Buying a new car has been an emotional roller coaster for me. When I finally admitted that I needed to replace my vehicle, I felt a mixture of anxiety and resentment...and little else. I'm busy, self-employed, and I dislike driving. In addition, I rarely watch TV, so I wasn't up to speed on what was available-or how much cars really cost. With a lot of self-discipline, I had saved for a car on a slow, consistent basis for a number of years, only to come to realize that I really needed more money (for more car) than I had budgeted. I had assumed I would buy the cheapest, tiniest sub-compact I could find, but my life had changed. I felt cast adrift, and uncertain about how to move forward.

The first thing I did was give myself a window of time to educate myself about what was what out there. I started looking at the kinds of cars surrounding me in our famous Southern California bumper-to-bumper traffic. I asked friends what they were driving, and why. I actually watched a little TV, just for the car ads!

During this window-shopping phase, I thought about what kinds of driving situations I needed a car for. For example, I recently became very active in my daughter's Girl Scout troop, most specifically in camping. We also recently got a puppy, and I wanted to be able to drive him in his carrier on long hauls to visit relatives and, when he is older, to compete in agility trials.

I thought about buying an SUV but I couldn't really afford one, and I shuddered at their MPG's. By this time, I had discovered several online sites chock full of information about cars, such as Edmunds.com, which included pricing, MPG, and lots of customer reviews. After some hours of netsearching and a few more recommendations by friends, I decided on the car I wanted. It was a tremendous relief, and I felt a rush of confidence. Buying a car might turn out to be a good experience after all, I thought.

In the final analysis, however, the car I wanted cost more than I was willing to spend, so I dropped down to a more affordable model. But in this case, having done my research, I knew the two models were similar, and I was gaining a few things such as more cargo space and a better MPG. So I felt even better about moving forward.

Then I hit another pocket of anxiety. After some sleepless nights (and a bag of potato chips), I realized that a great deal of my nervousness centered around actually purchasing the car from a dealer. Friends had assured me this would

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