A good way to get a good used car without salesman hassles seems to be buying from a rent-a-car company that sells used cars from its fleet. I remember talking to a sales guy at Enterprise about it and he told me that they take the top 1% (or whatever) of the cars that they want to move out, inspect them and put them out there for a no-haggle price. I think he said the salesmen don't make commissions and so on.
I know one or two people who have bought cars that way. Seems to work pretty well. While one might think that rental cars get abused and all, the idea seems to be that by taking their top cars the ones sold to end-users are the ones that were not abused that way (I assume those go to auction or whatever).
Oh, and since these companies have large fleets, it might be possible to get the specific car (color, etc.) that you want and not have to settle for what you see at the sales lot you happened to drop in at.
P.S. If you are buying a used car, check out www.edmunds.com for info on what the car's value is (with different numbers based on whether you would be buying from a private party or a dealer, etc.)
