<p>I haven’t bought a used vehicle in over 20 years, but with 2 kids now the driving age, I’m looking for something like a Ford Escape at the $10-12K range. Buying a new car I find very simple as I’m comparing apples to apples. All I need to do is ask one simple question…“How much over invoice will you sell this vehicle to me for?”</p>
<p>Now, with a used vehicle, we have different years, different mileages, Kelley blue book, NADA book, good, very good, excellent condition, private party sale, wholesale, dealer retail…yikes. </p>
<p>How do you folks do it? I don’t have the patience to get a local autotrader and start calling private parties and setting up appointments to see the vehicles. I guess that leaves used lots or dealers? Is certified the way to go? Is carfax a must?</p>
<p>How do you even know if the price is right from a dealer? Do you carry around Kelley blue book with you?</p>
<p>Shopping online gives you a lot more power than you had in the old days. If you think you want a Ford Escape in the $10 - $12k range, try searching for an SUV (or small SUV) in that price range and see what comes up. You’ll see what’s available in terms of years, mileage, condition, etc. The nice thing is that you go into the dealer (or individual) armed with bargaining knowledge - you can say to a salesperson, “Joe’s Car’s 3 towns over has a similar car for a lower price.” You also know if your expectations are realistic, and if a car is priced substantially below other similar cars it could raise a red flag.</p>
<p>I would absolutely get a Carfax. That said, it will only show accidents or damage that was reported to insurance agencies. If someone got in a fender bender and fixed it out of pocket, Carfax won’t know. But it’s still worth getting - there are thousands of cars that were flooded and declared “totalled” during Hurricane Sandy that may have been quietly purchased and refurbished and shipped elsewhere (it’s happened after hurricanes before). You do NOT want to unknowingly buy one of these cars. The Carfax will spot that.</p>
<p>In our area, we have found a dealer who specializes in single-owner cars - ie, he buys cars at auction that have come back into dealerships as they came off of 2 or 3 year leases. He cleans them, does the repairs needed, and lists them on his website with the mileage and photos at a fixed price. You can test drive it, and if you like it you pay the price that is listed. Don’t like the price? Go somewhere else. We’ve found his prices to be reasonable and the cars to be in good shape. So now we just look online to see what he has and go there. We’ve bought 2 cars from him. As soon as we buy the car, we take it to our trusted mechanic for an inspection. Our state gives us 48 hours to return a used car and get our money back, but so far both cars have been fine when inspected and have given us many quality years.</p>
<p>I always purchased them from the car rental companies. I purchaed one from an Avis years ago and had the car 10+years and purchased another from Enterprise and also had it many years.
I would continue doing that but my wife only wants to buy new and the savings on the used car do not offset the cost of the divorce.</p>
<p>Hertz also has a program where they list cars near you for sale. You can arrange to rent one of them for 48 hours. If you decide to buy it, they deduct the cost of the rental from the sales price.</p>
<p>We purchased a former Budget rental car once. It was fine.</p>
<p>Our local Chevy and Honda dealer sometimes gets large lots of vehicles in from rental companies that were only used one year. I assume this is true for dealers of other makes as well. They list the available cars for sale on their website, including specs and mileage. This gives you the opportunity to research, via Kelly blue book and other sites, what is a reasonable price to pay for the vehicle. Armed with this info, you can negotiate with the dealer. I feel like I got a good deal on a 1 year-old Civic with 20,000 miles on it this way.</p>
<p>You should remember that these cars get some type of service every time they are returned. Nothing would kill the rental business faster than having your rental car die while you were on vacation.</p>
<p>You are correct: It is tricky. We only purchased one used clunker in recent memory (the rest we created ourselves, ie bought new and drove into the ground). I was driving and 3blocks from home passed a nice looking car on the street with a “for sale” sign on it. When I got home I mentioned it to my wife, and next thing I knew she had it in our driveway, and was introducing me to the previous owner :D</p>
<p>If you don’t like haggling, you can use carmax.com. Their website is easy to use and similar to autotrader- you check the options you want and then review the search results.</p>
<p>And yes, get a carfax or autocheck but keep in mind when reviewing the report, it still doesn’t guarantee the car is fine. We ALWAYS take a used car we’re interested in purchasing to our mechanic before we commit. It may cost a small amount $70-80 but worth it in the headaches it can keep you from getting.</p>
<p>A plus for carmax- if you decide within 5 days you don’t like the vehicle, you can return it with no questions asked. We did this with a truck my H wanted. After taking it on a 300 mile trip, he realized he didn’t like the gas mileage. We returned it within the 5 days and the only question asked was ‘is there anything else we can show you?’ Great experience.</p>
