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Get a CarFax Report on the car
CarFax is your guiding light in the process of buying a used car. EVERY car, since 1965, has a VIN and that VIN identifies the car in CarFax. EVERY TIME the car was brought into a dealer or mechanic for maintenance or repair that visit appears in CarFax.
EVERY major [...]
Shop Smart
Sometimes you need to buy a replacement car in a day or so and sometimes you have months to buy a car – either way there is a smart way to buy a used car. If you buy a used car from a dealer will they be around 30 days from now? Car dealerships [...]
Paperwork
Here is a list of the paperwork involved in buying a used car:
Safety Inspection
Emission Inspection
Proof of Insurance
Title
Bill of Sale
Used Car Extended Warranties
How lucky do you feel?
If a used car has less than 140,000 miles you can get extended warranty protection; it’s not cheap but it will cover the major things that can go wrong for and additional 5 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.
The company I recommend is SmartAutoWarranty.com which is owned [...]
eBay Motors
eBay Motors has sold over 3,000,000 cars – they know what they are doing and this is a great place to buy a used car/truck.
I buy and sell lots of stuff on eBay; well cars can be bought and sold on eBay too. Over 3,000,000 cars/trucks have been sold thru eBay so pay [...]
MyRide.com
MyRide.com relies upon AutoByTel.com which relies upon Kelley Blue Book which gets their prices from Car.com – forget this website and just go to Cars.com.
AutoByTel.com
A website that uses Kelley Blue Book to get prices – no difference between them and 50 other sites that do exactly the same.
Forget them.
Cars.com
Cars.com and Kelly Blue Book (KBB) combine to give you a place to shop the local car dealers and check prices against the Blue Book.
This means that Cars.com generates the used car prices and give them to KBB and KBB then gives the same numbers back to bolster the used car dealer’s prices – don’t [...]
Edmunds.com
Click here to visit their used car website.
Sadly Edmunds just taps into the AutoTrader.com database for used car prices. New cars are a different story.
So forget Edmunds and just use AutoTrader.com.
Private Sale Car Inspection
If you want a cheap used car that doesn’t become a black hole for your wallet then you need to inspect the car before you buy it. Unless you have done this many times you are going to miss some critical checks and get stuck with a turkey. Luckily I can help [...]
Reading an AutoCheck Report
Sample Report
Get a VIN Check
See the basic information about your vehicle and how many records we have. Enter your VIN to get started!
Enter VIN below:
Don’t have a VIN? You can still get a report on a car!
Let’s review a sample AutoCheck report in detail. Click here to review a sample AutoCheck [...]
AutoCheck.com
As much as I love CarFax I love AutoCheck even more! I don’t dislike CarFax but AutoCheck gives you much more “Bang for the Buck” – a lot more.
Click the above icon and check out AutoCheck. Go write down a VIN from one of your cars and see what AutoCheck says.
Conclusion to my Opinions
In a nutshell, here are my opinions of buying a cheap used car.
Used Cars to Buy-my Preferred List
Buy a Honda, Toyota, or Subaru – any year, any model.
Honda includes Acura, and Toyota includes Lexus.
Mazda, Nissan, Hyundai, are good too.
Infiniti and BMW just make this list.
How Will Used Cars Hold Up?
Just which car manufacturer wants you to drive their car for a long time? Which car manufacturer is trying harder now than a few years ago? Well as you can probably guess Detroit could car less about you driving their cars for a long time.
Car Safety
The daughter of a neighbor of mine turned 16 and mom and dad bought her a used red Mustang convertible for her birthday present. Once week later we saw on TV that red Mustang wrapped around a telephone pole and two of the four kids were thrown from the car and killed. The other [...]
Models to Avoid
Once you have bought your perfect used car and the thrill of driving has worn off, about 30 days or so, the reliability of starting and running the car becomes far more important than the initial thrill of ownership. Most used cars are a living nightmare and the reason you need to spend [...]
Models to Buy
“Car Clouds”
Click this image to see an example of a Car Cloud by price:
Click this image to see a “Car Cloud” by manufacturer:
Now click this link and get your own copy of my Car Cloud:
2009-2010 Car Cloud
(This is a very large .pdf file-be patient)
The prices quoted in the “Car Clouds” are prices the [...]
Reliability Opinion
Reliability
Reliability, to me, is THE most important aspect of car ownership. Once I’ve bought the car/truck, pay for gas, oil changes, insurance, taxes I want the damn thing to start every time I turn the key, or press the button. I don’t want excuses and I don’t want an expensive mechanic telling me I [...]
My Used Car Opinions
Poring over all the facts, figures, and opinions from dozens/hundreds of websites I’ve formed some opinions. Mine are no better than other experts or yours – they are just my opinions. Take them or leave them but here they are.
Blue Book Prices
Kelley Blue Book (KBB) is what everyone means when they say “Blue Book”. However the car dealers look at NADA Guides. What’s the difference? Well what’s the difference between a GM and a Ford? It’s in the eye of the beholder. You, however, must look at both KBB and NADA to come up [...]
Do Research on the car/truck
The Internet is full of research material – way too much of it. Luckily for you I’ve distilled all that into a few places that give you all the facts you need. Bookmark these websites for fast research. Do some general research first and then drill down to the facts you [...]
Setting a Budget
Buying a used car can easily turn into an impulse purchase – this is NOT how to buy a great used car. Come up with the cash or find out your FICO score and determine what monthly payments you can afford.
Don’t forget the sales tax – that’s easily 7% or more and the [...]
Used Car Buying Tips
My Blog has dozens/hundreds of tips to make buying a used car/truck less painful, less dangerous, and more satisfying . I’m going to give a general overview of these tips I cover. Let’s cover THE most important tips:
Set a budget
Do research about the car/truck
Get a Blue Book price
Shop smart
Get a CarFax [...]
How to Read the CarFax
Update…Update…Update…
I’ve found something MUCH cheaper than CarFax and a hell of a lot better – it’s AutoCheck and you can read about it here!
There is a wealth of information in a CarFax Report – too much in fact.
Click here to see a CarFax and print it off and lets go over [...]
CarFax – Your Guiding Light
Update…Update…Update…
I’ve found something MUCH cheaper than CarFax and a hell of a lot better – it’s AutoCheck and you can read about it here!
It’s all about the VIN.
The VIN is on every car and light truck manufactured model year 1981 and later. You can find it in the front window near [...]
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