Post #304652 by TikiJosh on Mon, May 7, 2007 1:37 PM

Very good advice! It's exactly the mistake my wife made when she was shopping. She said I'm willing to pay X dollars per month.
Instead of putting her in the Camry she could afford at X dollars per month, she wound up in a much smaller Corolla that I don't even fit in! All because she didn't shop for a car, she shopped for a payment. And the salesman found one that she could make.

In addition to knowing their inventory, the salesman will put you in the cheapest car for the largest sum of money he can manage. As Vampiress notes, they'll "bump you up", even after you've been bumped into a cheaper car. I think my wife paid the full sticker price, AND the delivery fees (which you almost never have to pay when buying from dealer stock, at least in my experience). Normally, a dealer knocks off delivery fees and other stuff to make the car cheaper. In this case, he was able to get away with leaving them on.

It's always a little extra work to get info on a car you might be buying, but it's always worth it. An unscrupulous salesman WILL rip you off if you give him the chance. If you know what you're getting into, you can at least protect yourself. At the very least, you always have the option of getting up and leaving.

Anyway, I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but stuff like this just gets my blood up. I hope there's a special type of tiki-hell for jerks that rip people off.