You know, when you're going shopping for a new used car for your son, it might be best to not take him along.

That way, when you're pointing out the broken headlight bracket to the salesman, yet another reason why the car isn't worth the full book value, you don't have an eager young driver piping in with...

"I can fix that with duct tape!"

Making the salesman smile to himself.

And when you shake your head about the power door lock that doesn't work on the driver's door, you won't have an eager young driver pointing out...

"The Subaru didn't have power locks at all, and I got by fine."

Making the salesman smugly start spending his commission in his mind, on the sale of this car that their asking price is almost 60 percent over book.

No, who you want to take along is your wife, who shows him the printout of the book value of the car if it were in "pristine" condition, and "moderate" condition. And then itemizes all the things you found wrong with the car, placing it actually below "moderate" condition.

Then the young salesman drags himself dejectedly across the carlot, head down, to see if the boss will accept our counter offer.

He did.

Now we gotta talk to the bank people on Monday.