Buying used Car from Dealership vs Private

This is not my beautiful car wrote:

Don’t buy a used car that is from a part of the country that has recently flooded. It’s highly likely that the car was flooded. There are sublte ways to tell but you need to know what you’re looking for. For instance, if the interior of the car looks practically brand new but there is an evenly distributed layer of brown residue caked in between the ridges on the brake and accelerator pedals then it was probably flooded.

The beginning of this post may be the best advice:

Don’t buy a used car

The premium you pay for new is worth it when you look at all the assurances and initial warranty.

Plus, you start at zero and will have extra years to have it.

don't buy a used car is just silly,

I have three cars all used. All three cost less than most new cars. I have what I want to drive when I want it. . I use one to drive the heck out of it locally, that's the one with the best MPG, and is cheapest to fix and buy tires for and cheapest to replace. I have one that can carry 8 people , camp , tow my boat etc. There's one for bad weather local driving because it's all wheel drive but not a gas guzzler either (subaru outback). I have all the uses , can spread out the wear and tear and always have a backup vehicle, so I have time to do my own maintenance and repairs. I might get a used pickup truck too,

Buy a CPO = certified pre owned from a dealer - inspected and warrantied

There is always risk when buying a used vehicle. There can be title problems, undisclosed prior collision history that does not show up on CARFAX, or mechanical problems.

Franchised dealers are the lowest risk but have the least competitive pricing. CPO gets you an inspection that will generally only find obvious problem and an extension of the manufacturer's warranty. CPO vehicles can still be losers and have tons of mechanical problems. Franchised dealers will usually pull CARFAX, but CARFAX does not pick up everything and it can take months for damage reports to make it onto a CARFAX report. So, you can buy a nice looking vehicle with a clean CARFAX and find out three months later that CARFAX just began reporting negative info. Dealers do have to do a safety and emissions inspection in most states which will mandate that safety equipment (lights, brakes, etc.), tires and the emissions system are all working.

Independent dealers (used car only lots) come in all different shapes and sizes. CARMAX and some regional large used vehicle dealers will be on par with franchised dealers. Smaller independent dealers will just get a vehicle at auction, put it on the lot and tell you to f#ck off if there are any problems.

You can get deals buying vehicles outside of the licensed dealers. But I would only buy from friends or family. There are way too many stolen vehicles being sold on Craigslist and a lot of curbstoning by licensed dealers to off load junk from their lots. If you buy from a thief, you get no legal title and the police can seize the vehicle and give it back to the rightful owner, leaving you to try to recover the money from the thief (who is usually working to launder money for organized crime/drug cartels). You generally cannot get an auto loan to buy from a private seller because the lenders do not trust them to transfer good title and perfect their lien.

You can get a vehicle inspected by your mechanic whether you are buying from a private seller or licensed dealer. But a mechanic can only find obvious problems and will not be able to discover latent defects. Unless the vehicle is throwing a fault code, has an obvious performance issue that can be consistently replicated or has a clear visual issue (fluids leaking, etc.), a mechanic will not be able to tell you whether a vehicle will be problem free 6, 12, or 24 months from the date of sale. It takes about a day for a mechanic to tear down an engine and inspect the internal engine (cylinder heads, crankshafft, etc.) and costs $2,000+ depending on the make and model of vehicle.

The safest route is to buy from a franchised dealer and to buy a vehicle that the franchised dealer is licensed to sell (used Toyota from Toyota dealer, etc). Ask the dealer for a copy of the auction receipt or the used vehicle appraisal report and reconditioning repair order if the vehicle was traded. The big auctions require damage disclosure by sellers and will have some notation of the same on the auction receipt. Most dealers will write up an appraisal report on trade vehicles noting any damage or mechanical issue and will have a repair order from the service department detailing any repairs done to recondition the vehicle. You can also ask them to pull the service history for the vehicle. Most franchised dealers will be able to access service history from all the franchised dealers where the vehicle was presented for service.

