In today’s economy, you may believe that in order to secure the credit you need to buy a new car, you better take the first offer that comes along.

This isn’t necessarily true. While many people were having problems securing the financing they needed months ago while many of the major credit markets were frozen, the fact remains that today, car dealers are looking to move inventory (especially American car dealers like Ford, GM, and Chrysler).

This has led to many internal finance departments, like Ford Credit and Chrysler Financial to work with their individual dealers and their customers to write loans and move those cars off the lot.

There are some tips that you need to remember as you walk in the door of any dealership looking for financing. First, don’t be fooled by zero percent financing that you might hear advertised in a commercial. Check the APR; this will give you a real determination of how much it is going to cost to do business.

Next, shop around, go to different dealerships to first compare the cost of the car and then speak to financers both within the dealership as well as outside of the dealership. There are independent loan companies like American General and Wells Fargo that are eager to do business with new car buyers and many times can compete very well with internal financing operations offered through a dealership.

Finally, when looking for financing, the one thing to avoid is a company offering to finance anyone, regardless of the situation or the credit that the person has. In today’s economy, this is a red flag. While the credit markets have started to thaw, much can be still be said about a financer offering blanket financing. If the housing crisis taught us anything, it should be some people simply cannot afford to buy a new house, the same holds true for a new car, which is also a big purchase. Never get in over your head.