Car Buying – 3 Best Places to Purchase a Used Car and 3 To Avoid

One of the most prudent things you can do with your finances is to shop for used cars and keep them running for years. Shopping for used cars helps reduce the overall cost of vehicle ownership. Of course, there is no shortage of places trying to earn your business for your next vehicle. Take a look at these car buying tips.

Instead of stressing about where you’ll get your next ride, here are three of the best and worst places to explore used cars:

Best: A Certified Pre-Owned Dealership for Car Buying

There’s always a risk when you purchase a pre-owned vehicle since you don’t know everything about the vehicle’s history and treatment. A certified pre-owned vehicle is one that has been inspected, tested, and restored in incredible condition. Toyota, for example, requires that all CPOs be under six years old, have fewer than 80,000 miles on them, and that it passes a massive inspection.

When you shop for a CPO, you can shop with confidence. These vehicles give you the value of a used car but with the reliability of a brand new option.

Best: Used Car Dealership

While CPOs may be some of the most impressive vehicles on the road, they are not the only option. If you’re looking to save some serious coin, buying used cars from a dealership is a great option.

Most dealerships get their used cars from trade-ins. Their service departments go over the vehicles to make any necessary repairs, and the car is ready for sale. You can even get a copy of the vehicle’s history report. More importantly, a reputable dealership won’t sell you a lemon. There are even laws against predatory car sales, so you can go into the deal with some trust, especially if you do your homework beforehand.

Best: An Independent Dealership for Car Buying

An independent dealership is one that isn’t necessarily associated with a specific brand. These dealerships will have a wide variety of used cars. These dealers are also extremely flexible when it comes to financing, and many offer their own in-house loan options.

Places like CarMax are technically independent used car dealerships. Prices might be higher at a place like this, but you can save time with their hassle-free and haggle-free approach. Independent dealers can also take trade-ins.

Worst: Craigslist

There are probably plenty of situations where craigslist car sales are fair and legit, but it’s hard to find those deals these days. Craigslist might seem like an easy place to buy/sell a vehicle without having to deal with a dealership. In theory, you should be able to save the money that would normally go towards salespeople, service departments, etc.

The biggest challenge with shopping on Craigslist is that you are on your own. Unless you get the seller to sign a contract saying otherwise, the purchase is “as is.” That means you have no recourse if there is a major problem with the vehicle after the sale is made. You can also run into scams, stolen vehicles, and other issues that sour any good deal you might find.

Worst: Online

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using the internet to shop for used cars and make decisions about your wants and needs. Some dealerships offer the ability to complete your entire car-buying journey online. This is a great way to simplify the process.

What you should avoid is buying a car through an online portal like eBay, Facebook Marketplace, etc. Again, there may be great deals on these platforms, but there are risks associated with these options. In most cases, you won’t get a chance to inspect or test-drive the car before handing over your money. You may not get the vehicle you thought you were buying. While there are some protections for online sales like this, sellers are finding ways around these boundaries every day.

Worst: Pop-Up Dealerships for Car Buying

If you noticed that there’s a new independent car dealership in the parking lot of that old abandoned gas station, beware. Sure, this could be a legit operation. Every major auto dealer in your town had to start somewhere.

More often than not, these pop-up auto dealers aren’t going to have the most impressive inventory, and their prices may be too good to be true. They also have a bad reputation for pushing in-house financing with massive interest rates. There’s nothing wrong with exploring a buy-here-pay-here lot but do so with caution.