I've not gone through the process myself, but have watched others do so on multiple occasions, and from what I understand the approach you're taking is a good one.
I've also seen a number of articles on car-buying in Consumer Reports, which are mostly summarized here:
no subject
Date: 2014-03-26 03:48 pm (UTC)I've also seen a number of articles on car-buying in Consumer Reports, which are mostly summarized here:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/buying-advice/index.htm
(Esp. panels 4 - 6, in this case?)