Nick Ranieri plays hardball and that got him $11,000 dollars off the sticker price of a Chevy Tahoe.

“I told them because of the economy, if you do the right thing by me I'll leave with a car today.”

It's a buyer’s market. Not only for new cars, but for used ones too, which Americans are choosting 78% of the time.

But if you do it, choose carefully:

1) Pick the model you're interested in, then do your research.

Go to automotive websites like www.edmunds.com, where you can plug in the model and get reliability reports and consumer reviews.

2) Next, research a fair price.

For instance, a new 2009 Chevy Malibu starts at around $23,000 dollars.

Kelly’s Blue Book puts a 2006 model, with about 40-thousand miles, closer to $11,000. 

The lower price also means lower sales tax and lower insurance premiums.

Another route is buying a used rental car.

The prices are low, and the cars are usually no more than a year old, so they’re covered by the original warranty.

But experts warn, these autos take a lot of abuse from rental customers.

Online auctions like ebay motors let you check out the market place from home. But the cars might too far away to check out in person. Which is why service histories are important.
 
“If they can't provide you with the service history it's one of those things you kind of have to worry about cause you don't know how it was maintained,” says Jon Linkov, Auto Specialist for Consumer Reports.

If the seller can’t provide the report, use the vehicle identification number to look it up on www.carfax.com to see if its been in a crash.

All this extra work can pay off, when the rubber meets the road.