I've almost always used craiglist when buying cars. I've had pretty decent experiences. However, now that I'm looking to buy a newer used vehicle, I was thinking of going to Drive Time, since a lot of our friends had great experiences with them. I've never bought from a 'dealer' and don't know if you can still haggle like you can with people on craigslist ;)
Dealers have no soul, they will rob you blind if they can, they arent honest! (especially a used car salesman!). I do craigslist & only buy from people I get a good feeling from, & also choose people who live in "better" neighborhoods, where they have the money to maintain the car with tune ups & oil changes etc. There are "newer used cars available. Kijiji also has some deals...
Carmax! It's pretty much the only place I go through anymore. But, you can't haggle with them. You can haggle with any other dealer though.
We've bought our last 2 cars from CarMax. We've been really happy with both cars. They don't haggle and you pay the sticker price but they do sell on reputation so you pretty much know what you are getting and you don't have to worry about the seller just fixing it up to get it running. They also have a full 5 day money back return policy so you can take the car to a mechanic which we did and the mechanic said we got a good buy.
We've purchased several used cars from Carmax and I probably wouldn't go anywhere else for a used car at this point.
Do you have CarMax in your area? We have bought 3 cars there now, and it's been a GREAT experience each time!!!
We have had good luck with CarMax. We have bought 3 cars that way and had good experiences each time. If you find a car of theirs that you like online and it isn't at your nearest CarMax, they will ship it for a couple of hundred dollars. They also have their own month long warranty, so if anything on the car breaks right away you can take it back to them and they fix it for free. Good luck!
We bought our Yukon Denali off craigslist. My husband did have to fly to Ft. Lauderdale to get it and drive it back, but it saved us 5k. My husband owns a car dealership, and usually dealers can sell vehicles more than an individual, but you can def haggle with them.
do a little testing first, have a guy you know and trust go into the dealership first and ask about the car and options that you are interested in, tell him to get a firm price, then go into the same dealership yourself and ask about the same car with the same options that you had your male friend ask about, if the dealer quotes you a higher price then he quoted the male friend, then you know not to buy a car from him.
K. h.
CARMAX!! We just bought a Prius, they don't haggle, they are honest, they have financing. Ours is about an hour away from you but they do have a couple down there. There is one on Broad St and one in Midlothian.
Oh they did not follow us around begging us to buy the car.
They do work on commission.
They'll do searches too, if you knwo what you want and have it shipped in.
I've only owned 2 cars. Both used. The first I bought from people I had babysat for almost 10 years. The second at a car dealer where a friends husband worked as a mechanic. The dealer didn't know that so it had nothing to do with any haggling - that was my dad's doing! but I felt I could trust the car because they were program cars that they had just bought one a few days before. oh I take that back - I "owned" a third with my daughter's father. He however didn't negotiate at all and it cost me $10,000 when he failed to make payments on time and license it....but that's whole other drama!
Good luck with car buying. It scares me when I have to do it on my own!
We've bought 3 cars through CarMax and also sold two cars to them. All transactions have been 100% hassle-free. We had to do car shopping with our two kids (5 & 3) and so we "traded off" time to test-drive the cars with time in the little kid's room they've got set up with toys and DVD's and stuff. Someone mentioned below how nice it is to be linked up with the DMV. Soooo convenient--no extra trip to do registration, plates, etc. It's all done right there. Also the people are nice, low-pressure. If you like to haggle, it's not for you, though!
Two weeks ago at Carmax.
I hate haggling.
Their prices were reasonable and they are partnered with the DMV so they can do plates and registration right there on the spot.
It was the easiest car purchase we'd ever had.
craigslist. I got an awesome deal and it is a great car!
We almost always buy used (except when I just had to have a new "zoom zoom!") Our best experience was definitely Craigslist. But you most definitely can negotiate at a dealership.
You can negotiate with a dealer. My biggest advice would be to get the info on the car your interested in and get the good condition private party value on kelly blue book.com (kbb.com) for the car. Sometimes dealers price their cars in excellent condition or way over the top. Excellent condition pertains to 5% of cars and I highly doubt dealers have them lol.
I have been looking at craigslist for cars and it seems that you can buy some nice newer used cars for good prices. You may want to try looking for those cars on craigslist too. I would always avoid dealers if you can. They tack on the most ridiculous fees and anything to get the price up.
we used Carmax. We had $18K saved to buy and found what we were looking for. No hassle. Walked the lot with an IDEA of what we wanted - found it, test drove it, liked the price and wrote the check...
now the hard part with ANY "dealership" - Carmax included is the wait time and them trying to add things on to your price....warranty's etc.
I REFUSE to give ANY dealership "free" advertising and make them take their logo, signage, license plate frame ANYTHING with their name on it off the vehicle BEFORE I drive off the lot. The only time I've ever agreed to it is when they took $10K off my price - I said - fine. I'll advertise for you.
My uncle knows a guy who goes to auction so I gave him my specs and he found me a car :)
We've sold a couple cars to Carmax, but haven't bought one from them. I hear a lot of good things so you might want to check them out. Also, you can definitely haggle with a dealer! Everything is negotiable! Just don't go in there until you've done your research. Going at the end of the month is always good. If you want a new car, right now is a great time to buy a 2010. If you don't care about color, etc. you can usually get a great deal. Some dealers already have some 2012's out (can you believe it?!) so they're motivated to get rid of the 2010's. Good luck!
