If you're a first-time car buyer, chances are when you get to the dealership you're going to hear a lot of words you've never heard before. Knowing what they mean can let you take more control over the terms of your loan or lease. The big ones you'll want to know are the ones that deal with money.

APR: Pay attention to the APR, too! APR is the annual percentage rate, or the interest rate. Some dealers will start you off at 0% APR, but make sure the rate it goes up to is something you're comfortable with. An APR under 5% is ideal, and most will be around 3%.

Base price and add-ons. The base price is the price of the vehicle before the dealer tries to entice you with special features. Add-ons will, of course, increase cost, but they can also be extremely useful.

Credit: There are several facets to credit. Usually in auto financing, it's used to refer to your credit history or credit score, which is a record of how you manage debt and is used by financial institutions to determine whether or not you should be approved for a loan.

Depreciation: The amount by which a vehicle's value decreases over time. New vehicles depreciate faster than used vehicles.

Down Payment: The amount of money you pay for a vehicle up front. A larger down payment will result in lower monthly payments, due to the fact that you're reducing the amount of money you owe on the vehicle.

Equity: If you owe less than the total value of a vehicle, you have positive equity in that vehicle.

Incentives: Find out what incentives you qualify for! Recent college grads get discounts from a lot of automakers, including Nissan, and being in the armed services will get you a discount pretty much anywhere.

Interest: Usually expressed as an annual percentage rate, interest is the amount of money charged to a borrower to compensate for a loan. This is how lenders make money off of car loans.

MSRP: Stands for "manufacturer's suggested retail price." Dealers are free to use this as a guideline; the actual price may be higher or lower than the MSRP.

Title: A document that proves your legal ownership of a vehicle.

Trade-In Value: When purchasing a new vehicle, you can trade in a used one and put the value of the old vehicle towards the new one. The old vehicle's trade-in value is used to determine how much you still owe.

Visit Nissan of Clinton in Clinton, North Carolina to learn more about our great financing options available on new and used Nissan cars. We proudly serve Fayetteville, Elizabethtown, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Wilmington, Clinton, and more!