Over the past five or six years, there's just been one deal after another when it comes to buying an automobile. It goes back to the months after 9/11 when GM tried to jumpstart sales with offers of zero financing for five years. Other automakers quickly followed with similar deals. But now people aren't buying cars as readily because of the fallout from the stock and real estate markets. Overall the industry is having dismal sales results. So that means that you have so much bargaining power right now that it's not even funny. Yet two-thirds of consumers squander that power by not doing the right things.

What should you be mindful of when you go to buy a car? First, do research online before you buy. Check Consumer Reports and sites like KelleyBlueBook.com and Edmunds.com to find out about reliable cars that won't need much maintenance. Second, arrange for financing in advance before you get to the dealership. Credit unions offer interest rates on car loans that can be one to three percent lower than other lenders. You may also want to check online lenders. Even your auto insurer may be able to give you a competitive interest rate. Whatever you do, don't go with a traditional bank or dealer financing. Also, don't tell the dealer you're a cash buyer or credit union customer because they'll factor that into the price in a negative way. Finally, buy your car before you get to the dealership. By this Clark means you should avoid going to the dealer and negotiating the purchase of your car or you'll face "the grind." The grind is when the salesperson says he or she will go talk to their manager about getting you the best deal. Instead they go watch TV for five minutes and come back and tell you that the manager couldn't help out with a good rate despite their best efforts on your behalf. This is total baloney. When it comes to price, you want to stay in your ballpark, not theirs. After all, they have home field advantage because they sell cars everyday while you may only buy a handful of times over the years. As a final thought, you may also want to purchase through a warehouse club if you're a member. There you'll enjoy a set price and no haggling.

When you use a car dealer to finance your auto loan, the dealer will mark it up as much as they can. But the average black customer buying a new car pays an interest rate that's 40 percent higher than the average white customer -- even after accounting for differences in credit scores. Hispanics, meanwhile, pay almost the same as non-Hispanic whites, just slightly higher. In the used-car market, one in three blacks pay an interest rate that is above 15 percent, while the average rate for a white person is less than 10 percent. Clark thinks it's a shame that this residual racism is still around in 2007.

If you dig deeper into this story, you'll really find that anyone who doesn't get pre-qualified for a car loan will pay more than they should. So Clark advises anybody seeking an auto loan to get pre-qualified at a credit union, which will offer lower rates than a bank. Think about it like this: You may have spent hours researching your car thoroughly, but you've got to do the same on the loan. Dealers are entitled to make money on a loan if you don't do homework and get pre-qualified elsewhere. Historically, that mark-up had been about 10 percent points. After all the legal settlements of the past few years, however, it now is usually three percent. That means if a bank offers you a car loan for 5 percent, the dealer will offer the same loan for 8 percent. So whether you're black or not, it pays to get pre-qualified for an auto loan.

About 18 months ago, Clark issued a warning on the show about the damaged cars from Katrina and Rita that would soon be flooding the market – no pun intended. Well, it’s happening. Con artists are selling “flood cars” from Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and other states that were affected by the hurricanes. Several auto insurers are refusing to crush these cars because they knew it would make them more money. So, because of weak title laws in most states, criminals have been “washing” the titles of these cars and putting them back on the market as if they’d never been involved in a flood. Close to half a million may be on dealer lots today. Washing the title basically means a title that would have had “SALVAGE” written on it is given a clean title with very little effort because the laws are so slack. So, it’s more important than ever to have a used car inspected by a certified mechanic. Before you buy a car, make sure you have it checked out. Clark thinks all of these cars should be crushed and never sold again.

Are you familiar with “docs” and “pacs?” These are terms used in the auto industry that are basically bogus fees and charges added on to the cost of a car. They are the fees charged for writing up paperwork, floor mats and other filler functions that should be included in the cost. It’s all happened because of the Internet. Before the Internet, there was little people could do to research the cost of a car. So, many consumers arrive at dealerships with lots of information, including the value of the car. As a result, dealers lowball people with the price and lure them in. Then, they add all kinds of fees at the end, boosting the price by hundreds of dollars. So, when you get quotes on the Web or in person, make sure it includes all of the fees. You want the “drive-out” price. And if it’s different when you leave, you want an itemized list of how and why it changed.

Most people have a great deal of gratitude for our soldiers, regardless of how they feel about the war. But apparently some people think it is okay to take advantage of our servicemen and women. A story in the LA Times details a travesty going on when soldiers return home and need to buy a car. They come back from war with a lot of combat pay and take that money to a dealership. Some dealerships charge them interest rates of 20 percent or more and charge two or three times the fair market value of the car. Granted, this has been happening to regular citizens for years, but no one is getting hit harder than soldiers these days. They are young and sometimes don’t know that they should read the contract, so salespeople take advantage of them. Clark thinks this is disgusting and he wants you to warn service people you know.

We are all drawn in by the word “sale.” It seems it’s all over the auto industry today, with every discount and mark-down you can think of. The problem is that after a big sale, there are no more customers and dealerships don’t make any money. No one has suffered more from this than GM, which owns Buick Cadillac, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Saturn, Saab and Hummer. In fact, Wall Street says GM has a 40 percent chance of filing for bankruptcy. GM obviously doesn’t want to go belly up, so the company has decided to offer sale prices all the time. Basically, it means everyday low prices and honest prices, like Saturn has done. GM will reduce the price on three-fourths of its vehicle by about $1,000. They hope that these “real” will draw in buyers all the time.

