Car Buying Guide for New & Used Vehicles

Welcome to my 100% free online car buying guide for new and used vehicles. My name is Carlton Wolf and I've been in the retail car business for over 20 years. I created the Auto Cheat Sheet to better educate buyers on the deceptive sales practices found in many dealerships across the country.

Please understand, not all car dealers and their personnel are dishonest. However, you never know who you're going to end up dealing with when you walk into a car dealership.

Would you like to buy a car, but worry about paying too much or being ripped off by a dealer? If you're like most people, you don't want to spend hours in a dealership haggling with a car salesman, but still want to get the best possible price and walk away confident you received a great deal. My free online car buying guides will show you how easy it is to accomplish that goal.

For almost two decades, the Auto Cheat Sheet has helped thousands of people level the playing field when navigating the deceptive car buying process. But also educate them on how to recognize and avoid costly car dealer scams.

Online Car Buying Guides

How to Buy New Cars

Buying a new car is the second most expensive purchase most people will make in their lifetime. It should be fun and exciting, not frightening or scary.

Auto Cheat Sheet will show you how to buy the new car you want at the best possible price without having to deal with pushy arrogant frontline salespeople.

How to Buy Used Cars

Buying a used car is different from buying new. Used cars do not have an invoice and there is no way to tell how the vehicle has been treated by the previous owner.

The Auto Cheat Sheet will walk you through the entire used car buying process. You will find useful information on how to estimate a dealer's used car cost, negotiation tips, tell if a vehicle has been in an accident, read a VIN, and even learn the proper way to perform a test drive.

The Best Car Price May Not Be the Best Deal

Receiving the best price on a vehicle is only one piece of the car buying process. There are several areas a dealer will attempt to part you with your money. These areas include, but are not limited to financing, your trade, warranties, insurance, aftermarket products and the many car buying scams associated with the industry.

My car buying guide will cover all these areas in detail so you can have confidence knowing you received a great deal when buying your next new or used car.

Just one of the topics above may save you thousands of dollars on your next vehicle purchase. My advice is you read through all the above topics to guarantee you have a general knowledge of the entire car buying process. Make sure you send me your success story and let me know how you did.

How Car Dealers Count Their Money

Ever wonder why one person can get a great deal on a car and the other one doesn't? A dealer knows every car sale is different and they look at every deal separately. However, they look at the total profit collectively from all the vehicles sold for the month and then average it out over the total vehicles sold.

Example: Customer A buys a Honda Accord for $500 under dealer cost. Customer B bought the same car for a $1,600 profit and customer C bought the same car at a $5,400 profit. From the above three car deals the dealer grossed a total of $6,500. Divide it by the cars sold and the dealer is averaging $2,166.66 PVR (per vehicle retailed).

My tips will not show you how to steal a car from a dealership, but I will teach you how to not be customer C in the example above. The car buying tips within the Auto Cheat Sheet will NOT make the dealer a lot of money, but because of the way they average profit, they will still be happy to sell you a car.

Why, you ask? Because after you, there will be another person stumble into the dealership, uneducated and unprepared, trying to buy a car like their parents did. I guarantee the dealer will make up any lost profit from your car deal on the next guy. Learn more about the new car buying process and how it works.

Car Dealer Scams Exposed

Not all car dealers are bad, but it can be very difficult to know which ones are doing business honestly. Many of the most common tricks of the trade are easily avoidable if you know what to look for.

My goal is to expose the deceptions used by the unethical dealers so you don't end up becoming another victim.

Why is Buying a Car Such a Hassle?

In reality, manufacturers would love to get rid of the middleman (car dealerships) and let you buy a new car directly from the source. However, back in the day, manufacturers focused only on building cars and did not want to take on the hassle of selling to the public.

This is how the traditional car dealership came about. Dealers took on the responsibility to sell and provide service for the vehicles the manufacturers were building. To guarantee the manufacuters could not take back control. Dealers banded together decades ago to protect their business's from franchise laws.

With no Internet available, it was very difficult to comparison shop or gather information on a vehicle you wanted to buy.

The only way to buy a new car was to go to your local car dealership and hope that you don't get ripped off.

Since the birth of the Internet you can get all the pricing information you need if you know where to look. However, the franchise laws dealers put into place in the past is what still protects them today.

There have been several attempts to change the laws to benefit the consumer, but dealers are protected politically and it is very difficult to win once you sign a contract. The fact is, if you're going to buy a new car, you will always have to buy it from a franchise dealership. An example would be if you want a new Ford pickup you'll have to buy it from a licensed Ford dealership.

The Car Buying Game is Rigged

Car dealers have an unfair advantage when it comes to negotiating the price of a new or used car. The average person will buy a car every four to six years, in this same time period a car dealership will sell around 4,500 cars. As you can see, the dealer has a little more experience selling cars than you do buying them.

As if this weren't enough, there's several different areas to the car buying process where a dealer can take advantage of you. Do you want new or used? Are you trading in a vehicle? Are you financing, leasing, or paying cash? How about protecting your investment with an extended warranty and insurance?

To make matters even worse, dealers are very good a wearing you down. They know if they drag out the car buying process long enough, you'll get tired and buy a car on their terms just to get out of there. It's a fact that some car purchases can take the entire day to complete. The sad thing is, even after taking all day to buy a vehicle you still won't know if you actually received a fair deal or not.

What's the Secret Formula to Buying a Car?

Car dealer's prey on the uninformed, just dropping in to buy a car without first doing your homework puts you at a severe disadvantage. I don't know how many times I'd hear a customer say, "When I came in, I wasn't planning on buying a car today," right before driving off in their new vehicle. The average gross profit made on these customers is much higher and is what makes if possible for a smart car buyer like yourself get such a great deal.

The secret formula to getting a great deal when buying a new or used car is "knowledge." The more you familiarize yourself with all aspects of the car buying process beforehand, the less chance you have overpaying for your next vehicle.