If you want to see a truly sad situation, picture the buyers who fall in love with a car and agree to hefty monthly payments. A year later, they come back to the dealership having realized that the monthly payment is killing them financially and try to sell the car back. What they discover is that their V-8 beauty has depreciated anywhere from 30 to upward of 50 percent and that they owe more on their loan than the car is worth at wholesale. So they end up giving back the car plus a substantial amount of cash just to get out of the payments.Being a smart buyer also means being financially prudent. Never buy more car than you can reasonably afford. If you want a hot car, there are any number of new and used cars that can give you the thrill of ownership without the pain of payment poverty. By the way, this is where the used-car and pickup truck market becomes a very real and attractive -alternative.

Evaluating the Vehicle
Visit a dealership and ask for a test drive. Make it clear that you are not interested in buying a car, van, or pickup that day, but that you will be shortly. The fact that you're a future prospect should get you somecooperation. Of course, you may also find that the salesperson will make an effort to convert you from "looker" to "buyer" before you leave.
Your objective is to spend some time behind the wheel and really get a feel for the car. Below you'll find an evaluation sheet to help you assess how a particular make and model satisfies your needs.

How do the experts rate it?
Take time to do some third-party research on the make and model you'd like to buy. What do the car magazines say about it? What kind of rating does it get from Consumer Reports? What do current owners have to say? If you're concerned about the safety performance of a particular model, you can contact the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22201 (703-247-1500). They can provide crash-test reports and cost-of-repair information. Keep in mind that those vehicles with better safety records usually have better insurance rates.

As you begin to consider various makes and models, keep in mind that most American manufacturers offer what the industry calls twins. What this means is that manufacturers will produce two cars, give each a slightly different look, give each a different name, but build them with essentially the same components. For example, Mercury Sable is essentially the same as a Ford Taurus. However, the Sable will generally run anywhere from $500 to $1,000 more for essentially the same car.General Motors also produces twins. If you look closely at the Oldsmobiles and Buicks and compare them to Pontiacs and Chevrolets, ,you'll see that their primary difference can be found in some front and back styling variations and levels of interior trim. A number of years ago somebody at General Motors decided to display the full line of the cars at the General Motors building in New York. And because it was the Christmas season they thought it would be nice to have all the cars in white. What no one realized, until it was too late, is that the basic similarity of the cars made even more similar with the common color pointed out an unassailable fact: The primary difference between a Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Chevrolet lies not in the styling, but in the price tags.

When it comes to imports, twins are not as common. Usually Hondas, BMWs, Audis, Jaguars, and Mercedes are one of a land. However, there are a few foreign cars that are marketed under domestic nameplates. You'll find, for example, that a Chevy Nova is basically a Toyota Corolla assembled in California. Plymouth Conquest is the same as a Mitsubishi. From the manufacturers' perspectives building similar cars and marketing them as separate models helps them offer more selection without having to go to the expense of building two different models. Obviously, this concept is not unique to the car industry. The point we want to make is that in some cases it is possible to save money and get the benefits of a more expensive car or truck by buying its less expensive twin.