I have a question about buying a vehicle...

[SheilaT]

52. What I found, back when I was buying cars, that I'd go to the Carmax site

and the price given for a car was well above what the starting point was for a comparable vehicle at another place. Invariably.

It's also been my experience that if you can simply arrange your own financing, which is what you tell them if you're actually paying cash, you don't have to play the financing games. You get a loan for whatever amount, the total cost of your car.

I've also only once ever had a trade-in, for somewhat complicated reasons, related mainly to previous cars being totalled. And the one time I had a trade-in, again, I did my research, knew what it should be worth, and told them I'd take the car I wanted for giving them my car (the trade-in) and a particular sum of money.

Basically, dealerships make a huge amount of their money in the finance department. Games about options and special features, playing with the numbers in the loan, all those depend on a poorly educated consumer. I am NOT suggesting you were poorly educated. It sounds like you definitely knew enough to recognize the games and the bullshit, so good for you.

But in my experience Carmax was decidedly pricier, but perhaps that has changed in recent years.