With the advent of the Internet consumers have a new key to combat the tactics or even avoid car salesmen. We have written this brief guide to help the consumer get the edge over car salesmen, or better yet avoid them and purchase a car online for a better deal!

If you are in the market for a new or used car please read this article in its entirety and take notes if needed. While this article is primarily written for purchasing a new vehicle much of its logic applies to used vehicle purchases as well.

Budget:

While we all would like to walk to the dealership and get the nicest car, you must make a budget. When determining your budget keep in mind the various taxes and fees associated with purchasing a car. A few examples include sales tax and dealer fees.

To help you determine what budget you might have, you should decide the following.

• How much can you put down
• How much can your payment be
• How much can you afford

Once you have established these figures hold onto it without telling the dealer this information or you might as well kiss off a good fair deal.

Research:

Once you set your budget its time to do your research. To begin this process you must determine what you want out of a car and tabulate a short list. 

With this information you should then start researching what vehicles will both fit your budget and requirements. At this point you should narrow your search down to a three or four vehicles and note the pros and cons of each vehicle. After you have taken these steps you should then head over to our message forums and post our read other peoples comments on the cars you are looking at. If you are new to our site and would like to take advantage of posting questions please register for free.
 

Pricing:

Once you have selected a few vehicles to further look into we recommend you price them online to get an idea what your dealer should be charging. You can run the numbers by members on the forums and also compare to websites such as CarsDirect.com to see if you are getting a good deal.

After you have gathered this information we suggest you head over to the car lots to get a feel for the cars you are looking at.