<prompt> Human: Im looking to purchase a new Jeep. Im a first time car buyer. The car I currently drive is a 2011 Beige Toyota Corolla worth 3,900 according to my latest appraisal from Toyota I currently owe 3,931 and the loan has a co signer. I over pay every month about 20 for a monthly payment of 350 Ive worked on my credit for some time and decided that I would work on purchasing a new car. I have 3 kids and drive a lot due to kids baseball travel games. I always wanted a Jeep so I decided to purchase one this time around. I currently have a FICO SCORE 2 of 731 and a FICO AUTO SCORE 8 of 712 I belong to a credit union that offers the lowest APR on a 60 month term of 2.49 Ive been doing my research on the vehicle and have been comparing prices. Im looking at prices between 18,975 and 28,967 ranging from the 2017-2019 Cherokees and Compass model new and used.I plan on trading my car and have a 2000 down payment. I want to keep my monthly payments the same and for a 60 month term.Im a single mother and afraid to step in to a dealership without some knowledge of the process. Im thinking of financing my own car with my credit union before hand. How much should I ask for? Whats the best way to get the best deal on the car and what to avoid when its comes to signing paperwork.Thank you in advance!  <response>: Here is my normal approach to buying a car. Its still a work in progress I get better at it every time, but I hope that parts of it help you out.- Research cars up front. Reliability and cost are the most important things to me, so thats where I focus my research. I want to know which cars have the best cost-to-expected-miles ratio, and I want to be able to roughly estimate the risk of that ratio. Cost includes purchase price, resale price after I drive it into the ground, gas, consumables oil, tires, etc, maintenancerepairs.- Get an offer for my current car from Carmax or similar. Carmax offers are good for a week - Ive never actually ended up selling my car to Carmax in the end because Ive always gotten the dealer to match or beat it but it gives you leverage in negotiations and it gives you a backup plan if you cant get what you want for the trade-in. - Another tip: Ive always had success discussing everything about the new car with the dealer before I begin negotiations for the trade-in. Otherwise, they tend to try to move one price while discussing the other.- Emailmessage dealers online. I use dealers email addresses if theyre available. If not, I use the silly forms you can fill out on their websites. I try to be specific about the things that matter most to me e.g., I want a C-RV and non-specific about things that give away some of my leverage e.g., color. I also tend to browse the dealers stock on their websites beforehand to get an idea of whats available and what they have lots of. Im also not scared to drive 60 miles to buy the car I want at the price I want, so I email A LOT of dealerships. If youre interested in 2 or 3 cars, youll be emailing even more dealerships but youll get a better idea of how much you can beat the KBB price for each car.- Wait for replies. If none of the replies have a price you want, then thats a good reason to expand your search to other dealerships, other cars, or other times e.g., waiting a month. As a baseline, I always try to beat the lowest value in the Fair Market Range on kbb.com for the new car. Watch for fees being includedmissing from prices, especially the freight fee which covers transporting the car form the factory to the dealer - that one is left out by some dealers and included by others.- Start replying to the dealerships that email you back. In my experience, about half will send you an offer that includes a price I usually buy relatively inexpensive cars, so this likely varies with cars in the 30k range, and half will tell you something like please call or come in to visit us today! My favorite reply ever was a salesman who emailed me back and wrote something like Please call my phone number today so that I can explain to you why buying a car using the internet can save you money. When I reply back I usually ask clarifying questions about options and additional fees - I always want to get it in writing that the price they sent me includes all fees except for tax, tags, and title these are fees charged by the State, not by the dealership.- Sometimes I negotiate, especially if I want to buy the car from dealership X and the best offer I have is from dealership Y. Ill e-mail X and say something like Y offered me this price for the car - if you can match it I can come in today.- When you actually get there, have everything you need printed out make sure it has the agreed-upon price and the statement that all the fees except tax tags and title are included. Absolutely refuse to pay a penny more for anything. For my last car, for example, they told me that they had already put wheel locks and splash guards on it so I had to pay 400 or something. I told them I didnt want those and to please take them off. It took 45 minutes, but in the end, they left them on there and I didnt pay the 400.- You have to absolutely be able to leave the dealership if the deal changes on you. For me, this means that its really hard to go with my kids.- Its also easier if you can get your financing sorted out ahead of time - thats one fewer thing that they can use to negotiate.- With the trade-in, its a similar approach. I haggle for a while and dont tell them that I have a CarMax appraisal. If we cant get to the price I want then I show them the appraisal and ask them to match it. If they do, I buy a car. If not, I either walk away, sell it to Carmax, or make plans to sell the old car later - I dont give them my car for less money than Carmax offered, and if I hadnt been happy with Carmaxs offer than my minimum trade-in price would be higher note that if theyll give you almost as much as Carmax and you live in a state where the trade-in means youll pay less sales tax on the new car, that might make sense.- It takes hours sometimes, but I absolutely refuse to pay anything for all the extra warranties and stuff that the finance manager offers.Ive bought 3 cars for my family with this basic approach and 2 for other friends and extended family. Its a bunch of leg-work but its worked out well for me.If youve got any questions, please let me know and Ill try my best to answer.Good luck! 