So now (over break) we get to the actual sales portion of this whole endeavor. I made the two hour journey to the dealership, arriving in the pouring rain, I immediately started going over the vehicle, trying to gain as much information as I could from the vehicle. I also spent the time talking to the very pleasant salesman, after a good test drive and finding nothing severely wrong with the vehicle, we sat down and discussed price and completed the sale. This was absolutely an exercise in pre-purchase research, as my knowledge of the particular vehicle lead me to be able to quickly verify the condition of the car, decide whether the few small imperfections were things I wanted to deal with, and come to an agreement on a fair price based on the work the car did need. In my opinion this also allowed me to be on a similar (if not higher) level of knowledge to the salesman, which resulted in me being able to be very casual and social with him, resulting in a good deal for both of us. I’m very glad of this, because my biggest worry (besides the car being junk) was having to deal with a difficult salesman. Overall this was a good purchase experience that gave me a lot of insight into the buying and selling process of such significant purchases.
trischlerba23 
Jonnojr
also, a note to y’all who have replied to me about having a mechanic look at it. I have a reasonable amount of experience with these kinds of vehicles and was able to check that there were no major problems with it at the dealership, hence why I decided to make the purchase. I did immediately bring it to a shop the next day to have a mechanic verify everything I found, which thankfully are just generic wear-and-tear of a 17 year old car from the northeast. The seller was very reasonable and willing to negotiate price given the couple of clear maintenance items it does need, which was also very helpful.
Sounds like you did well! Congrats on buying the car I’ll be doing the same through facebook marketplace over the summer.
I really like the real world experience and application of from what you have learned from our sales class, it also sounds like you have a good experience as a consumer which is the most important thing.