Went car shopping today...

[husker boxster]

You don't mention what you were looking to buy, but since you said you wanted something more practical I'll assume it wasn't another sports car. Even if the winter is short in SC (you dogs!), the used car mgr still sees a 2 seat sports car that isn't going to move well in a recession. If you're not looking to buy one of his new, slow-moving sports cars, you've lost some leverage and they can flip their finger under their nose at you. He figures he can low ball you. If you take the $10K offer, he can sell your car to one of his used lot buddies for $11K and be done with it.

Just keep looking. There have to be deals out there. In today's local paper was a story about a GM dealer who just closed yesterday after being in business for 31 yrs. They called it the perfect storm of coincidences that forced them to close. Bet they were making some sweet deals last month trying to beat the wolves from the door.

I was in Dallas over Christmas and bought an 04 PT Cruiser as a "bad weather" car from a Mercedes dealer in Fort Worth for a great price ($2K under mkt). It was a straight cash deal and made on Dec 29 so my timing was good. I'm extremely pleased. However, I've been looking for something since Sep - Jeph got me thinking about a bad weather car when he had his Probe GT listed for sale. Don't give up after 1 shot.

The hunt is as much fun as the kill. Good luck.