Buying a car can be exciting, but also stressful, especially if you need to stay on budget.

Luckily, TikTok user @andysautoadvice, who, fittingly enough, gives auto advice, has a few quick and simple things to look out for when you’re shopping around.

“Five signs you got scammed at the car dealership,” he begins.”

“Number one: they proceed to ask you how much you want your car payment to be.

If a car salesman does this, they’re trying to maximize the amount of profits they make into your car payment, even if the car you’re buying is less than the car payment they write up for you.

So say you want your car payment to be 3 hundred dollars a month maximum.

They will make sure that car payment is 300, even if they could make it less.”

“Number two: if the car salesman asks you if you’re going to be financing or paying with cash, this is another question you should probably not answer, because they’re gonna treat you differently based on financing or cash.

If you’re paying for the car with cash, you have the leverage, they do not.

And if you choose to tell them you’re not paying in cash, then you have even more leverage, and will probably be able to be get a better deal for yourself.”

“Number three: if you’re trading in a vehicle and the car salesman wants to go drive it to make sure it’s okay, sometimes they will keep your car keys and they will not give them back to you.

This is a tactic they use to keep you in the dealership, so that the longer you’re there, the more likely you are to cave in and buy the car you were looking at.

I’ve had this happen to me personally, and I ended up sitting in that dealership for three to four hours before I went back to the salesman and said, ‘give me my car keys, I wanna leave.'”

“Number four: when you’re closing the sale on your car purchase and the salesman is trying to tack on a bunch of extra fees and goodies onto your car, say like a ceramic coating or a detail or window tint, and they’re charging 2x, 3x the regular cost, say no.”

“Number five: if the car salesman is trying to get you to run your credit and write up paperwork before you’ve even test drove or even looked at the car, this is a big red flag.

If they’re trying to get you over to the financing department immediately when you walk into the door, I would walk out immediately, ’cause this is not a good thing.

Not to mention how it hurts your credit to have that ran for no reason where you might not even end up buying the car.”

@andysautoadvice

Avoid these shady tactics! #tips #cars #cartips #tipsandtricks #dealership #salesman #cardealership #vehiclemaintenance #5tips

♬ original sound – Andy’s Auto Advice

Some commenters have an even more cynical view of the industry:

Of course, what isn’t expensive?

“I’ll have to run this up the chain.”

To their credit…

Safe shopping, everybody!

If you liked that story, check out this video from a former Chipotle employee who reveals how the company cheats customers out of food.