<p>Much good advice here-we just bought a used car and this is what we did: we searched online using cars.com by plugging in exactly what we wanted and how much we were willing to pay. We test-drove the one we chose, looked at the carfax with good results, AND took it to our regular mechanic (of 10+ years). </p>
<p>We went in to buy with a firm amount we would pay and shot down the dealer’s every attempt to upsell. We paid what we had decided on based on the research. We are thrilled with the car-it has performed exactly as reviews indicated. We will do the same when it’s time for younger D to get a car. Our requirements for her will be quite different from our family car, though.</p>
<p>I just bought a used car though AAA. Basically they were dealer offerings with a AAA price. So, better than list, maybe not as good as buying privately. But I did get a warantee, and 30 days to return the car with no questions.</p>
<p>We bought one through Hertz and it has been a great car. Our most recent car purchase was through dealership, and we got a good price. </p>
<p>S purchased used far through private person, but that took much more hunting. Definitely get carfax or equivalent. </p>
<p>I would definitely purchase through Hertz or Avis again. The only reason we didn’t this time is because we wanted a lower mileage car. The auto rental places are keeping cars in their inventory longer than in the past.</p>
<p>I bought my last two cars used from new car dealers. I know I was paying a premium, but I also know that dealers are going to generally wholesale any clunkers they take in trade. The nice thing is that a dealer will actually give you a trade if you’ve got a worthless old clunker to get rid of!</p>
<p>On this last one, I just spent a couple of evenings looking at the used inventory of all the dealers within a 50 mile radius. It helped that I had a brand/models in mind. Honestly, it seemed like the market is so transparent with internet shopping that the prices were pretty well established. I had a lot of options, even in a specific brand/model, so I could decide on option packages versus price to some degree.</p>
<p>I’ve been pleased with both shopping experiences. I’ve ended up with really nice low mileage (30,000 to 36,000 miles) cars, loaded, for a ton less money than buying new. That seems to be the sweet spot for dealer cars. I think they wholesale most everything with over 50,000 miles or more than three or four years old.</p>
<p>One tip: Dealers will try to hit you with a dealer prep/delivery fee of several hundred dollars. When I had done my comparison shopping, I thought the car I wanted was priced fairly. So, when the sales manager gave me a figure for my trade-in, I had the sense to confirm, “so, it’s out the door for x-amount and my trade-in, correct?” He confirmed… When I came back two days later to buy the car, the sales man added the $500 dealer prep fee. I said, "wait a minute… I’m paying your price. I’m not nickle and diming you down $500, so I expect the same. Don’t nickle and dime me with that fee… Your sales manager said, “x amount, out the door”. Here’s a cashiers check for “x-amount, take it or leave it…” The sales manager really had no choice but to do the deal.</p>
<p>Carfax is simply a marketing tool. You would be very foolish to put any faith in it.</p>
<p>Whatever vehicle you’re considering purchasing, be sure to have it looked at an independent mechanic (your mechanic, not the seller’s mechanic). It will be the best $100 investment you can spend!</p>
<p>My current car was bought through a rental places. For the life of me though, I can’t remember which. It was about a year old, had less than 20k miles on it, and was less than 10k. </p>
<p>I didn’t get a carfax with it. I just brought my handy dandy mechanic with me. I put more faith in him than a piece of paper.</p>
<p>We have bought almost exclusively vehicles in the last 28 years…</p>
<p>We buy through a dealer…of the brand and buy Certfied pre-owned in order to get the best chance there are no major bugs. My DH has a relationship with the car industry and I can say that IF a car is Not certified–it is either because the price point to certify it (dealer pays a fee) is too close to new, OR the miles are too high OR there is a problem.</p>
<p>There are independent inspectors who will go evaluate a used car for you at either a dealer or a private owner’s house. Many years ago we used Autocritic and 2 years ago we used Lemon Squad. For $150, we got a very comprehensive report, with photos. I didn’t see the cars myself first, just told the owners/dealers that the inspector was coming. I checked the Carfax reports also, but these services were the greatest.</p>
<p>My latest car came from Craig’s list. I haunted the listings for a few months till a reasonable in price vehicle on my short list of models, with low miles showed up. Had it checked with my mechanic, took a little off for some small items, and was good to go. I also was not willing to drive around looking. The listings were sufficient. No, was not dealer impeccably clean, but figure I’ll get it detailed at some point.</p>