Tutorial: Major Purchase Overview (Buying a Car)

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For the purposes of this tutorial, we are going to dive into a major purchase example, buying a car.

Please note that many of the steps that we go through will be applicable to other purchases, and to other kinds of decisions.

Objective
The first thing that we need to do is set an objective.  Here's mine:

Choose the best car for me, and get a good price.

Process
Next, we need a process (or steps) to achieve our objective.  Here's my process for buying a car:

1. Start with basic criteria, however vague.
2. Do some basic research: look online, and shortlist 5 or 6 cars that match my basic criteria.
3. Detailed research: Choose 3 cars that particularly appeal to me, and test-drive them; this helps me to expand my criteria and shortlist the leading cars.
4. Analysis: Brainstorm all of the criteria that come to mind in light of my detailed research and use bCisive Online to easily arrange and categorize them. 
5. Evaluation: Perform a detailed comparison of the leading cars by ranking them in each criterion and category, possibly with the assistance of an expert.* 
6. Use my now detailed knowledge of the best cars, to drive a hard bargain for my preferred car.

*Note: if all leading candidates are ruled out during step 4, I will need to revisit (and loosen) my criteria.

Advantages
For me this process has the advantage of addressing what seemed like the major obstacles in achieving my objective:

1. Paralysis by choice: there are so many cars to choose from
2. Feeling of ignorance: I am not a car buff, and I needed to learn more about the differences between the various cars, and which differences I cared about
3. Fear of paying too much: I want to be well-equipped to haggle with the car dealers, once I have made my choice

Naturally, your preferred process may well be different depending on personal style and the details of the situation.  Fortunately bCisive Online is flexible; it does not mandate any particular process, so you can go with whatever works best for you.  Please feel free to use my process as a starting point.

Next: Step 1 - Basic criteria