As many of our commenters justly pointed out in the comments of yesterday’s Confessions of a Car Salesman, the only way to truly avoid getting ripped off buying a car is to know what you want, know what it’s worth and have a spine.

But in case you’re missing one of those criterion, let me point your attention to an excellent new blog by Earl Stewart, a Florida Businessman and car dealership owner. There’s a lot of good nuggets of common-sense advice here. For example, here’s an interesting insider’s insight on the “really big discount”:

The “really big” discount”… Federal law requires new cars to have a price sticker on the window named the Monroney label. A discount from this suggested retail price gives you a fair basis for comparison. Unfortunately, most car dealers today, increase the suggested retail price substantially with the use of an addendum to the Monroney sticker often referred to as a “Market Adjustment Addendum”. This “adjustment” can be several thousands of dollars. Be sure you know what the asking price is for the car when you have been offered a “big discount”.

We’re interested in hearing about any other decent resources to help prospective car buyers avoid a quivering Car Salesman’s mushroom in their colon, so if you got ’em, feel free to let us know.

Earl Stewart on Cars

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