John Nielsen: Hi! I am John Nielsen with AAA. And we are here today to talk about buying a car. In this segment we are going to specifically talk about buying a used car in six steps. The fist step is going to be to determine what type of car you want. Go online, do some research, look in some brand specific forums and you will be able to find out others drivers experience with that same model.

The second step will be to determine the right price to pay for your vehicle. And to do that the internet is your best source. You can go online, look at sites like Kelley Blue Book or nada.

com. In fact go to cars.

com and look at what people are selling their car for, that will give you give you a range of prices. And you will see prices that run for cars that are in great shape, the cars that are in just moderate shape. So there will be a range of pricing.

Once you have determined what a vehicle should sell for. Your next step is to make sure you can get financing. By getting financing now, it allows you to understand what you can afford, it allows you to negotiate well when you go to the lot, and it really removes a lot of the pressure once you get there.

The fourth step is to find your car. Go out, take a look, take a test drive. What you want to do on that test drive is make sure that you are going to enjoy this car. Drive it like you normally would at slow speed, accelerate on the highway. This should not be a five minute ride. Go ahead and take 15 or 20 minutes, make sure you know the car and you feel comfortable with it.

The fifth step has two parts. The first part is once you found your vehicle, to run a Carfax Report on it. And the Carfax Report will tell you whether the car has been involved in a serious accident, has been flooded, if there's any problems with the title. That's important in your negotiation and perhaps even in the purchase of the vehicle. The second part of the fifth step is simply to take it to your mechanic or AAA Approved Auto Repair facility, that can actually do a physical inspection and determine if there's anything wrong with the engine or something that might have been missed in the Carfax. Taking these two steps will assure you that the car you are getting is in good shape and is as it's represented.

The sixth step is simply to enjoy your purchase. Buy the car, enjoy it, you have gone through the right steps, you have got a good car at a good price and you are set. And those were the six steps on buying a used car. Up next, we are going to talk about the dealer experience.