Thanks everybody. I had a pretty quiet day today. I'll be heading to my sister's house in Thousand Oak soon and then to Hemet for Christmas.
Thanks, but who is that old man in the picture?
I had good luck with the Edmunds.com buying program. Chris likes TruValue. You might also try the kbb.com (Kelly Blue Book) and any other that you might find. The nice thing is that you can get several quotes and choose based on both price and dealership.
Edit: Of course, you have to know what make, model and options you want before you can take advantage of a web-based buying program. You can research those things at the aforementioned sites. You can also get different cars and option combos if you want.
I agree that using a web-based sales tool is the way to go. Most dealerships have an internet sales department. I used Edmunds.com when buying my last car. I got a price for the car on line. Unfortunately, the dealer was about 1 hour away. I took the quote to my local dealer and they matched it. This price was below dealer invoice. I controlled the out the door cost by refusing almost all of the suggested add-ons. I was planning on paying cash, but they had a deal for .9% interest. I decided that it was cheaper to take the loan than pay cash.
Reminds me of the Christmas ski trip I once made with a friend and his father to North Conway. All night long on Christmas Eve we heard "drip, drip, drip" as the snow melted. Needless to say, conditions weren't great in the morning.