When used car shopping
 

It's probably best to call ahead before driving to a dealer 50+ miles away and making sure the car isn't already sold.

Yes, and when the salesman wants my phone number, I give my cell number with one digit wrong, so if the car turns out to be a POS or not to my liking, I don't get further calls.

Things got better when we stopped at a second dealer and someone had, at some point over the weekend, side-swiped the car we wanted to look at while it was sitting on the dealer's lot.

After I showed some interest, the salesman took us inside where the manager tried to get me to pay top dollar for the car all the while never bothering to look at the damage himself.

Ouch. Watcha buying?

We're looking for a cheap/fun car with some utility, and it's harder than it should be.

So far I've pretty much zeroed in on the previous gen mazdaspeed3 - just gotta find one that is stock, and convince the seller that KBB is nuts. This could take a while........