I don't know many people who truly enjoy the process of buying a car. Sure, I get a kick out of getting a few extra perks when negotiating for a car. But most times, consumers walk out of the dealership feeling like they got ripped off. Hold onto your hats, though, because the whole process of buying a car may be changing.

Car dealerships are closing in record numbers. The Wall Street Journal reports that sales of new cars are at a 25-year low, and experts say that 700 new car dealerships could close this year in the United States.

While this might not seem like a big deal since there are so many car dealerships around, consider the fact that 430 already closed last year, and this year's closures will mean the loss of over 37,000 jobs. It may seem like there have been too many dealerships, but they were around because consumers wanted them, and they employ lots of people.

Car makers have no choice but to tighten the reins on their dealers. It costs a lot of money to have a new car sitting on a lot, and auto makers and dealers share those costs. Auto makers typically offer lines of credit to the dealers, but the drying up of the credit market has impacted this.

If achieving financial security is important to you -- and it probably is if you're reading WalletPop -- the absolutely worst source of information is the Madison Avenue marketing genius. If you want to be rich and happy, you would do well to take a sledgehammer to your television.

But even by Madison Avenue standards, the message behind the funny FreeCreditReport.com commercials is bad. Here are the lyrics to catchy song I recently found myself humming:

Well I'm shopping for a new car, which one's me? A cool convertible or an SUV.

Too bad I didn't know my credit was whack, so I driving off the lot in a used sub-compact.

F-R-E-E-E, that spells "free", credit report dot com baby. Saw their ads on my TV. Thought about goin' but was too la~zy.

Now instead of lookin' fly and ridin' phat, my legs are sticking to the vinyl and my posse's getting laughed at.

F-R-E-E-E, that spells "free", credit report dot com baby ...

I've said before that I oppose the idea of car loans for the vast majority of consumers, and this commercial makes abundantly clear why they're so stupid: mortgaging your financial future to prevent strangers from laughing at your posse is ... well let's just say that my thoughts on that one sentence would have to be edited considerably to qualify as merely vulgar.

Here's my advice for car shoppers: pick them like upwardly mobile executives pick wives. First get the car you can afford, and then upgrade when your fortunes are improved.