Research is the best way to avoid car sales scams. Once you've done that, you have to make a decision. It's that simpleresearch and decide. Let's talk new cars first.

There are great sites for researching new cars. Edmunds car buying guide at www.edmunds.com is my preference, but there is also Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com) and Car Prices.com (www.carprices.com), among others. These sites also tell you what incentives are currently offered on particular vehicles. If you can't find it, then go directly to the maker's website, i.e., www.infiniti.com, if you're looking at Infiniti's.

These sites give you all of the details about any car. They group cars in classes so you can make side-by-side comparisons. They tell you Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price, or MSRP, and price different options you may want. Consumer Reports (www.consumerreports.org) also has car ratings which include maintenance history, reliability, etc. and they label what they believe to be the very best vehicles as "Recommended Buy". So take advantage of other research that has been done while doing your research. It will save you some time. By this point, you should have narrowed your options down to two or three vehicles.

Pre-arrange financing. Talk to your bank and get the best deal you can. Know the details of that deal, as in the interest rate, total loan amount, monthly payments and length of the loan. Does it include "gap insurance"? If you total the vehicle on the street outside the dealer's lot, the money you owe is greater than the value of the vehicle. Since you drove it off the lot, it is valued as a used vehicle. Gap insurance covers the "gap" in these values. With it, the bank will accept the used value as full repayment of the loan. Does it include life insurance? If you die, will the loan automatically be paid off? All of these cost more, and if offered by the dealer, will only make them money and cost you money. The catch here is that sometimes the bank will not be able to offer you as low an interest rate as the dealer can. I negotiated the best rate from my bank at 3.75%, but the dealer was offering .9%. I called the bank to ask if they could match it, but they couldn't, so I took the dealer's deal. Keeping the payments the same, that cut an entire year off the loan.

What extras do you want? The dealer will offer you etched windows, undercoating, Scotch-Garding or leather protecting the interior, extended warranties, and a host of

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