What do you use to shop for cheap used cars?

[Silver]

I'm talking $3000-$7,000 or so.

I don't do any old school stuff like newspapers or just driving around. I just don't have time for that.

The only site that fits my needs is craigslist.

Facebook seems to have the most, but wow - nearly EVERY post is by some shady kid or dealership I wouldn't even contact much less give money too. In my area it's completely overrun by illegitimate characters. Faulty prices, wrong mileage, etc.

Autotrader is mostly dealers and higher priced vehicles.

Carvana, dealer sites, etc. Well just no. Aggregate sites are just more of the same.

I am north of Atlanta.

I wish more people used craigslist.

 

[Dave9]

I would reconsider trying newspapers. Elderly owners are more likely to list in a newspaper and more likely to have taken better care of the vehicle, so less need to be deceptive about it. Plus it costs money to list, as does craigslist, so either way you'll get less riff-raff listings than on free sites like facebook. Did you check ebay motors?

 

[Andrew1972]

The problem with Craigslist is they made it free and then decided to get money. I think they should have charged a tiny fee $1 all along. I would check newspapers online as they show their classifieds.

Happy searching, FB and eBay maybe?

 

[KCJeep]

1) Family and friends - IMO the best source for a good used car but you have to snag them when they come available because often they won't be if you're in a pinch.

2) Facebook Marketplace - Yes there are scammers and creeps but here it is the opposite of what you described, Craig's List is much worse than FB.

I don't hesitate to do business with dealers but in the price bracket you are talking about NO.

 

[PandaBear]

The paradox is, the cheaper the ads (free, on craigslist and Facebook) the shadier the sellers. Personally I found these shady sellers usually sell for way too high to begin with and it is not even a good deal.

The lowest I go usually is autotrader, from a dealer, on a not too in demand vehicle (Mazda2, Prius V, Mazda5, etc). I don't expect to catch a barn find when I buy from a person who knows nothing about the market price. It is an unrealistic expectation.

 

[supton]

CL is cheap to read as is autotrader and dealer sites. When I have a moment I'll flip through one for fun. Ebay can be interesting but only for entertainment. I've yet to try FB as I don't have an account and I'm not about to get one.

 

[nwjones18]

Facebook marketplace is the only real game in town here in Middle GA. I bought my tractor and multiple cars off of it and have also sold everything I've ever listed in under a week. Including a $18k CRV, so not just cheap stuff.

 

[Skippy722]

Autotempest, covers a good chunk of various sites in 1 search.

 

[Duffyjr]

Sold my 99 LeSabre and bought my Lucerne on Car Gurus.

 

[vw7674]

well, if you're searching for stuff between 3-7k, that's where most of the scamming/ turd polishing happens.
Better off at an auction chasing a 2k fixer upper than swim in those under 10k waters.

 

[SatinSilver]

Send a PM to Macarose on here. He usually has 6 to 8 listings on CL in that price range. Plus he's in your area.

 

[Supersonic]

Second that AutoTempest site, here there is also a site that is regional, SE Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin areas, findcars.com that is mostly dealers from the local area, and usually there is an equivalent of anything selling Craigslist. Researching is very important too, especially this price point, search on; year, make, model plus the word "problems", ex. '2009 Honda Accord problems' usually results in the first 2 returns being carcomplaints.com and repairpal.com; car complaint for general briefing-skip the fluff, repairpal for -is this a problem I can work with, then onto more specifics in more specific vehicle forums and any VIN checks, as much as feasible, but your knowledge and instinct has to guide you in person, don't drive it unless you really think your serious about buying it, the drive many times seals the deal before we really know what we are getting into.

 

[01rangerxl]

The problem with Craigslist is they made it free and then decided to get money. I think they should have charged a tiny fee $1 all along. I would check newspapers online as they show their classifieds.

Happy searching, FB and eBay maybe?

Unfortunately I think CL had to do that because it was completely overrun by scammers posting bogus ads. For a while it was so flooded with ads for $1500 trucks that would normally sell for $10k+ that it was difficult to find any legitimate ads. There are still scams, but they are more elaborate now. Saw this today...

1996 Chevrolet Tahoe - SCAM - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle...

SCAM! I am paying $5 to post this to inform buyers of a scam. The person listing this vehicle stole pictures of the vehicle owner's driver license and title. They also have a fake cash app account...

bham.craigslist.org

Before it would be pictures of a perfect truck followed by a nonsense description and absurdly low price. This Tahoe ad was a little more thought out, though the price should have been a red flag.

I found my current Explorer on Facebook Marketplace. It was being sold by a "wholesale" dealer that buys vehicles at dealer only auctions then resells with minimal cleanup/repair to the public. It still had auction stickers on it when I bought it. It was a very straightforward purchase and even came with both original keys and remotes. The private sellers on there are very "I know what I got" though. Them Mountain Dew bottles on the floorboard are worth something too...Mossy Oak Limited Edition or something.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I buy cars from people I know. I offer them an easy cash sale, tell them what I think the car is worth and what I will pay for it. I just bought a 2000 Camry V6 in fantastic condition. I told the owners it would sell for $3000 in 1 weekend easily. They knew I was getting it for a needy family; they asked for $1000. I countered with $1200. Done.

I have had good luck with Craigslist, but remember there are a lotta cars around here and we do not have rust. But you gotta be willing to find the right car... Especially nowadays.
Finally, I have helped a few people get cars from Hertz car sales. A higher mileage 2015 Altima base; it has been a great car. A newer Yaris; it was good but the new owner found it too small; she sold it for what she paid. And a pretty new Sentra strippie that served a young gal for about 2 years and then she sold it. All satisfied customers.

Good luck.

 

[eljefino]

I buy on FB Marketplace and sell on Craigslist.

