LPT: If you're broke and car shopping here's some tips

Get pre-approved for financing BEFORE you visit a dealership. Credit unions almost always beat dealer financing. Walking in with pre-approval also gives you leverage to negotiate. Dealers make a ton of money on financing, don't let them.

Shop in the off-season. End of the month, end of the quarter, and winter months are when salespeople are desperate to hit quotas. You'll get way better deals than shopping in spring/summer when everyone's buying.

Look at cars with 60K-100K miles. Sweet spot for value. The first owner already ate the depreciation. A well-maintained Toyota or Honda in that range will still run for another 100K+ miles easily.

When getting a carfax report use one of those cheap carfax site one I use is carfaxcheaper dot com it's like 6 bucks a report i got the bundle so it's cheaper but there's also other sites that offer this it's mostly dealership employees who have unlimited reports access and sell them for pennies on the dollar

Check the car's value on KBB or Edmunds first. Never trust the sticker price. Know what the car is actually worth so you're negotiating from facts, not feelings.

Don't forget the hidden costs. Insurance, registration, taxes, maintenance, budget for at least an extra $200-300/month on top of your payment. A lot of people buy a car they can "afford" and then get destroyed by everything else.

Walk away at least once. If you're emotionally attached, you've already lost the negotiation. There's always another car. The best deals come when you genuinely don't care if you get it or not.