Also be ready for them to sell you on the extended warranty. You'll be vulnerable and confused! Watch out!

Oh and one other thing. Since it sounds like you have not bought via dealer before, watch out for the following:

Guy you are dealing with says "what if we do X. Would you accept that?". If you way yes ,he will get a check from you and bring it to his boss, and then come back and say "your offers was not accepted. The boss is willing to do y". So now you thought you were accepting an offer from him but really he just got you to raise yours. Plus they have a check to hold to keep there negotiating it. So if they say something like that and it is a deal you like, ask them if that is a firm offer on their part.

I'd also recommended looking on a used-car site like Autotrader.com even if you are planning to physically go places to look. The dealers know price is what's going to attract people there, so you'll get a better idea of what the real prices are and what you can get for the amount you want to spend. If you see a great price there, print off the ad and bring it with you.

Also make sure you only talk about the out-the-door price (with taxes and fees), which is what you will actually be paying for the car and will be hundreds more than the asking price.

Oh, good call. And good advice, everyone! I'm taking notes.

The other piece of the puzzle is financing. How are you going to pay for it, and do you have that set up before you go? You should; their financing is unlikely to be favorable to you.

Happy Friday! Here's a funny cat video:

Kitten Doesn't Understand "Transparent"

Caro the kitten is trying to liberate Miho from an invisible force field. Meanwhile, mama is glad to have a minute of peace and quiet inside the box!

That was frickkin adorable!

Liese, we're lucky enough to be able to pay for the car outright, so fortunately we don't have to worry about financing. But thanks for thinking of it!

Kate, don't mention the fact you'll be paying cash until the last possible minute. When my now-ex-SIL and my brother went shopping for their minivan after their first kid was born, she took charge of the haggling (she's good at that). She got them down to below what the car cost them, because they figured they'd make it back on the financing. Only then did she pull out their checkbook and tell them they'd be paying cash. They ended up losing money on the sale!

Here are Clark Howard's car-buying tips: [link] He also says to get the Carfax report [link] on used cars and to have your own mechanic check out the car.

eta: What Kathy said.