Why can't people put a description along with some pictures? Not only private sellers, but dealers too. Find a decent car with nothing listed. Called about one yesterday and was told it looks like it was sideswiped. No pictures. The Carfax was clean, no accidents listed. A simple picture or even a description would have saved us both time. This was at a dealer no less. Then private sales, it looks like a scam. "I have a car for sale." No shit Sherlock! How about a description. Check engine light on? Bald tires? Fender falling off?

And IF you find a seller that hasn't done a lazy shitass job of posting the ad, they think their car is more special than Doc Brown's time machine, or people are willing to pay for mods they don't want. "I put like 10K into her and I'm gonna need to get that back!" Yeah good luck with that.

Good luck to you. Buying a car is ALWAYS a royal bitch, but hang in there, don't settle. Be bloody, bold, and resolute!

LNIB. Never fired. Only dropped once.

Carmax or rental sales. Nothing else is worth your time.

quote:

Why can't people put a description along with some pictures?

Because they want to get you in the door.

Lots of good used car websites like autotrader, carguru and a few others. Most have filters so you can narrow your search down to specific vehicles and adds with pictures. Some adds cost money and there's usually a limit to the number of words per add so you might not get the most detailed description

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
Carmax or rental sales. Nothing else is worth your time.

I Looking for an Edge, I found a good deal at a large local Ford dealer.

I had the foresight to pay my independent mechanic (known to be A Good Guy, as he favors .357 SIG for his P229s) to do a "pre-marital" inspection. Paid him $95.00 for his time. He found a leak in the power steering fluid cooler, and a cracked transmission mount as well as a couple other things. The Ford dealer agreed to rectify all problems prior to delivery.

vast.com auto listings has a very good search/sort feature.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnnyD:
vast.com auto listings has a very good search/sort feature.

Is that consumer-facing, or dealers only? I can't find a search tool that I can run.

eta - here it is. Not at Vast.com

http://autos.vast.com/cars

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Originally posted by JohnnyD:
vast.com auto listings has a very good search/sort feature.

Is that consumer-facing, or dealers only? I can't find a search tool that I can run.

eta - here it is. Not at Vast.com

http://autos.vast.com/cars

That site is awful.

Do a search and then click on the vehicle you like and it takes you to a completely different car site search and the vehicle is not even listed at that site.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Originally posted by JohnnyD:
vast.com auto listings has a very good search/sort feature.

Is that consumer-facing, or dealers only? I can't find a search tool that I can run.

eta - here it is. Not at Vast.com

http://autos.vast.com/cars

That site is awful.

Do a search and then click on the vehicle you like and it takes you to a completely different car site search and the vehicle is not even listed at that site.

Agree - at the risk of hijacking the OP thread, this is most certainly not a well developed tool for buyer search. Sort of a clearing house I guess, but I think there are some dupes as well.

Craigslist and Autotrader. There are some free sites that let you monitor and receive alerts when certain craigslist ad items are posted as well. Popular stuff disappears quickly, so sometimes one needs to call and investigate quickly as well. Still, for used cars it's a game of screening and searching, then still looking at a dozen cars to find one worth buying.

quote:

The Carfax was clean, no accidents listed.

Carfax only has what is reported. I had a Land Rover that was a piece of junk. New transmission at 40,000 & new engine at 52,000. Carfax reported neither item as the Land Rover Dealer does not report repairs to Carfax.

quote:

Originally posted by Anush:

quote:

The Carfax was clean, no accidents listed.

Carfax only has what is reported. I had a Land Rover that was a piece of junk. New transmission at 40,000 & new engine at 52,000. Carfax reported neither item as the Land Rover Dealer does not report repairs to Carfax.

If a Land Rover dealer reported all his repairs to Carfax, he wouldn't have time for anything else .

I bought an 8-year old Honda Odyssey at a Honda dealer, found on cars.com; after looking up the Carfax (probably paid for it myself) and having seen that it was serviced regularly at that dealer. Now, Odysseys are more likely to be babied than hooned, but this one was really nice. Obviously had been garaged its entire (California) life.

So Carfax is a start, but yes can be inaccurate if accidents not reported.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:

quote:

Originally posted by Anush:

quote:

The Carfax was clean, no accidents listed.

Carfax only has what is reported. I had a Land Rover that was a piece of junk. New transmission at 40,000 & new engine at 52,000. Carfax reported neither item as the Land Rover Dealer does not report repairs to Carfax.

If a Land Rover dealer reported all his repairs to Carfax, he wouldn't have time for anything else .

And people might figure out what utter junk they are.

Car forums are just as bad sometimes. Someone asking $43k for a car with no pictures and no contact information with only a few sparse details like color and mileage.

Use the lazy way by saying, "e-mail for pictures" and not even bothering saying whether it's standard or auto trans, trim level, etc...

Then you have those who are "testing the waters..."

So glad that shit isn't allowed here. You selling your shit or not?

quote:

Originally posted by MitchbSC:
LNIB. Never fired. Only dropped once.

ARVN surplus?