Looking back, they can see several warning signs:

· Though local regulations say the advertised price should include everything but taxes, the dealer added $900 for documentation and “administration”.
· The documentation fee — $600 – was excessive in an area where most car dealers charge less than $500.
· He informed them of these fees by scrawling them on the back of a business card – not on an official contract.
· Once they questioned the legality of this, the dealer grew defensive and refused to have anything more to do with them. As they really wanted the car, they arranged with relatives to buy it for them – but their relatives found the price had gone up to $6,000.
· The dealer and his staff had acted in other less than professional ways – for example, asking the customers to call before they came over.
· Although the dealership had a good rating at the Better Business Bureau, a closer look showed five complaints in the last three years.
· Staff said the car’s interior carpet had been cleaned by “soaking down to the metal” – not the way to go with a vehicle that spends most of its time closed. It apparently had not been dried completely, because an unclean smell developed inside the car after a few hours.
· The seats showed signs of having been moved, raising suspicions that the car may have been in an accident.

These are all things that make someone stop and wonder – and if you run into any of them while buying a used car, proceed with caution.

I LOVE to debate others, but I absolutely hate dealerships.  These guys come at you from many angles to confuse you.  Once they gain mind control over you, they have control of the deal.  I will give you some tips to control the experience.

First and foremost, do your homework.  Have a good idea of what car you want and the options that are important to you.  Then go to www.edmunds.com, and get the invoice price of your dream car.  The invoice price is the price that the dealer claims they pay for it and is the lowest most dealers will go…if you can get them there.  This website also will tell you the average price people in your area are paying for this car.  After that, I print out this quote and the price of each option from the site.

Now that we have this, make sure you can afford the payment of this car.  Once you get an idea of what you can afford don’t focus on this number.  Most people walk into the dealer not knowing what they should be paying, instead they tell them where they want their payments.  These are the dealers’ dream victims as they tailor everything around this number.  More often than not, you will overpay (big time) for your car.

Next, as you are negotiating focus on one piece of the puzzle at a time.  The salesman will mix in different options and trade-in options to get you off the path.  Focus on one topic until you get a number written down on paper, and then move on to the next.

After this twelve hour marathon, don’t buy the car right now!  You are still in “deal heat” and are thinking emotionally.  Take a day or two to digest everything.  If it still looks good tomorrow, it probably is good.