What's a good site for buying a car

[Not Kuno]

One of our cars broke down the other day so we need a new one. The type of car looked for in particular is a Toyota Corola. And as per usual, I'm fearful as crap of getting completely ripped off so I thought I'd make a post here.

Ty in advance. :3

[Turambar]

autotrader.com is a good place to start looking for used cars. You can see the average price for a particular year/model pretty easily, and thus determine whether off-ripping is occuring.

[BIGSTIC]

kbb.com and edmunds.com are both great sights for determining value of used cars.

Also most used car dealers will offer free carfax reports. Do this even if you have to buy a carfax account. The cost is well worth the benefit.

Also I have a friend who works a t a Chevy/GMC dealer. He was hinting to me that there are gonna be some nice deals on new cars come this summer and with sweet deal comes alot of trade-ins. But thats just if you can hold out.

One thing I do is look up the car on ebay. Not that i Have baught a car off of ebay but it is another way to see how the car is selling across the country. Personaly i go to used car lots for fun on the weekend. Most those salesmen know so little a good 2 hours of researching your car on the internet you will know more about options and reliability than any salesman could.

GL on your car hunting and please dont take the first one. There are so many used cars for sale now that you should realy hold out for the one you want for the price you feel is fare.

[Lexa]

http://www.kbb.com/

Got my car down $1500 by comparing asking price to BlueBook estimated value. ^^ They also have some good listings and whatnot.

[Quixotic]

A lot of dealers use NADA book values for their cars, so I'd try and look that up as well as the kbb value these days.

[melbufrauma]

craigslist

[Thelam]

craiglists gets you abunch of people not knowing anything about there car except color, mileage and name

[Isiolia]

You should look at cars.com, autotrader, etc for reasonably local listings.

NADA and KBB -might- show you accurate numbers, but they're a national average. What a car is worth in your area of the country may vary from that. Good to look at, but it's not an absolute. A dealer will, of course, readily point out a car that they have under Kelly, but it might not be under the average going price.

That's why you want to look around. Get an idea of what things are actually going for where you're buying, and when.

Carfax and other services like it are also not an absolute. They're great for title history. They show -reported- accidents n' such. If it's not in police reports, DMV history, etc...may not be there, and you wouldn't know. Much like Kelly, dealers looooove finding vehicles with a clean Carfax 'cause people put so much stock in it.

If you buy used, there's always the chance it'll have some bad history. Bring it by a trustworthy mechanic and a body shop first. Seriously, people that do bodywork, or regularly check for it, can see things from 10 feet away that you'd never notice. Lotta times people who work at a dealership can do that too, but they're not going to share that knowledge =P
Bring a car under fluorescent lights if you want to put it in a really critical environment. Showroom, garage, etc.

Sorry, not that big a car shopper myself, but I worked at a dealership for about a year doing web stuff..brother is assistant sales manager there. So I've seen the other side a bit.

[Inverse]

carmax at carmax.com
autotrader at autotrader.com
cars at cars.com

kuno, i am actually trying to sell my honda accord 2004 for sometime because i no long need it to commute to work. It's comparable to and as reliable as a toyota corola. Let me know if you're interested.

[Anakron]

For new cars, it's usually easiest/best to find a couple local dealers and email their internet sales department asking for a out-the-door quote. The "out-the-door" part is very important, as it gives them no room to throw in any weird fees/options/charges at the last moment. Be very specific with what you want/need when it comes to model, trim, options, colors, whether you have trade-in, want any financing, etc as it will help show that you know what you're talking about (so they'd take you seriously). Some may try to BS you with "come in and we can talk," so be clear that you're really only interested in a quote and nothing else. Doing so, my brother was able to get a 2007 Lexus IS350 at close to invoice and a fully loaded 2007 Acura MDX for under $48,000.

Keep the lowest offer you have, and give the other dealers some time to respond. Some may try to beat it, while others would honestly tell you that they can't beat it. After maybe about a week or two of this, you should be able to get a pretty decent price. Doing this at the end of the month will sometimes help, as some dealers may be trying to make their monthly numbers.

Good luck.

[octopus]

http://www.kbb.com/

This.