What is this world coming to when you can buy a used car online without having to look at smiling guys with tobacco-stained teeth and bad neckties sitting on plastic chairs inside a trailer on the used car lot? Whew! Thank goodness for the Internet.
In many ways the Internet is like a huge electronic newspaper that gets updated every day. Because of the global nature of the Internet, you can find listings for nearly any make, model, and year car that was ever in production anywhere in the world, or you can just focus on late-model cars in your own community.
How to Find Used Cars Online
This is the kind of work that search engines were made for. Start with your favorite search engine and type the phrase:
used cars in . Substitute the geographical area of your preference for the phrase .:
I live near a relatively large city so my search on Google returned 897,000 hits! These hits included listings from used car dealers, new car dealers with used car departments, classified ad sites, and eBay. eBay? Yes, you can buy used cars on eBay. In fact, they have their own special name. It's called "eBay Motors" and you can find it at:
http://www.motors.ebay.com
Of course, I also received a lot of trash hits which had nothing to do with buying a used car online. There was plenty to keep me busy on the first five search engine result pages.
Point, Click, Ah Ha!
Unless you're looking for a rare or vintage car, the chances are your search left you up to your eyeballs in potential cars that are all whining to come home with you like puppies in a pound. So, what do you do next?
First you need the asking price. If it's not posted then you'll have to contact the seller. If you do contact the seller to get a price, get the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) while you're at it. We'll be needing that it a moment or so. If the asking price is listed, you're still going to need the VIN number before you make an offer, so contact the seller now or later. It's your choice.
Armed with the price, go to
www.edmunds.com to check out the high, low, and average prices for your dream car's year, make, model, condition, mileage and accessories. While you're there you can also use their Used Car search engines to add to your list of driveway candidates.
Now that you have an idea of what the car is worth, you need a bit more information before you start the negotiating and buying process. You need to know whether your potential cream puff has ever been stolen, wrecked, repossessed, dragged from flood waters, declared to be salvage in another state, was a former rental car, police car, leased car, or taxi cab. And to get all of this insider information, all you need is the car's VIN and a trip to either
www.carfax.com where you can buy a vehicle history report for just a few bucks.
Okay, NOW you're ready to negotiate. Good luck!