<p>Thinking about buying a used car, but not too sure how I should go about finding the used car I want.</p>
<p>What are some good websites to search out the car that I want? What are some other strategies that you'd recommend one take when going about buying a used car? Anything I should be cautious of in this process?</p>
<p>I’m a car enthusiast and I really recomend buying from a private owner so I would suggest craigslist</p>
<p>My own grandparents ripped me off. I give up at this point. lol</p>
<p>A used car lot or whatever</p>
<p>I’d go with craigslist.</p>
<p>There are usually better deals on Craigslist and Classified ads. Just looking at the difference of “Retail Price” and “Private Party Price” on Kelly Blue Book will tell you. A dealership has overhead and needs to make a profit on the car. Joe selling his car down the street is just trying to get market value for it.</p>
<p>I don’t have much advice on the craigslist v. dealer part, but I would say to get a carfax and see what kelleybluebook quotes the car you’re considering at. :)</p>
<p>craigslist but id recommend cars.com and getting it from a dealer or private owner</p>
<p>Jtut2010 your kidding right?</p>
<p>Carmax is really not a bad place, and their used cars are pretty affordable.</p>
<p>Make sure you inspect the car yourself, it is not very difficult to identify major repairs. Lots of used cars have been in accidents and in which case can dramatically affect the handling of the car. Those car reports do no good.</p>
<p>I found my last car on cars.com. I searched diligently for all the options I wanted, the number of acceptable miles, and a good price. I had to drive almost 4 hours to pick it up, but it had more options and several thousand dollars cheaper than the dealers I’d looked at around here. I did buy it at a regular car lot. It had been a program car.</p>
<p>Always check Kelly Blue Book. In our state, the cars have to pass inspection to be sold and/or licensed. Even when I buy out of state, I give them the stipulation it HAS to pass my state’s inspection or I won’t purchase. I usually negotiate for new tires, etc.</p>
<p>Dealers deliberately rip you off by selling you junk. They. Do. Not. Care.</p>
<p>When a private seller rips you off, it is much more benign. He is usually not aware or is willfully ignorant of the issues he’s passed on to you. There is also social pressure for the private seller not to rip anyone off because annoying people who have nothing to talk about, such as his mom and dad and his lame friends, will ask him how much he sold it for and what was wrong with it. The dealer has no such pressure because it’s a business to him and his friends and family already know that he is scum.</p>
<p>The mechanics at all-used dealers usually aren’t very good, because they don’t need to be. The less scrupulous, the better, because the owners and salesmen would prefer to be as ignorant as possible of the defects of the defective junk that they are peddling.</p>
<p>It is also very hard to haggle a used dealer. It’s not like a new dealer where it costs them money to hold inventory. It costs the used dealer nothing to hold a car on the lot, thus he is no hurry to sell any of it for less than he thinks he can get. If you show up being all male and scrupulous/decisive looking trying to bargain with him, he knows that he can just wait 2 days for someone dumber than you to show up, preferably a woman.</p>
<p>Craigslist.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go to a small, privately owned used car lot. I will buy used cars from an actual dealer - like a Ford lot for example that sells new & used. Their mechanics are certified too, unlike private ‘dealerships’.</p>
<p>Our state, Missouri, does have a ‘lemon law’. If within so many days of purchasing a car, you discover it’s got things wrong with it, etc, they have to take it back.</p>
<p>Again, our cars (unlike Iowa, for example) have to pass inspection in order to license them each year. It is expected they are ready for licensure when you drive it off the lot.</p>
<p>Shop around, do your homework, and be sure before you buy.</p>
<p>I found several listings on Craigslist. Thanks so much for recommending that to me, guys.</p>
<p>Anyways, I have called several private parties and unfortunately haven’t found what exactly I’m looking for (mileage wise etc).</p>
<p>I was also wondering if you guys had any suggestions on some of the initial questions I should ask these private parties?</p>
<p>So far, I ask, for instance:</p>
<ol>
<li>What the mileage of the car is (if they did not provide it in the listing),</li>
<li>In their words, how they would describe the condition of the car,</li>
<li>Whether they were the original owner or know the original owner of the car,</li>
<li>Whether the car was ever involved in any form of accident,</li>
<li>If they compiled and have a list of the service records for the car.</li>
<li>Why are they selling the car.</li>
</ol>