Earlier this week, we gave you some tips on how to negotiate a lower price with a dealer. Today, we’re going to tell you some things you should never tell a car dealer when purchasing a car.

1. Never tell the sales representative how much you love the car. Once you’ve done this, you’ve screwed yourself. If they know that you love it, you have only two chances to get the price knocked down – slim and none.

2. Don’t talk about monthly payments. You can often get the monthly payments you want, but they could get stretched out over several years. By the end of the loan, you could be paying two or three times as much as the car is worth depending on the type of payments and loan you get.

3. Never tell them about your trade-in vehicle until it’s time to negotiate. If they know you have a trade-in, they may be less willing to come down on the price. The sales representative often has another employee take it for a test drive to evaluate what it’s worth. But once you hand over those keys, it might not be so easy to get them back.

4. Don’t volunteer your credit history. Since car dealers share some of the money from your interest rate, they may be delighted to know you have bad credit. Even if it shows up that you have good credit, they might play into your fears of bad credit and give you a higher interest rate instead.

4. Bring a friend. Having a friend by your side often makes a person more confident. The friend can also throw out suggestions and help you negotiate, especially if they are good at that kind of thing.

Car dealers aren’t all dishonest. They’re like mechanics. The overwhelming majority of them are honest and simply trying to earn a decent living. But it’s the few bad ones that spoil it for the entire bunch. Unfortunately, you almost have to pretend like the person you’re dealing with is one of the dishonest ones so you can stay on your toes and not take anything they say at face value. When you do all of these things, you can usually get the car you want at a price you like.