Buying a new car. Any input?

[98gstaherns]

So I'm looking to replace my wifes car seeing how we have a baby on the way and that her car is kinda a pain in the ass. Right now we are looking at the Ford escape and the Jeep patriot. Gonna hopefully point a decent amount of coin down for it and try to get a finace though my own bank and not the dealership.
But anyway what are some tip tricks that maybe you wish you would have used when you got a car or anything i should be on the look out for. For both of them we are looking at the 2010 models to save some coin also. My slef I'm kinda turned off of the jeep right now because of the dealership we went to was super pushy and wanted us to leave with a car that day when i made it quite clear that i only wanted test drive.. Needless to say that place lost my sale, and they werent a dealer that USAA recommands.