to South Carolina I saw 11 used car dealerships that did not have these in the windows – at one we found they were in the glove compartment. When we asked the salesperson why it wasn’t in the window he said it wasn’t necessary. In New York, every car dealer you drive by or visit will have these prominently displayed.

Then you have the usual lies – car dealers advertising a repossession sale, cream puffs, etc… They will lie about the origination of cars just like in a recent Carfax ad. Oh that was just a little fender scratch (complete repaint from a 50mph accident) or new upholstery (due to a flood and complete submersion). These repossession sales, like Repo Joe, do a media Blitz and claim they have all repossessed vehicles for a great buy. When in fact they probably don’t even have one repossessed car that is for sale. Most car dealers get their cars from either trades or local auctions.

Regardless of what they claim they most likely do not know the vehicles history. You can’t even rely on Carfax 100% as many vehicles are repaired without full salvage disclosure or even any repair history. A carfax report is only as good as the information that is actually entered into the system. Before you rely on that Carfax or what the dealer says is the cars history listen to this – Tennessee attorneys Frank Watson and David McLaughlin charge that Carfax’s ads promise more than it can deliver. “Carfax fails to disclose the limitations of their database,” says Watson. “People think they have a little insurance policy on their Carfax report, and it’s just not accurate,” says McLaughlin. Carfax is an online company that searches databases for a vehicle’s history, claiming to be “your best protection against buying a used car with costly, hidden problems.” But, critics say when it comes to many accidents, online reporting companies fall short. A class-action lawsuit against Carfax claims the company doesn’t have access to police accident data in 23 states.

This article should be a wake up call to car buyers to be more on the alert to car dealer scams, lies and untruths. It should also be an alert to states from Oregon to Florida that more needs to be done to curb bad car sales tactics. Most car dealers aren’t small mom and pop organizations. They are large million or billion dollar companies that will do anything to make a dollar. Even crossing the line or blurring what is legal and what isn’t. And according to one big dealer in Charlotte, North Carolina whom didn’t want his name or dealership mentioned for obvious reasons – “its all about that bottem line and if we get caught, thats what our lawyers are for. Per another car dealer, “it’s a buyer beware market: Buyers must beware and be detectives too.”

You did everything you were supposed to do. You put your best deal on the table and they accepted it. Now you move to the Finance Office. You think you are done negotiating and all you need to do is sign the paperwork and drive home. Not so Fast. The Finance office is the biggest profit center in the car dealership. That nice person behind the computer is a slick salesperson. It is his job to review the deal and see where he can squeeze more profit out of you.

Do not be in a hurry to sign and get out or you will be very sorry. A good finance salesperson will nail you for $3,000 – $4,000 more dollars and hide it in your contract if you do not keep your guard up. First of all, learn to say NO to anything they try to upsell you on. You must read the contract very carefully to make sure the numbers are exactly what you agreed upon. There are many little scams that occur in the finance office but the one I hear from readers the most is the Subject to financing scam.

Once you sign you are stuck. Too many people in their haste to get home, sign the contracts without reading them thoroughly. They get home and start looking through the paperwork and find items they didn’t want or loan rates that are higher, the length of the loan has been extended etc. Once you sign the contracts you are stuck. You already signed a form that stated that you read and understood all the items in the contract. No court is going to hear your case. Take your time and read everything. If you are not good at reading contracts bring someone with you that can. Never take the Finance salespersons word for anything!

The Subject to Financing clause scam. This is a very common tactic finance salespeople use. If you see this on the contract do not sign and above all, do not drive the car home. Another common term is Subject To Loan Approval. What usually happens here is several days after you drive home with your car, you receive a phone call from the salesperson that your loan fell through and you need to come back in and resign through another lender for more money. They may say we have great news, we got you a lower payment, and all they have done is increased the length of your loan. They do this more often with bad credit or sub prime buyers who are usually more cooperative. This occurs quite often on weekends when the lenders are closed. Just tell the finance salesperson you will come back Monday after we have a confirmed approval.

If they don’t have your loan approved, stand up and tell him that you will come back and sign when you have an approved loan with a payment book. Never sign a contract without knowing your lender, interest rate, length of loan and monthly payment. Once you sign and drive home with your new car you are at their mercy and you will end up paying more.

To learn more about this common Car Dealer scam and others, you should check out CarBuyingHelpOnline.com