<prompt> Human: Hello PF! I wanted to share my car buying experience. I used the advice from here on PF and other car buying guides to figure this all out. This is for for those who are inexperienced like me who would liked to read about anothers experiences. disclaimer: I am by no means an expert or a professional. This weekend I bought a new 2015 Honda Fit LX automatic for 16,432. Dealerships are trying to sell it for 17,115. This isnt thousands off dollars off but I am really proud of it!I decided to buy new for a variety of reasons. One primary reason is that I am going to keep this car for as long as I can so I dont mind investing in it... and I really wanted that new car feel after driving beaters. This isnt rfinancialindepence so I hope this is welcome here.My steps in no particular order:1. Find the price for all the extra fees and I need to pay to find out my real budget2. Research to find the car that fit my needs the most3. Get a quote online4. Get approve for a loan5. Leg work to see if people would beat my deal6. The big day: finally putting it all together7. Stick to my gunsHere are the steps fleshed out:1 So, the first thing I did was a ton of research. I found out which fees I should pay and which I would definitely not pay. I live in California, so I found out that I only had to pay up to 80 in documentation fees, average of 244 in registration fees, sales tax should not exceed 10. Knowing almost the exact dollar amount is really important as I will explain further down.2 After that, I researched what cars I wanted. I compared New vs Used vs. CPO. Two websites that really helped me weigh the pros and cons were Fueleconomy.gov and US News Best Cars. 3 Once I narrowed down the car, I went online to find the lowest price. I went to so many that I dont know how I found the deal that I took. But the internet manager was emailing me from a dealership and was actually offering me around the price that Kelly Blue Book. So I think I secured a price going through Kelly Blue Book.4 I applied at a local credit union to find the best loan for me. I was approved for 1.99 for 48 months from the first place I applied at. Great, no need to shop around. But I tried USAA where I am insured at and was approved for a 3.49 loan. Both USAA and the credit union offered to find me the lowest deal on a car. Credit Union loan had no early payment fees or terms that made me pay all of the interest. It was an amortized loan, but I think most are. This means that I pay more interest in the beginning of the loan than I do at the end. This safeguards the loan company if I decide to pay it off early. 5 Saturday I decided to devote it to going to local dealerships to see if they would match or beat my quote because the dealership was far away. None would. They offered me 17,100 and some went as low at 16,900 if I promised to buy the 7 year warranty for 1800. But I learned quite a bit. They also tried to throw at me that the car was so hot I would miss out on a deal. But the sale associate who was helping me messed up by bringing me to where they hold their cars on the rooftop parking lot. I counted at least 5 fits and 3 were LX. Manager these cars are going fast! youll lose out on this deal!lil-aud really? why did I count at least 5 on your rooftop then?I also learned that although the price was guaranteed, the dealership would coerce me to pay for other stuff. One of the sales managers at the local dealership was nice enough to fill me in on the scams, like adding unnecessary warranties, security systems, and accessories.. I read the terms and conditions of my internet quote and it said that destination fees and advertising were included in the price but that it does not include dealer installed accessories.So I called the dealership where I got the quote from and spoke with their floor sales manager everyone is a manager at dealerships.. talk about too many chiefs in the tee-pee. I asked her what the cars come packaged with. She said only a 20 window decal or something like that. I forgot, because the most important fact was that whatever it is only cost 20. I also found out they had 3 white Honda Fit LX in stock. 6 My boyfriend drives me to the dealership at 9:30am so that we would have all day devoted to it. And we needed all the time; it took over 2 hours despite having everything already figured out.I test drove the car I wanted. It was beautiful. We dont have to hassle over price, which is great. So we get down to the meat of it: the break down of the prices. He has on a pro-package for 795. Woah woah woah. Hold the press. I very politely asked him what the heck that was about. We went back and forth about how I refused to buy anything extra. I mean come on! Mud flap protection for my tires?? This is a honda fit. I live in LA. There is no mud here because it doesnt rain and Im not going off-roading in this car. been there done that.. got my cars axle stuck on a rock in the desert. long story.We went back and forth and he kept saying she told you that? only 20? They tried to discount it for 500 but I refused. Once they realized I would not budge they took it off. I finally only had tax, doc fees, and registration. Needless to say, I was a happy camper.Then we go to financing. I had a sizable down payment 8000 but still needed to finance 11k. I told him he had to beat my credit union loan offers. So he pulls out a sheet of paper that lists the monthly payments, etc. He actually could match them with a few that were slightly different months or interest rate. My boyfriend who is silent at this point pulls out his phone to compare interest rates to see if changing the months or rate would help me save more money. And we found out that his interest rates were wrong! for the 1.99 interest rate they tried to charge me 244 when it actually came out to 237 and some change. That is a discrepancy of 7 bucks a month! What the hell? He may have been trying to tack on a monthly price for a warranty or car alarm system. They are so shady! I could not believe it.I am a little ashamed that I took their loan instead of my loan even though they were the same loan. I was hungry because I skipped breakfast. But I just wanted to finish quickly so I could finally eat. So important recap:A. check the fine print to figure out what they can charge you with.b. make sure what they say they will charge actually adds up to what they are actually charging youc. eat before-hand7 Even after all that and after we shook hands, they still tried to sell me on warranties and car alarm systems. The alarm systems are over priced so I would never get it done at the dealership. I just said no and signed all the paperwork. They were nice in the end and filled up my tank at a gas station is this standard practice?I learned so much this weekend. I am so glad it is over! But I did learn that diligence pays off.TL;DR1. do ALL the research2. buy a new car3. ? ? ?4. profitSeriously, I think the most valuable lesson I learned was being meticulous in reading all the fine print and in adding up all the costs to make sure I am not getting ripped off.  <response>: Good for you. Ive bought two vehicles now. One was a used car from a private party and it wasnt the best experience. The other was a new motorcycle. This bike was new at the time and very popular 2014 Yamaha FZ-09. Dealers wanted to mark it up like crazy. In the end, I decided to pick a number I was willing to pay OTD out the door and I tried multiple places until one place was willing to take my offer.One manager basically tried to criticize me for making up some unrealistic price. Then I got the bike for that price at another dealer. So Ive learned the value of sticking to my guns. It feels much better down the road when you know you paid what you wanted to. 