Auto Trader, Carfax, Carmax, Car Gurus, Carvana and a host of others-Which do you find useful, which are next to useless, which have severe defects?
Recently we decided to buy a used car in the $16,000 range. We wanted an SUV in the $16,000 range that got 30 mpg or better, so I started to shop online using the programs listed above. Using Car Gurus I was able to find two different 2018 Rogue SV vehicles for under $16,000 and we eventually struck a deal with the local Hertz retail place.
So, what are your experiences, good and/or bad, with these car search sites and what do you recommend?
Of all of the car searching sites, I’ve used AutoTrader the most, mainly to get a range of “asking prices” for particular models in my market.
The last car I purchased, I used TrueCar to get a range of prices for various options that I negotiated with the dealer on a new car. It was fairly innocuous. The dealer, about 200 miles away, even delivered the car to me.
I saw some good deals on Carvana…but they are nowhere near my location and the delivery costs are a bit much.
When I bought my car, I used AutoTrader the most (I think I tried Car Gurus as well but had better luck with AutoTrader). It gave me a good feel for what was in the used car market from dealerships. When I helped find my kid’s car, I just used Craigslist and we did alright.
Carfax has better name recognition but I’ve used AutoCheck and gotten warned off of cars that Carfax thought were fine (a salvage title in one case). I’ve heard other people say the opposite. Autocheck is $50 for up to 25 reports so it might be worth it to you to avoid issues, especially since many places seem happy to give you a Carfax report for free so you can cross-check them.
I primarily use Craigslist and Car Gurus to locate a vehicle, then CarFax to vet specific ones.
It’s been a long time but the last private seller we dealt with was found via cars.com.