My dad was a car salesman for years and spent most of that time in Ford dealerships. My first car was a 1989 Escort. The first car that I bought myself was a 1995 Probe. Both of those were great cars. We recently sold the Probe just because it wasn't practical for us anymore (great single person's car), and it is still going strong for its new owner.

I think the best advice I can give is to know your product. My husband and I were shopping for a car several years ago, and we went to one dealership and were working with a salesman who seemed to have no basic knowledge of his product. This was a GM dealership, and we had driven an Oldsmobile Alero rental car several months earlier which we really liked. Because GM had recently announced that they would be phasing out Oldsmobile, we decided that we would be more comfortable with something else. My husband asked the dealer, "Does Pontiac make anything that is comparable to the Alero?" Valid question, considering these are both GM companies. The answer, "What do you mean by that?" Later, we were looking at a Pontiac Grand Prix. My husband asked, "What kind of maintenance record do these cars have?" The salesman asked, "What do you mean?" Eventually, we did decide on a Grand Prix, found a dealership in a neighboring town, and made our purchase from a much more knowledgeable salesman.