It may not seem like it, but it really is possible to walk out of a car dealership without getting taken advantage of. Here are our top 10 tips and rules to make it happen for you:

1. Go into a showroom with an attitude. Don't express enthusiasm about any vehicle; instead, challenge the salesman to prove to you why you should buy something on his floor.

2. Never give a dealer your Social Security number or fill out any kind of application until you're ready to commit. Once a dealer has information that they can use to check your payment history, credit rating, and so on, they can and will use it to negotiate with you. If you were late once with the payment on your last car, that might be ammunition in the car salesman's hands to say you don't qualify for the best of all possible terms.

Dolan Smart Money Move: Naturally, you will have to produce your driver's license if you ask to take a test drive. But to keep the dealer from conducting a check on you based on your license number, insist that you sign a statement saying you are not authorizing a credit check.

3. Shop at the right time. The best time to buy or lease a car is at the end of the month or midweek, when business is typically slow. Other good shopping times include Christmastime and rainy days - whenever people would usually avoid visiting dealerships.

You may have also heard that shopping at the end of the model year (June and July) is a good time to buy a car. That's true if you are buying. The dealer may be trying to unload leftover cars.

However, when you are leasing, the best time to look for a new model is at the beginning of the model year, generally late September/October. That's because the bank will have just estimated the residual value - how much the car will be worth at the end of the lease. You want the residual value to be high because that will make the lease price lower, and the highest residual value is usually at the beginning of the model year.

New "residual value" guides come out at the start of every quarter of the year (January, April, June, and September) and are available at the Kelley Blue Book site. Often, if you wait three months, the residual value will have gone down and your lease will be more expensive. If you see a TV commercial announcing "blowout" prices for leases on models that have been out awhile, it may be a come-on!

4. Find out how long the car has been sitting on the lot. If a model's "days supply" exceeds 60 days, the dealer will be anxious to sell it. But remember, a vehicle is usually a slow mover because it is not well rated by consumer rating services. You can find out how long the model has been out in Automotive News, a trade publication that is available on some newsstands and in large public libraries.

Dolan Smart Money Move: You can also find cars that a dealer is anxious to move by checking the white label on the driver's-side door or doorpost. It shows the month and year the car was made. The older it is, the longer the dealer has been paying to keep it on the lot. If your goal is to get the lowest price, keep an eye out for models the manufacturer is phasing out.

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