1) The first thing you need to do is learn how to negotiate your price. I wish I had known this a few years back when I got my last car. I did not know anything about negotiating. I was taken advantage of with my financing. Do yourself a favor and learn from my mistakes.
Car salesmen have a trick they use. They will ask you how much you can afford to pay each month. This is the wrong approach and more people need to know about it. They want to set the price at how much you can afford each month, not based on the price of the car. You need to negotiate the price of the car, not the payments you will be making. Doing the latter will ensure you pay more in the end.
2) Most salesmen want to negotiate the terms of the loan based on the long term, not the short-term. A car will depreciate for each year you have it. They know this. They do not want you to know it. They want you to drag things out as long as possible. The more you drag the payments out, the more they have control over the deal.
3) Your salesman will try to "sell" you extras. Do not get sucked in by it. They may their money by ripping people off like this. These products they try to sell are not needed. Salesmen use them to scam those who are naive with car buying. They count on you to be naive in your negotiating. They do not want you to be smart. They cannot make money off of smart car buyers.
Be a smart car buyer, not a naive one.
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