Buying a car used to be a very tricky process that involve a lot of haggling with the dealers. However, with the Internet, buying a car is much less stressful.

Decide the Kind of Car You Want to Buy

First you need to think of if you want to buy a sedan, mini van, SUV (sport utility vehicle), or sports car. Mini van is good if you regularly need to accommodate more than 5 people with the car. SUV is good for driving on unpaved surface, towing, or safer driving in the snow. Now there are also hybrid cars, which use very little gas, if you worry about the gas price.

Safety

Check out safety features such as the number of airbags, antilock brakes, traction control, etc. Also check out the crash test results published by the Highway Loss Data Institute.

Buy or Lease

In most cases, it makes more sense to buy than to lease. However, if you are buying an SUV and worry that gas price will fly high in a few years, then it may make sense to lease, so that you only need to keep it a few years.

Contact Your Local Dealers

Find the e-mail addresses of the Internet sales department of your local dealers for the car(s) you are interested in. As them to submit their Internet price. They typically will break down into base price, destination charge, tags and title, and tax (if the state has sales tax). Typically they will list the price for each option you want or come pre-installed for the particular car they have. You typically can get a better deal if you are more flexible with color and options. The key in this step is to only contact them via e-mail, until you have nailed down two to three dealers to talk to. With Internet prices, there is very little room for negotiation. But you can still try and may get something.

Make Appointment for the Test-Drive and Transaction

It is a good idea to test drive the car before you buy. Then, if you are satisfied, it's time to make the transaction. Make sure you bring you check book. Now the dealer will try to sell you extra services and most importantly, the extended warranty. The bottom line is that you are not likely to get a good deal on anything here. You can buy extended warranty online, where you can take your time to do your research. You can even wait until your manufacturer's warranty is almost over to buy extended warranty.

After the Sale

Two things to remember is to register your car with your state's motor vehicle administration department, and to buy insurance for this new car.