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Used cars


Square Wheels

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I bought the del Sol from cars.com - it took a lot of searching to find just the right deal.

 

I've heard of people having good luck at Carsense, nice dealerships that are sort of like new cars dealers.

 

I am probably looking to buy soon, and I am not looking forward to it at all!  Dealers charge way too much, and it is too much work to buy from private sellers.

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Where do you buy em?  I've bought new for my past few cars, and son #1 inherited an old one from me.  Son #2 is now looking for his first car.

 

I tried Craigslist, but most look like junk or scams.  I tried Cars.com but most of those looked like dealers.

 All our kids inherited our old cars, eliminating having to take a chance on buying used. The tradition still continues, our DIL is still driving our old 220,000 mile Corolla. We figured she would drive it for a few months until they could afford a new one. She has been driving it for a few years now and loves it. And at the last family get together, they were all arguing who gets "Blue" our commuter Mazda3. :rolleyes:

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I got mine at a dealer....

I did buy a two year old Accord with 33k at a Honda dealer - got a fairly decent deal because I knew a salesperson there.  But I later found out it was in an accident and had some pretty significant body work, and it was heavily perfumed to cover the previous owner's smoking smell, and also had a few cigarette burns on the upholstery and carpet.  (I have vague memories of seeing a clean Carfax at the dealer but then later when I had the unlimited Carfax membership  a year or two later when buying the del Sol I found the accident.  "Certified Used Car" is a pile of crap!  It means absolutely nothing, except that they try to charge you more.  Mine had bald tires until I made them replace them.  They had no answer for how a "rigorous safety inspection" missed bald tires. :rolleyes::angry:

 

The worst part was on the drive home it puffed out HUGE amount of white smoke, but I now suspect it actually was blowing the crap out of the engine because the previous owner must have driven like a little old lady.  Thankfully it ran well after that "Italian tune-up", and has continued to be a darn good car and now has almost 200k on it.

 

I am really on the fence aboot whether my next purchase will be new or used.

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Just steal Indy's.

 

Couch

 

Take the Galant, I could get more in insurance money for it because of the crappy Mitsubishi paint job.  Though my nephew would be upset since we've been telling him we will give it to them as soon WoIndy gets around to deciding to replace it.

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I have had some of my best luck with buying used cars from a new car dealer.  The dealers generally only keep the nicer trade-ins and they wholesale the rest.  They want to turn a profit on the used cars, but they don't want the hassle of selling you an old lemon.  Also, if you buy a used Ford (pick your brand) from a Ford dealer, it means the previous owner was probably happy with the car since he bought another car of the same brand.

 

Most of the cars I have bought from individuals didn't turn out all that great.  Most people just don't take care of their cars (at least not the way I do).  People will tell you that their car is in great shape and when you start looking at it, you realize their definition of great isn't very good.  Sometimes it is even quite bad.  :(

 

Also, with an individual, it's buyer beware and no easy recourse if the car turns out to be crap.  Most new car dealers, OTH, have their reputations on the line and usually offer a 30 to 90 day warranty (it's a lot better than nothing).

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I've done both car dealers and private parties. You can get great deals from individuals when you show up with a wad of $100's but like RoadRunner says with a dealer you have some limited warranty. I bought my Subaru for 10k, it booked for over 15 and the seller was asking 14.

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