I bought a new car! It's the one I wanted a year and a half ago. It's the colour I wanted a year and a half ago. The only thing was, a year and a half ago I couldn't afford it. Some aggressive saving, lots of mileage money from business trips, and two raises later, I'm sitting pretty.
So what follows is Shannon's guide to getting a good deal on your trade-in when buying a new car. Please note that if you are a car guy or gal who knows exactly why having dual exhaust is a good thing and doesn't have to fake a smile when someone tells you how much horsepower the engine has, this post isn't important to you. Because you can probably get a way better deal than I ever will. If you are, however, a person who couldn't care less about 16 vs 15 inch alloy wheels and really mostly cares about the colour of the car and what the cupholders are like, then this post is for you my friend.
1. The first trick is that you must have a car to trade in. This step is mandatory to the trade-in process.
2. Decide how much you want for your car. Be confident in what it's worth. If you start low then you won't be offended by their first offer. You need to feel offended so you can get fiesty and fight for more cash.
3. Find out how much that car is worth according to something called the "Black Book" (go to a dealer's web page and most of them somewhere have a section where you can appraise your vehicle - I can't find one that will let me link). You need to know about this black book. All the dealers will tell you that your car
might be worth toward the high end of the range the black book gives. They may even tell you that at best it's worth $200
less than the high value from the black book with some excuse about how the black book on the internet uses higher values because it's a free service but that they pay for theirs and so it shows more accurate values. THIS IS CRAP. If your car is in good shape, you can get more than the high value. I promise.
4. Decide on what you want versus the absolute lowest you'll take. Once this is decided you have to stick to it. You have to be strong. They will sense any weakness. Seriously, if they offer you $100 less than what you want, you can't take it. If no one will give you what you want, you can always come back later. Remember though that you can probably take a bit less than what you want - they will subtract the trade-in from the price of the car
and then calculate taxes. So if you want ten grand, you can accept $9 and be saving enough in taxes to make it like you got $10,300 or something.
5. Have two or three cars in mind. Test drive them all. Have your trade-in appraised by 2 or 3 of the dealarships if they'll do it.
6. Pick one and go for it. Name your price.
7. This is the most important tip I will give you. Be willing to walk out of the dealership if you do not get your price. The only way you have any power is if you are okay with leaving without the car.
8. If you are a girl and you get "Josh the car salesman" (or any other guy), smile a lot and stuff. Not because you will get a better deal if you flirt, but because the Josh salesman is more likely to treat you like a silly girl who doesn't know much about cars. This will (or if it doesn't, it should) make you mad enough so you won't fall for the guilt trip when he starts using it.
9. Don't fall for the guilt trip. Don't feel that because he's spent all this time with you and has "taken a cut in his commission to get you a better deal" that you owe him anything. This step may be harder than it sounds if you haven't bought a car before. These guys are slick, even suave sometimes. Or think they are anyway.
10. He is not trying to get you the best deal because he "can tell you are a sweet girl". You may be a sweet girl, but it's a bunch of crap that that's why he's selling you the car. He wants to make money. That's his job.
11. When he looks at you incredulously because you won't take the fourth "absolute best we can offer" offer he's made, thank him for his time but remind him that you already agreed on a lowest price and you won't take less then that. Then shake his hand, smile, and walk out of there.
12. Be gracious when Jeff "the sales manager" follows you out of the store and says "Do you really think you'll get more than that for your car in a private sale? We really are making you a very good offer you know." Assert that yes you do think you can, but if you don't, then you are okay keeping the car you have. There's nothing all that wrong with it, you just were dreaming a bit about trading up. You've not only complimented his product and shown there's nothing wrong with your car, you've indicated that you really are going to drive away from here unless they give you that extra $500 you are asking for. (By the way, if the sales manager comes running out of the dealership after you, you've got him).
13. When he says, "What's the absolute lowest you'll take?" Say the same dang number you've been saying all evening. At this point, they might get it through their head.
14. Smile a lot and shake their hands when they come in and say you've got your deal. If you are nice, they might take extra good care when detailing your car.
If you follow these steps, you too may have an electric blue mica Mazda 3 with a sunroof just like me.
Zoom Zoom
The all-inclusive bracelet that is both stylish and functional. R (the bride) and I so cut ours off for the wedding. Guess we should have asked first though - it's kind of a process to get a new one. See my freckles!? They come out to play in the sun. 
This was our pool. Our meeting place. The resort had 6 "blocks" and ours was the third. The ocean was about 30 feet to the left. The hut thing in the corner, that's the bar. I was partial to the pineapple juice myself.
I did play some beach volleyball. It took me a bit to get over the face that not only am I self concious about playing sports, now I am playing them in a bathing suit. But it was good times.
I did some dancing. See me cutting in? I had to dance with statues you see, because they played almost no salsa music back at the resort. I did dance one night with a staff guy though. He spun me like I've never been spun before.
And I hung out under a weird statue. This was the day a couple of us went into Puerto Vallarta for church. Our taxi got stopped for speeding on that trip. And we experienced the Mexican bus system on the way home. There was a man with a little radio singing at the top of his lungs in Spanish when we got on. It was so cool.
The main event was of course the wedding. It was pretty much the most beautiful beach wedding ever.
Almost brought tears to my eyes. R was so beautiful.
This was our group. On the beach. In Mexico. On December 4. Too cool.
I got a pedicure the day of the wedding as the ladies all lounged at the spa. I also got a massage on the beach at sunset the last night. But no pictures of that.
And here is me and my friends on the last night. I'm in the skirt and second from the left.
