where do you shop for cars now?

So, not looking for an enthusiast car, just a DD for the family. CL is the suck now, autotrader is 90% dealers it seems. So, where do you search?

Please don't say Facebook, please don't say Facebook, please don't say Facebook...

The last one I bought came off of the List of Craig. I also regularly search the Book of Faces. 

With Craigslist, you really need to use their filters to sort through all the junk. 

There's a whole bunch of normal mid priced cars that basically don't exist on the private market. The kind of people who buy them trade them in. The very very very small number of people who sell them privately make them hard to find. 

Three of the four that I own currently have been have Autotrader.........no complaints whatsoever.

Carmax

and yes, Facebook; though not the marketplace per se, but the local enthusiasts groups as they tend to be more honest about the cars and you can get good contacts for local dealers/salespeople if you need it.

Don’t forget that eBay is still a thing.

Nextdoor is also a rising option.

In the last couple of years I bought 2 Prius via CL in the $6k range.  One was a straight private seller nearby.  The other was listed in private but was a body shop who rebuilds Priuses.  The ad listed it as properly being rebuilt and I was happy with the answers and facts that I got about it previous condition.  

In the last couple of years I sold a '09 Vibe via CL an got a pleasant amount of genuine and legit inquiries. Sold in less than 5 days from originally listing it.  $4,500 sale price.  

I sold a '00 Focus quickly on CL also.  $2k sale price.    

I have also offloaded non-running $500 cars on CL in less than 2 days.  

I know you asked where to buy but someone has to sell them if you're gonna buy them.  

Things become harder in the $10k+ range.  These are cars that often still have loans on them and the average, "commoner", non-automotive person, does not know how to sell these cars.  Instead, they go to a dealership and exchange their payment on this one for a payment on another one.  

LetGo

(I'm kidding, but figured it'd be the one option worse than Facebook) 

In reply to Stefan :

The free to me EGT came via a BG chassis group, it was for sale about a year prior to $1000, I had assumed it had sold and then the seller posted that it was going to be donated if nobody came and picked it up. I was up there with a friend who has a trailer 2 days later. Reminds me, I owe said friend some beer and more rye. 

What kind of car are you looking for?  

Bought my Tundra on Nextdoor. Listing title was Used truck. One photo. 

The SF Bay Area Craigs is about it for me. I suppose since it is the home of CL and the fact that there are a bunch of cranky old farts on there like me who regularly flag the scam artists; this helps. I use the filters extensively as well as saved searches. Autotrader and The Book of Faces takes too much time for me to filter it down to what I'm looking for. Nextdoor here is pretty thin for what I'm looking for but what's posted is usually a bargain.

SearchTempest is a very useful nationwide Craigs search engine. I found The Barbed Wire Special there along with some very useful parts for TBWS...

Of course, the GRM $2018 Classy's is causing some angst in the RD household...

Kijiji and FB but I live in Canada.

John Welsh said:

What kind of car are you looking for?  

Not sure. My wife wants to buy a cheap car, like sub $6,000

In reply to DrBoost :

Would she take a manual trans?  If yes, I am really noticing that non-sporty cars with manual trans must take FOREVER to sell on CL.  As such, you should be able to drive the price down.

Sure, in "sporty cars" and some makes a manual is "valuable" but things like Kia Souls, Ford Escapes, Ford Fusions, Honda Element, and etc with a manual just have no buyers and no one looking for them.   

In your local CL, using the filters on the left just choose "by owner" and "manual trans" then see all that pops up.  Sure, trucks and sporty cars but the non-sporty cars will jump off the page.  Also be prepared that half the cars listed with "manual trans" will actually be automatics so be sure to rely of pictures for proof.  

Sample: '11 Kia Sportage   Take note that at the bottom of the page it says this ad was posted 2 months ago and updated 13 days ago.  I'll bet there is room to negotiate!  This car is not selling because the seller wont move on the price?  I bet it is not selling because just no one even calls about it.  

Edit: strange red flag.  Why is there no carpet on the passenger floor leaving the red floor pan exposed at the seat mounting bolts???

Stefan said:

Don’t forget that eBay is still a thing.

Nextdoor is also a rising option.

Something about being willing to pay more than anyone else will for a given car goes completely against my system.  

That’s why EBAY is not a place I’ll shop.  Same with Barn Finds and BRING A TRAILER. 

I haven’t really mastered Craigslist. Still spend way too much time trying to sort and not enough time finding. 

