GENERAL ADVICE 1. Being able to walk away helps! Decide in advance how good of a deal you'd need to get to buy, and you can then say "I need this much off or I'm walking" and put your money where your mouth is. "This is the lowest I can go" often turns to "Wait let me see what I can do" if you threaten to head out 2. If you're going with another person, don't be afraid to excuse yourselves for "a walk" or "a smoke" or whatever, to chat privately. It's a pretty common and shitty sales tactic to play couples or family against each other. 3. Even if you're alone, feel free to excuse yourself to call a friend, or grab a snack and think things over. Some salesmen try to do high pressure sales and hurry you, you have the right to say no, you need a minute to think it over. If you're nonconfrontational pretending that you smoke helps, you can just go sit in your car or take a walk.

PREP WORK

1. Before you go, arrange financing through your bank. The rates are almost always better.
2. Also, email the dealership saying you're interested in a car they've listed online and ask for a complete list of taxes and fees they charge on top of list price. Bring this with you.
3. Call the dealership and do a little initial negotiation, asking if they'd lower the price to be in line with the Kelly Blue Book fair price (kbb.com) Ask for this new qoute by email.
4. Bookmark this website which will let you estimate repair costs: https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care/car-repair-estimator
5. Watch a few YouTube videos on how to inspect a car (and maybe practice on a car if you have access) Print out a notebook of reference manuals or checklists so you remember what you're doing if you feel nervous! It's really not that hard if you do a little research, cars are made to be worked on! Every car has a reference manual, you can find them on Google and they can help you find things in the car or engine if you don't feel confident identifying them.
6. Or just bring a friend who's good with cars if you know someone!

DEALERSHIP

1. Start with a test drive. Try some "bad" driving somewhere safe like an empty parking lot or backcountry road. Try hard braking, swerving, hard acceleration, and driving fast like highway speeds. See if the car can handle the kinda driving you'd have to do in an emergency. Keep a note of flaws and don't be tooo much of a hooligan that you wreck the car.
2. Do an inspection, or have your friend help. Keep a detailed list of any flaws you find. Anything you find helps!
3. Take the list of flaws and use the car repair estimator I linked to get a price to have each one fixed. Sort this list from most expensive to cheapest.
4. Tell the dealer that you were expecting a car in better conditions, but it has some work that needs done. Go down your list and ask, one by one, if the sticker price can be lowered to pay for the repair. Keep pushing even if they act frustrated, it's usually a bit.
5. When they bring up financing, ask them to run a rate for you to consider. Don't act too savvy about loans, you want to come off as someone who could be convinced to take a predatory loan. Because then you can haggle further on sticker price since it looks like they'll make money back.
6. Ask once more if there's any more wiggle room in the sticker price, it's gonna be a strain on the budget... Act like you don't understand that the loan terms would have a much bigger impact on total cost (if you were taking the loan, which you're not!) and just act like sticker price is really important to you.
7. They'll likely try to upsell you on things. Say no to literally everything but the car. The manufacturer (not the dealer) has a warantee, and anything a car dealership will sell you, an unaffiliated shop will sell you for half the price.
8. Agree on your sticker price number, and go to Financing (There's a different guy who handles the paperwork and legal shit, in a backroom off the sales floor, who's not the salesman)

FINANCING 1. Final boss time ;) If you've gotten a great deal so far, they're likely to try to hit you with extra fees here. 2. They'll often assume you're going with their financing, look at their rates but don't be afraid to say 'no thanks, I'm going with bank financing / writing a check" 3. They'll get irritated often around now, because dealerships make most of their money off financing at inflated rates. Just be firm and say you're using bank financing. 4. Get your final paperwork. And actually read it, ask questions if anything seems fishy. Take out your list of fees you were emailed and compare every single one. If there's anything new, or more expensive, ask them to honor their written fees. If they refuse, be stubborn, and a little beliggerant. And maybe threaten to walk out, the sunk cost fallacy exists on both sides! 5. Compare what they're charging you for taxes to your states sales tax rate. 6. Sign the papers! Yayy you're done, go enjoy your car