re: I hate the car buying process.

quote:

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Do not even mention a possible trade in until you have negotiated the price on the new vehicle that you want to buy.

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This. I also never answer the "Are you looking to finance?" question. If you do finance, bring a device (web-enabled phone, ipad, etc) to access a payment calculator. Example, when negotiating for a '07 Tahoe, we were going to finance $19K for 5 years. The dealer "worked out the numbers" and told us the payment would be $600-something per month. I literally looked at him and laughed. He was stunned and asked what I thought the note would be. I pulled out my phone and went to Bankrate.com and showed him the result with the terms upon which we had agreed. The result was $343.52 per month, nearly half of what he quoted us, and the terms were the same! He tried to pass it off, but his goose was cooked. We got up and left, and he chased us out the door saying, "We'll do $360!" We left and went to find our Yukon.