Originally Posted by
devildeac
If you wish to avoid the dealer showroom, do all your research and take a few test drives and then decide what car you want while you are at home. After your decision is made, contact 2-4 Honda/Toyota/Ford dealers within 25/50/100 miles of your home and ask for the internet sales managers and fax your "bids" to them and negotiate by fax. You do have to go to the dealer for the final purchase but decide about any "add ons" (ie. extended warranties, additional options, etc) before you set foot on the lot. I have read about that method on edmunds.com, which is a great site to get the stats on the cars, pricing and some consumer reviews.
If you've got more questions, I'll happily keep visiting. You may also wish to start a separate thread (gasp) to solicit some other car opinions, experiences and tactics.