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Finding a used car (SOLVED)

MelinoeMelinoe Registered User regular
edited December 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
Long story short, my car recently got wrecked and I'm currently in the market for a new one ASAP. Spending limit is ~$5000 and I live in the San Francisco bay area.

A couple of questions:

1) Is there anywhere I can look for used cars aside from Craigslist and dealerships? The chances of finding a car in my price range at a dealership don't seem very high (if I am incorrect about this please tell me) and Craigslist is okay but the large amount of spam and scams is starting to wear on me. I'll keep looking, but just wanted to know if there were alternatives.

2) This is just for a specific car, does anyone know about Ford Focuses and whether or not they are good cars/long lasting/etc? I'm asking because I don't know a whole lot about them but see a bunch pop up.

Melinoe on

Posts

  • NotYouNotYou Registered User regular
    There are lots of used dealerships where cars come in all price ranges.

    Autotrader is a thing.

  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    Most dealerships will have at least a few cars in that price range. They may not put ads in the paper on the lower ticket vehicles, so just ask a salesman if they've got any sub 5k vehicles on the lot. If you've got an android phone, there's a kelley blue book app that'll at least give you a rough idea of how good/terrible a deal you're being offered on a car.

  • MidshipmanMidshipman Registered User regular
    Consignment lots are a nice mix between the convenience of visiting a used car dealership and the savings of dealing with private sellers.

    Here are two that I know of in the Bay Area...
    http://www.buggybank.com/default.php
    http://www.parksellcars.com/inventory/

    There are also some lower end used car lots down San Pablo Ave in El Cerrito that usually have a few offerings in the $5k range.

    San Leandro/Hayward also has a similar strip of used car lots on East 14th/Mission Blvd.

    Also, I got my last used car via a Korean Graduate Student message board for UC Berkeley. Fairly frequently there are postings there for people leaving the US after finishing grad school and selling their car for a very fair price, but you need to know someone that knows Korean. You might be able to find similar message boards for other Bay Area college communities (maybe Japanese or Chinese ones).

    Just in case you can handle Korean...
    http://www.kgsa.net/web/rent_sale

    midshipman.jpg
  • MelinoeMelinoe Registered User regular
    Thanks! My last car (which was also my first one) was acquired through a friend of a friend, so I never really did the whole car shopping thing; hence my ignorance about things such as Auto Trader and consignment lots. I will keep an eye on those things though.

  • WildEEPWildEEP Registered User regular
    Alot of used car lots will have something in that range - people trade-in their old vehicles that they get for 2K and the dealer will retag them for 5K. They aren't usually in the front of the lot next to the shiny models, but they are there.
    Plus there are a gajillion resources - cars.com, carmax.com, craigslist. Hit them all - see whats available, read through the consume report for ones that sound good, go test drive and then offer them at least 20% less than what they asked for.

  • MelinoeMelinoe Registered User regular
    Thanks for all of your help guys! I think I've found something, so this can be locked now.

  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    Well, don't leave us in suspense, what did you find?

  • MelinoeMelinoe Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Oh. Heh, sorry, it wasn't 100% in stone before so I didn't put it. 2000 Toyota Celica, 110k miles for about 4500. It's got a couple of minor repairs to be made but all in all it seems like a pretty good car. Now I just have to learn to drive a stickshift...

    Melinoe on
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