There are a subset of stubborn people-- mostly men-- who refuse to get facebook and are blind to what it offers.

The $5 listing fee on CL buys exclusivity, and there's less competition when I go to sell.

But really you need both, because you never know. And have cash at the ready-- time spent going to the ATM or an open bank branch will make you lose out on hot deals.

A benefit to FB is you can see how long the seller has had an account (ie not fly by night) and what other stuff they have for sale... if they have everything under the rainbow or just this one car. I even "stalked" the seller of my Biscayne and found a picture he took of the motor on a cherry picker-- turns out he yanked it to reseal the oil pan!

 

[MrLemonade]

I'm talking $3000-$7,000 or so.

I don't do any old school stuff like newspapers or just driving around. I just don't have time for that.

The only site that fits my needs is craigslist.

Facebook seems to have the most, but wow - nearly EVERY post is by some shady kid or dealership I wouldn't even contact much less give money too. In my area it's completely overrun by illegitimate characters. Faulty prices, wrong mileage, etc.

Autotrader is mostly dealers and higher priced vehicles.

Carvana, dealer sites, etc. Well just no. Aggregate sites are just more of the same.

I am north of Atlanta.

I wish more people used craigslist.

Right now, it's nearly impossible to find a honestly advertised reasonably priced car.

Craigslist and FB are so full of dealers and scammers. I really think dealers should NOT be allowed, since that defeats the entire purpose of these platforms, especially Craigslist. CL was supposed to be for private people to trade/sell goods. Dealers have other avenues, radio, TV spots, websites, emails, papers, etc. Then there's the dealers who list every make and model in their search terms so that pages of irrelevant hits come up, e.g. searching for a Monte Carlo and 20 pages of Ram Pickup Trucks and Toyota Camry ads and ads for rims appear.

I get so ******* annoyed with private sellers who list the wrong mileage, no details, wrong price, omit important details, etc. They often drop the mileage or price by a factor of 10x and waste your time significantly by sorting thru incorrect ads. It drives me ******* bananas. I am probably going to start wasting their time by arranging fake meetings and have them drive somewhere inconvenient and then no-show just to waste their time like they do everyone else... "I prefer to meet in a public place, can you bring your car over to XYZ and meet me at 3pm?"

 

[MrLemonade]

And then there's the morons who don't remove their ads after their cars sell. So you spend 1/2 a day sending messages on ads for cars, while missing other opportunities of course, only to hear back "Oh, I sold that last month." Yeah, thanks for wasting my time. A one-off is no big deal but in the aggregate, this is a real hassle.

 

[PandaBear]

Right now, it's nearly impossible to find a honestly advertised reasonably priced car.

Craigslist and FB are so full of dealers and scammers. I really think dealers should NOT be allowed, since that defeats the entire purpose of these platforms, especially Craigslist. CL was supposed to be for private people to trade/sell goods. Dealers have other avenues, radio, TV spots, websites, emails, papers, etc. Then there's the dealers who list every make and model in their search terms so that pages of irrelevant hits come up, e.g. searching for a Monte Carlo and 20 pages of Ram Pickup Trucks and Toyota Camry ads and ads for rims appear.

I get so ******* annoyed with private sellers who list the wrong mileage, no details, wrong price, omit important details, etc. They often drop the mileage or price by a factor of 10x and waste your time significantly by sorting thru incorrect ads. It drives me ******* bananas. I am probably going to start wasting their time by arranging fake meetings and have them drive somewhere inconvenient and then no-show just to waste their time like they do everyone else... "I prefer to meet in a public place, can you bring your car over to XYZ and meet me at 3pm?"

Why dealers shouldn't be allowed? I found some of them realistic and to be honest if they are not pulling bait and switch, selling for whatever they list for without haggling, it is fine.

I buy all my cars from dealers, on ads, with no negotiation, at the price I know is already realistic. I don't go in to haggle, I know which car is distressed inventory and they list it for a distressed price, and I drive there to pick it up (sometimes not even a test drive if it is new). In and out in 1 hour.

As you said private sellers with wrong price wrong mileage no details etc, completely unprofessional. At least dealers you know what to expect (maybe not the price but that's the whole point of reading the ads). I hope you don't expect them to all be $500 1991 model year that will last 40 years and 300k miles.

 

[MrLemonade]

Why dealers shouldn't be allowed? I found some of them realistic and to be honest if they are not pulling bait and switch, selling for whatever they list for without haggling, it is fine.

I buy all my cars from dealers, on ads, with no negotiation, at the price I know is already realistic. I don't go in to haggle, I know which car is distressed inventory and they list it for a distressed price, and I drive there to pick it up (sometimes not even a test drive if it is new). In and out in 1 hour.

As you said private sellers with wrong price wrong mileage no details etc, completely unprofessional. At least dealers you know what to expect (maybe not the price but that's the whole point of reading the ads). I hope you don't expect them to all be $500 1991 model year that will last 40 years and 300k miles.

Your continued cheap shots do not foster a good environment or dialogue.

Dealers are often shady. I've caught many in lies and dishonest dealings.

The point is they have outlets for adverts. CL was supposed to be for the private parties to have our own space. Now, it's crowded with dealers.

 

[PandaBear]

Your continued cheap shots do not foster a good environment or dialogue.

Dealers are often shady. I've caught many in lies and dishonest dealings.

The point is they have outlets for adverts. CL was supposed to be for the private parties to have our own space. Now, it's crowded with dealers.

Everyone is shady. Private sellers too.

I am not trying to cheap shot at you, just pointing out that it is not a dealer vs private sellers comparison. CL, eBay, whatever it is nothing is ever black and white about who is it supposedly for and who is always shady and honest.

You want honesty? Go to Costco and buy a new car using their buying service, oh, and don't haggle.