Networking though, that continues to work for me. Rarely does a week go by without a friend contact or referral without someone asking my opinion or helping them find a Jaguar.  It may narrow my field down tremendously but at least I’m pretty well in the loop when that Marque is discussed. 

Where are you at? (The Spousal Unit was an English teacher so I end sentences in prepositions whenever possible)

rdcyclist said:

Where are you at? (The Spousal Unit was an English teacher so I end sentences in prepositions whenever possible)

Michigan, Fenton to be precise. 

rdcyclist said:

Where are you at? (The Spousal Unit was an English teacher so I end sentences in prepositions whenever possible)

Good one. Brief thread highjack:

I dated an English teacher. Out of the blue, she gave me a work book. I countered that move by telling her dad that she was going to, "...learn me to talk more better English."

We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

frenchyd said:

Stefan said:

Don’t forget that eBay is still a thing.

Nextdoor is also a rising option.

Something about being willing to pay more than anyone else will for a given car goes completely against my system.  

That’s why EBAY is not a place I’ll shop.  Same with Barn Finds and BRING A TRAILER. 

I haven’t really mastered Craigslist. Still spend way too much time trying to sort and not enough time finding. 

Networking though, that continues to work for me. Rarely does a week go by without a friend contact or referral without someone asking my opinion or helping them find a Jaguar.  It may narrow my field down tremendously but at least I’m pretty well in the loop when that Marque is discussed. 

Um, you don’t really know how auctions work, do you?  Bid the max amount you feel it is worth.  You either win or you don’t.  There’s nothing that says you need to bid more.

There is also the Buy It Now option that shortcuts that and some sellers use it for their cars and parts and it basically isn’t an auction so much as a click to buy solution.

GRM

Actually, it depends on what I'm looking for.  A cheap beater I usually find on CL or I am always, always looking at the GRM classifieds.  I'm very casually looking for a sub $2000 manual trans reliable car, so that's where I look.

For a nicer daily driver type, Autotrader is my drug of choice.

Stefan said:

frenchyd said:

Stefan said:

Don’t forget that eBay is still a thing.

Nextdoor is also a rising option.

Something about being willing to pay more than anyone else will for a given car goes completely against my system.  

That’s why EBAY is not a place I’ll shop.  Same with Barn Finds and BRING A TRAILER. 

I haven’t really mastered Craigslist. Still spend way too much time trying to sort and not enough time finding. 

Networking though, that continues to work for me. Rarely does a week go by without a friend contact or referral without someone asking my opinion or helping them find a Jaguar.  It may narrow my field down tremendously but at least I’m pretty well in the loop when that Marque is discussed. 

Um, you don’t really know how auctions work, do you?  Bid the max amount you feel it is worth.  You either win or you don’t.  There’s nothing that says you need to bid more.

There is also the Buy It Now option that shortcuts that and some sellers use it for their cars and parts and it basically isn’t an auction so much as a click to buy solution.

So if you bid what you feel it’s worth and you win then you have paid more than anyone else has.  I fail to understand how that is winning.  Well except that it’s better to be called a winner than a loser.  

Hmmm rereading that I doubt I’ve made my values clear.  So I’ll exaggerate. 

Assume I fall in love with a Humber super snipe project.  The most I want to pay is a few hundred dollars. That’s actually it’s real value to me. However I hate to lose so I bid $5,000.  Yes I win the bid but the bidding would have stalled out past $1000 if run it’s coarse. 

The buy it now feature assures the owner of getting his price at the risk of foregoing some possible  additional profit if the bid is allowed to go to the end. 

Craigslist differs, Standing in front of an owner with cash in hand is an incentive to close the deal at a price you are willing to pay. The risk is on both sides. He may forego a better future offer, you may pay more than the absolute bottom a desperate owner will take to dispose of something unwanted. 

CL still seems to have a decent selection around here, but it works much better when you use the filters. There are still flakes of course, but the only way you're avoiding that is through a dealer and $6k from a dealer gets you a heap.

frenchyd said:

Assume I fall in love with a Humber super snipe project.  The most I want to pay is a few hundred dollars. That’s actually it’s real value to me. However I hate to lose so I bid $5,000.

That's not an issue with auctions.  That's an issue with your competitiveness and self restraint.

By definition, any time you buy a car you are willing to pay more than anyone who has seen it to date.  Because they declined to buy it.