I'd read this book the first time many years ago and found it to be not only packed with great information, but a very fun read which is not what I had expected from a car buying book. My sister told me she was in the market for a used car and was shopping exclusively at car dealerships which instantly threw up a red flag in my mind. My first response was to very strongly recommend to her that she buy this book and read it before she stepped onto any dealership lot. She decided she didn't want to spend the money on the book and instead bought a 99 cent book on car buying that she found here on Amazon. I was horrified that she'd not be willing to spend a few dollars on a book that could save her hundreds so I went ahead and bought this book hoping that I'd be able to convince her to read it since I knew that it is so full of good information. After a couple days my sister informed me that her 99 cent book was about worthless and she was wishing she'd bought this book instead. I happily informed her that I had bought the ebook version and she was welcome to borrow my tablet and read it so she'd be prepared when she went shopping. She read the portions of the book that pertained to her situation and said she not only thought it was very good information but would be buying a paperback copy of it for her son so someday when he goes car shopping he doesn't get taken advantage of. I went with my sister and I'm happy to say that following the steps the author recommends she was able to negotiate like a pro and saved hundreds of dollars on her car and drove off the lot knowing she'd gotten the best deal possible on what very well could have been the best car deal on a dealership sold used car within 200 miles.
The reason I only rated this book 4 stars instead of 5 stars is because I have doubts about how accurate the authors information is on how dealers nowadays pull sneaky and unethical tricks on buyers on the internet (like when you visit a car website they install software on your computer to track your every move on the internet so they can use that information against you, I think it's possible, I just don't know that I'm ready to believe it's happening). That being said though I had to laugh at one dealership and although I was making a joke about it I couldn't help wondering if Remar Sutton may not have been quite as paranoid as I'd thought while I was reading his book. As we were pulling into the 2nd lot she shopped at I jokingly mentioned to my sister that if Remar is right that at that moment there was a high powered camera zooming in on her plates and they were checking to see what information they had accumulated on her since she'd visited their website to see if they had any cars she was interested in. I'm old and forgetful so I can't remember the first thing the salesman did make me chuckle and point out to my sister that see Remar is right they couldn't have known that unless they were tracking you on the internet after you visited their website. The second thing that I raised a red flag for me was at one point when the salesman asked for her contact information in case they needed to contact her in the future he asked for her name, address and phone number to type into his computer. She stated her name and started to say her address and he cut her off and told her her address and phone number and asked if that information was still correct. It made me chuckle and make a joke about it to my sister that see another example that maybe old Remar isn't as crazy as we'd thougt, but behind the joking was a certain amount of true wondering about this coincidence since it was the 2nd fishy thing that the salesman had come up with since we'd driven onto this lot. It makes me wonder if maybe Remar may not be as crazy on this subject as I'd originally thought. I can't say this experience convinced me he is correct, but I'm certainly more open to the possibility than I was before visiting this lot.
I'll conclude with a final piece of trivia that may help someone from getting ripped off. Many years ago I'd either seen on a TV special or read a very good way to verify if a car seller's feeding you a line of B.S. if they try to sell you an older car with extremely low miles on it that was only driven by a little old lady who only drove it to church on Sundays. Well, the car my sister ended up buying turned out to be a 10 year old vehicle with only 30,000 miles on it that the salesman informed her was driven by an 84 year old customer of his that only rarely drove it since her family usually picked her up and drove her when she needed to go someplace and since she really didn't drive it hardly ever decided to get rid of it so it wouldn't just be sitting around taking up space in her garage. I literally laughed at the story when the salesman fed us that story and he wasn't happy with my open skepticism of the "true story" he'd just told us. We went out look at the vehicle and thankfully I remembered the test I'd learned many years before about how to debunk the little old lady and crazy low mileage story. What I did was I reached under the dashboard and felt the gas and brake pedals with my fingers and was surprised to feel that the textured pattern on them was almost like new and not very worn like they would be if they'd been used for many years of normal driving. As I'd learned many years ago if an odometer has been rolled back yep car salesmen will detail a car to make the interior and engine look in great shape, but they never think to replace old and worn gas and brake peddles which would be worn and prove the car had been driven considerably more than that what the odometer indicates. I readily admit that I'm not very good with cars so I told my sister that based on what I'd just checked I was willing to concede that maybe the salesman's story had some truth to it, but that to be sure she should take it to her personal mechanic who she knows from many years of going to him is very honest and knowledgeable to have it inspected by a professional to verify if the salesman's story checked out. Her mechanic did a complete check of the vehicle and informed her that yep as weird as it sounded after checking the car over very carefully he had no doubt that it was in fact a 10 year old car with only 30,000 miles on it. He also pulled up a Carfax on the vehicle (like my sister and the salesman had done but he wasn't aware of that fact) and found nothing in that to contradict the salesman's story. So the bottom line is if your salesman is trying to sell you an old car with crazy low mileage only driven by a little old lady check the gas and brake pedals. If the story's true there should be very little wear on texture on the flat surface of the pedals. If the car with crazy low mileage has pedals with lots of wear on them and the textures worn considerably tell your friendly salesman to shove and walk off the lot and never return there again.
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Don't Get Taken Every Time: The Ultimate Guide to Buying or Leasing a Car, in the Showroom or on the Internet
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The best car buying book you can buy. Spend a few dollars and save hundreds or thousands on your next car.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 24, 2015Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 26, 2013
Top reviews from other countries
JohnA
Good read, fun and you might learn a trick or two
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 16, 2008
