Please recommend. (Or whatever else method you have.)
[ol]
[li]I’ve narrowed down the make/model of car I want down to two.[/li][li]I have a general price range.[/li][li]Already on top of the financing situation (not going through the dealership because I don’t want to set my money on fire).[/li][/ol]
So! Now we just pick the actual car. I’m not driving to every dealership in the area and walking the lots, so I’m using the internets. There are sites (edmunds, Autotrader, etc) and they all show me different cars from different places.
Is there some better, more comprehensive way to do this or do I have to trudge my way through 100 sites?!
This whole process is making me stabby. And apparently everyone I know just walks into a dealership and haggles. My mother went through a credit union for her financing (go mom!) but when it came to the car itself, she just went to a dealership and picked one.
For once in life, my frugality is outweighing my laziness. If it helps, I live in Los Angeles.
Autotrader with their filters set properly works pretty well. eBay is worth checking too.
ETA: If you have a Carmax nearby try Carmax.com as well. Or go to the lot, they are low-pressure and you can try out a bunch of different cars with little hassle. Their main downside is they are a bit pricey.
I like cars.com. I don’t think you need to trudge through 100 sites. I think in most cases the commercial sites will show the same inventory. That said, carmax might not advertise their inventory on the other sites. Same with car rental companies that sell off their used rentals. Then there is always craigslist and the local FSBY classifieds.
Also, take advantage of whatever clubs you happen to belong to. We got $50 off a car through Sam’s Club (every little bit helps) and AAA has incentives, too. Look into those before you hit the lot.
Yeah, the last two times I’ve bought a used car (5 years ago, and three months ago), I used Autotrader and it worked well. Unfortunately, MeanOldLady, there’s no real way to avoid some hassle. Even the big sites like Autotrader don’t show you everything, and you need to be willing to spend some time online, and then some more time and shoe leather walking through some dealer lots.
Not sure what type of car you’re after, or how new it is, but don’t completely rule out dealer financing.
When we bought our new (used) car a few months back, we had our financing already sorted out beforehand. Like with our previous car, we got loan approval from our credit union. The pre-approved rate from the credit union was just over 3 percent.
And yet, it turned out that the dealer was considerably better. We bought a Certified Pre-Owned Mazda 3, and the Mazda financing arm had a deal of 1.45% on CPO Mazdas for approved buyers. We jumped on that. The only pain in the ass is that the dealer finance guy tried like crazy to get us to sign up for an extended warranty that cost about $2,800. I knew it was coming, and I was polite for a few minutes, but in the end I just had to shut him down and tell him to get the fuck on with the paperwork for our car.
All right. So I believe I’ll stick with Autotrader and cars.com. They seem to display a decent selection. Thanks, kids.
Ah. I forgot how to scroll down. :o
Holy buckets, 1.45% from a dealership? Yeah, I’m floating at around 3% from a CU, and that seems to be a good rate, but not crazy for someone with good credit. I was expecting something like 3x that from a dealer. Sure, if I’m at a place offering better financing, I’m on it, but at least for now I know ahead of time I’m not looking at crazy interest.