How to save thousands on your next car

Looking for the best way to buy or lease a car? New or used, the process never made more sense! The internet auto industry is continuously evolving to make the shopper's life easier. New tools and features are empowering shoppers with the information they need to make confident decisions.

I look at classifieds as outdated and full of pitfalls. AutoTrader.com and Cars.com are websites that function more like classifieds where private sellers and dealers post their new and used cars. Classifieds are my least favorite way to find deals. They still require a lot of research, haggling, visiting multiple dealers, giving out your contact information and most likely dealing with all the usual drama. That method is still widely popular but I think it's fading with rise of simpler and more effective methods of car buying and leasing.

We've always been told that it's a good idea to be a savvy shopper by haggling and looking for the best deals but now imagine a world where the best deals are competing and looking for you. This is what's been happening on websites like GearMint, Edmunds and TrueCar.

The main feature of Edmunds and TrueCar is that you can get up-front price guarantees emailed to you by dealers for new car purchases without the need to haggle. Be careful though. The price guarantee doesn't necessarily include all the small dealer fees and financing rates that can quickly add up. So you still might need to haggle a bit. Nevertheless, people are still able to use these tools to save time and money.

GearMint is for new and used car buying and leasing as well as trade-ins. The process can be broken up into 3 steps:

Tell them what you want: The shopper posts the type of car they are looking for and their budget and receive online offers from dealers. It's also free to use!

Hassle-free Online Offers: The shopper can avoid spam emails and endless calls by not sharing their contact information with dealers.

Simple Evaluation: The offers are public and can receive votes and advice from other shoppers. Dealers have ratings and reviews on their profiles. The shopper and the dealer can send private messages to get more information and hash-out some of the minor details such as additional fees,

The GearMint process is also fairly simple and might have a higher potential to be more effective and hassle-free.

These car websites can't do everything for you. You still have some homework to do. It always helps to know in advance the type of car you want, whether you are looking to buy or lease, how much you can afford to pay, to set a budget and read more car buying tips from other auto blogs. All of this is key to getting a good deal. These websites can help you get great competitive deals from your local dealers and from any device with internet access. You no longer have to visit various dealerships or look through 100's of online and offline classifieds.