^^ this is some of the dumbest advice I've seen

tl;dr there's risk in buying a used vehicle. No sh!t.

Stolen vehicles are not common on Craigslist. I'm sure there are a few. But you're way more likely to buy a lemon than a stolen car.

Anytime you buy used, doesn't matter if it's from a franchise dealer or some dude in the 'burbs, pay the $100 to have a mechanic go through it. They'll catch anything that will bite you in the a$$ right away. If something breaks 12 months down the road, that's called maintenance.

dfsdfasdf wrote:

^^ this is some of the dumbest advice I've seen

tl;dr there's risk in buying a used vehicle. No sh!t.

Stolen vehicles are not common on Craigslist. I'm sure there are a few. But you're way more likely to buy a lemon than a stolen car.

Anytime you buy used, doesn't matter if it's from a franchise dealer or some dude in the 'burbs, pay the $100 to have a mechanic go through it. They'll catch anything that will bite you in the a$$ right away. If something breaks 12 months down the road, that's called maintenance.

I have personally gone to property hearings on stolen vehicles and seen a dozen people in a day told by a judge that they are not getting their vehicle back because it is stolen. The risk of ending up with a stolen vehicle from Craigslist is much higher than people know. Vehicle thieves are very sophisticated these days. They are able to hack into vehicles with laptops and take them without a scratch. They steal certificates of title from a dumpy used car dealer and then wash the certificates and reprint with the info for the stolen vehicle. The DMV has no clue and issues a clear title. And there is also VIN swapping. That is just the beginning. There are curbstoning dealers trying to move trash vehicles by pretending to be a private seller and unlicensed dealers trying to make a quick buck flipping vehicles on Craigslist. The unlicensed dealers often fail to transfer title because they often get upside down and rob from Peter to pay Paul. I know the attorney who handles enforcement for my state's DMV for unlicensed dealer complaints. He has a docket of 1,500 cases at any one time and these are all based on customer complaints. The DMV has no budget to do any independent investigation of unlicensed vehicle sales. They only react.

If you are buying from someone on Craigslist, I would stay far away unless you can verify that they are the registered owner and the address on the registration is a home or condo that you can confirm they own on the local Tax Assessor's website. If it is just some guy renting an apartment or house, the risk goes up significantly.

Common sense prevails, I think. If you are communicating with someone on Craigslist and seem sketchy or you get weird feelings from them, don't buy from them.

I've purchased a used car from a dealer and purchased a used car privately. As many people mentioned, each have pros and cons. Overall though, my Craigslist experience was much better, and you can do what I did - hire a mobile mechanic who will do an inspection of the vehicle when you meet up. Alternatively, you can meet the seller at a mechanic shop and have an inspection done prior to purchase. Overall I probably saved $5000 compared with buying a similar car from a dealer.

Selling - Craigslist was great as well. I sold it for twice what the dealer offered me.

Well you gotta figure that everyone sells the car for a reason. A lot of the time the reasoning is they sense it is breaking down or already issue(s) that will just lead to further issues. Maybe you can get lucky and they are selling because they can not afford it or can afford a better car and its still in good shape. The best working used car I got was from an older man who decided to stop driving at age 80. It was an older BMW but in perfect shape for its age and mileage.

Precious Roy wrote:

If you are buying from someone on Craigslist, I would stay far away...

^ This kind of fear-mongering is precisely why it's a better deal to buy from a private seller.

Allow me to toss in the option of looking for a prior model year that's still new on the lot and trying to get a great deal on that. You get all of the perks of a new car (warranty) with a price closer to a year used.

I have good success buying used cars from both dealers and private sellers. From dealers I bought a couple of certified used cars. They were only a year old or so and had between 3K to 14K miles on them.

A friend of mine has a one man garage and does all the mechanic work himself. Every now and then he lets me know if a good car comes in that the owner is looking to sell. I've never had a problem.