Used car salesmen have a bad reputation, perhaps for good reason. Outwitting them and getting the best deal that you possibly can on a used car requires a bit of forethought and planning. Thanks to online car sales, you can get a far better idea of how much particular cars are worth at varying conditions. Even though salesmen have a lifetime's worth of experience bargaining hard with customers, you can use the vast wealth of information available for free to come to a dealership armed and prepared with the knowledge that you need to come out on top in the transaction.

Autocheck.com can help you find out whether a car that you're buying has been in an accident in the past. If the car has been subjected to flooding or a serious crash, you can use that knowledge to either avoid buying a particular car or to bid the price downwards. Every salesman has a lower bound on the price of the car that they're selling. In negotiation, they work hard to keep their full knowledge of a car concealed. By learning some of a car's hidden history, you chip away at their bargaining position and gain some serious advantage.

One good tip is to purchase used cars from rental agencies. Although the exteriors are often in mediocre shape, these companies have a vested interest in keeping the machine's internals running at a good level of quality. Touching up an exterior is a lot cheaper than fixing up a bum engine, so contacting rental companies is often a great way to get good deals, particularly when they're rolling in new models and need to clear out their inventory.