Clark owned a 1987 Acura Integra, and he’s glad he sold it awhile ago. That’s because the Acura Integra is the most popular car to steal these days, according to insurance industry reports. Apparently, people like to race them legally and illegally, so Integras are very hot cars to steal and soup up. On the list were the 1999, 1998, 1996, 1997 and 1995 Acura Integra. The second most popular vehicle to steal is the 2002 BMW Roadster and fourth car on the list was the GMC V-2500. The 2002 Audi S4 was also on the list. But the majority of cars are various years of Acura Integras. If you have one and you want to hold onto it, be careful.

There is a lawsuit pending against Ford Motor Company, which alleges that the company has been overcharging and cheating black customers at certain Ford, Jaguar, Mazda and Land Rover dealerships. There are always undisclosed mark-ups in the loans dealers give you when you do financing at the dealership. It’s typically about 2 to 2.5 percent higher than the offer they get from the actual lender. But Vanderbilt University found that black customers were charged $862 more for a loan, while white customers had only a $475 mark-up. Vanderbilt also found that blacks were uncharged two-thirds of the time, while whites were charged more one-fourth of the time. Ford claims that it had no idea this was going on. But it did happen. Avoid mark-ups all together by financing with your bank or credit union instead of the dealership. You can’t get taken if you don’t do business with these people. If you think the car dealership can beat the offer you get from your credit union, offer it up. Maybe the dealership can beat it. But make sure you have an offer when you go in. Never conduct business the other way around.

As you drive down the street, you’ve probably seen cars that have fancy rims that spin or light up. They look pretty snazzy. But apparently they’re not worth it. Not only are these rims expensive – between $2,500 and $5,000 a pop – but they’re also dangerous. According to Money Magazine, the fancy rims weigh so much that it compromises the performance and handling of the vehicle. So, if your child wants to “trick out” his or her car with these rims, please reconsider. At tirerack.com, you can check out which rims are safe and which are not. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is asleep at the wheel on this issue and has not published any warnings. So, it’s up to you to do your homework.

The three major Detroit automakers – GM, Ford and Chrysler – have come up with a new strategy for pricing cars. These companies are pushing through very large price increases on the 2005 models, even though the 2004, 2003 and 2002 models did not sell very well. In fact, these companies are raising the prices of vehicles AND increasing incentives. That is because there is a percentage of car buyers who purchase strictly on emotion. These people do no homework and they get caught up in the thrill of driving a new vehicle. The car market is basically splitting into three categories: people who do no research, people who do some research on the Internet and get a somewhat better price, and finally those people who do lots of homework. The third group treats buying a car like a part time job, but it’s a very small percentage of the pot. Automakers realize that only about 10 percent of buyers will really work for a good deal. So they can still mark up vehicles and increase their profit margins. Remember that knowledge is power!

Did you know that most dealerships will sell you a used car for twice as much as the car is worth? If the car is worth, $5,000, they’re likely to charge you $10,000. If you finance the car at the dealership on top of that, you could be paying as much as 26 percent each year in interest. Does that sound like a deal to you? Probably not. But almost one in four used cars is now being sold that way in the United States. Clark was stunned when he read this in the Dallas Morning News. So, we are basically setting ourselves up to be ripped off. These dealerships try to sell you a car on the spot with ads that say, “No credit, or bad credit, no problem!” It’s known as “Buy here, Pay here,” and the dealerships are making a fortune off of your desire for convenience. There are now 19,000 dealers who sell “buy here pay here” cars. If your credit is in a rough spot, you need to buy a car for cash. Have the car checked out by an independent mechanic first to make sure it works. But you will be much better off. You never want to buy a car where everything is taken care of in one place.

Most people take out a loan when they buy a new car, and that’s fine. The problems arise when people take out loans that are too long. Clark discourages loans longer than four years. Five years maybe, but six or seven is not smart. The shocking news is that people are starting to take out 8-year loans! That means that you buy a car this year and stop paying for it in 2012. That’s ridiculous. When you take out these loans, the lender must charge a higher interest rate because the risk is greater. People start to dislike their car and want to sell it soon after. So then they try to sell it and end up “upside down” in their loan. That means that you’re tired of the car at a point when you owe a lot more than what’s it’s worth. One car dealer Clark recently talked to said about 80 percent people are upside down in their loans. The national average is about 40 percent. The smart thing to do is to buy an older model or a cheaper car. When you have a desire to buy a fancy set of wheels, step back from it.

You will suffer a huge mark up in cost if you finance a car at a dealership. According to a Vanderbilt University study, 31 percent of white customers and 48 percent of black customers had their loans marked up. At GM, 28 percent of whites and 53 percent of blacks had their loans marked up. And at Nissan, 47 percent of whites and 72 percent of blacks were affected. Obviously, there is a racial component to all of this. But everyone’s loans are tweaked in some way at these companies. And an investigative report by the Detroit News found some shocking mark-ups. In one case, a customer was able to get a loan of 11 percent, but the dealership marked it up to 24 percent. If your credit is really solid, a dealer is going to have more difficulty marking up a loan. But if you have questionable credit, dealerships will take advantage of you more easily. The typical mark up is more than $1,000. So, you think you have gotten a deal on the car and then you end up paying an extra grand. There is nothing wrong with you making a profit, but you choose how much you’re willing to give them. So, make sure you know your credit score before you buy, and never let emotion drive you. Do your research online and compare prices. Clark likes to go to the dealership only to test drive a car and to take delivery of a car.