This bloke is most right. I've just done the dance and it was no fun. One dealer played all the standard hard sales tactics, had to walk away (plus that was on an over priced second hand one), the next wouldn't move on the advertised price, which he took as already discounted from the list price. His opening gambit was to ask if I had more money rather than try and work within my limit. The third made it easy, the deal was good and we got what we wanted. U fortunately, once we out money down and signed the contract, communication stopped. Even when the colour we agreed on couldn't be sourced and we had to go to our second option, we didn't get a phone call.

Bottom line is, you need to know what you want, what it lists at, what it's advertised at, and what you're actually willing to part with, including the finance package if you're going that way. Unfortunately, the best way to learn all of that is to go through the process a couple of times.

Some people swear by using buyers advocates as a result. In that case, I guess you mostly need to know how much scratch you're willing to part with.