OT: Car Buying Programs ?

No. I use craigslist and people I know to find what I want

I have not looked at Craigslist – I never got in the habit of looking at that website.

I normally looked at autotrader.com but seems like 99% of the used cars on that site now a days are used cars at dealerships which tend to be more expensive and dealers know better how to hide flaws.

Maybe Craigslist will have more “by owner” used cars.

Craigslist has an option to look at all cars for sale, dealer and private party. Or you can look at just private party or just dealer cars. If you use the search function you can put in a specific make and model you are interested in and not have to search thru all the listings.

I have looked at auto trader also and you get vehicles from all over the country. Craigslist you can look in secific cities or areas.

Just watch for scams. Anyone asking you to pay with paypal is likely a scam. Anyone saying the car is at a military base in ??? Wherever? And the owner just got deployed or transfered and needs to sell the car is a no go.

Good luck

Just be honest and post a real pic of your car, not a screensaver pic like LMN

I bought two 2001 Jeep Cherokees for my daughters to drive to, from and at college. I bought them both through the Chrysler certified used car program. Both had been in lese programs for three years, had 15,000 miles and were about $15K each. Both ran trouble free for as long as the girls had them. One was totalled in an accident about 4 years after we bought it, the other one was traded on a new Subaru Forrester just last year. We were satisfied with both of them.

Thanks for all the input.

Just to clarify – what I mean by “Car Buying Program” is when you go to a website like kbb.com and you can use their site to pick a car and then they give you a quote which you can go to the dealer w/ and the dealer will honor it w/o you having to go thru the haggling process.

My credit union has one but I have never used it. My last 3 vehicles have been new Fords and they offer their "X" plan to me. Ford has 3 plans. 1 for employees, 1 for retired employees and one for favorite venders. The dealer invoice shows the price for all 3 plans. Mine saved me about $2k over the sticker price. So no haggling.

Papi, I know AAA has great no hassle program, if you are a member. I used it for a NEW car. Am not sure about used cars. The only issue was the dealer AAA used was slightly farther away from my house, but that was not big deal because of the savings.

Truecar is great because it cuts down on the haggling and gives upfront pricing.

papi,

I've bought 3 vehicles via the net. The first, I flew to Texas to check it out, then had it transported to S. Florida. The next I bought in West Virginia and relied on references of the seller. It was transported south and was even better than I expected. The third was via Craigslist. It was local and I went to see it. All have worked out well.

I've always been leery of buying used cars through dealers. Seeing what they pay for used cars & what they sell them for, I just hate knowing they're making that kind of cash on the deal.

That said, Carmax offers the kind of service you're talking about. Prices are what they are, there's no haggling. You can look online, then check it out in person. They'll also ship if the one you find is across the country, and they're upfront about the price. I'm not really endorsing/recommending it, but not badmouthing it either.

For "regular" cars, I'm a fan of just buying new and hanging on to it. Sure, there's that instant depreciation when it ceases to be new but I feel like I can hang on to it long enough to overcome that. I feel like the people who sell their car after 2-3 years aren't the type who gently use and diligently maintain their vehicles.

Well first, I think you have to figure out what "type" of car you want.

I have a friend that just bought a brand new Dodge Hemi Crew Cab Ram Pickup for $23,000. It wasn't loaded but it had decent options, I was shocked he got it that cheap. Buying new usually gets you 0% interest right now.

I have always bought used and if you look around at your local credit unions you can usually get a 60 month loan for as low as 2.25% these days.

I would recommend looking at cargurus.com and search for what you're looking for. I have found several cars on there that weren't listed on autotrader or cars.com

I stay away from cars that have had multiple owners and I stay away from "for sale by owner" if I can't see the car in person and have it independently inspected

I debated forever about getting a lease but alas I had to pass because I don't put enough miles on my cars to justify a lease. Maybe you would...