I have had good luck with private sales, but every car I’ve bought from a dealer was overpriced and had more issues than even the rattiest “Needs some TLC” private sale cars I’ve bought. Used car dealers have a bad rep for a reason, and I have two blown transmissions and a cracked engine block in my past to prove my point.
Sure, you need to know a bit about cars or have a friend who does to separate the junk from the good cars, but you can often tell from the way a CL post is written whether the seller is an unscrupulous jack-off, and those times that you are wrong, it’s pretty easy to figure out when you actually meet them face-to-face to look at the car.
Craigslist and the local paper’s classified ads are probably the best places to consistently find decent used cars. Referrals from friends can be a little iffy unless you have friends like me who are gearheads.
@john65pennington If you knew how most of my family treats cars, that is a good reason to not follow that part of your advice, at least for me. My skull-car and my stepfather’s ‘95 Celica are the only cars on either side of my family that aren’t either a lemon or poorly maintained enough to soon become one. And the last time I trusted my mother (an ex-mechanic) who had a friend (also mechanically inclined) who was looking to unload a car, I got something with irreparable frame rot (enough to never be able to pass state inspection), brake issues, electrical problems… I got my money back, but it cost a friendship.
@laureth The $300, 30MPG, “starts every time” old Corolla I bought off of Craigslist was from a college student. Sweet car and a great deal.
@Tropical_Willie I wouldn’t trust any $2000 Subaru built in this century unless the seller was truly desperate or you are prepared to spend a shitload on repairs.