What to Look For/Good Deal?

[yotaz]

Go check it out if it's near by. That's the only way to find out.

With that kind of price, it's worth a gamble. I believe you can get 300 just for scrap (more if you part it out).

All cars break as they age. As long as the engine/tranny is sound, it would be a great deal if you can handle basic DIY (starter/alternator/fuel pump/suspension/...). That's how I look at it when I got mine recently (albeit a '98 stick @190k), and it's been better than I expected after fixing couple of little things.

[Vibe]

I am a self proclaimed expert at finding good used cars on CL. You can use Google alerts or other CL apps that will email you the minute the car you want is posted. Finding a good used car takes effort. I try to buy from the original or 2nd owner. I look for cars that need work. I only buy ones with a quality engine. I put "needs" as a search criteria. The way i look at is all used cars need work. I bought a 2002 zx3 focus with the zetec. it had 90k and was the original female owner. I paid 700 it needed a steering rack and a major TuneUp, hoses, fluids etc . I spent another 700 doing that. I gave it to my nephew. That was 2 years ago. He is still driving it. It is a great little car!

1998 Camry, I4, Auto, 130k. (sent from my Droid Bionic)

[tedmich]

As to CL cars, avoid curb siders like the plague, call the number and ask to "tell me about the car" if they ask "which one?" thank them and hang up.

Curb siders are rife in my area (PDX) and while there may be honest ones you are 3-10 times more likely to be cheated by one IME; selling totaled cars rebuilt to no particular spec, rolled back miles, hidden $$ problems, lying about history etc etc.

Clist ads with numbers written as: "five OH three-2ll8-4s3two" are hiding their number so you cant search by tel # to find their multiple posts for 8 "by owner" cars they're selling for their "cousin" who will send them the title (not in their name) "very soon".


beware!

1993-1997 Camry or Accords are bombproof run forever cars IF not abused, check for sludge and be sure fluids have been changed, find one with under 200k and sold by actual owner and jump on it!

[adam22]

Really good advice, I really appreciate it. The guy never got back to me, I think I'm gonna back off that one, but will definitely take the advice to heart and use it to help me find decent transport. That focus that was posted is remarkable, if I had the cash in hand right now I'd be very interested. I need to junk my car and get paid from work to meet my current budget of 1500, but I'm thinking it may be worth saving for another month or so to score something like that focus (my brother has the same classes I do so he can drive us to school and I am able to get transportation to work) because that just looks like a vehicle I can see driving for the next decade.

If I find another toyota I will be asking about it here, if not, I sincerely appreciate the advice.

[heartdisease]

Let us know what you end up with

[adam22]

Sure thing. While the focus is nice, this gem is mouth-watering

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3448373576.html

But if I'm spending that kind of change it's gonna be at least a month. I was pretty set on spending 1 to 1.5k, which I still may do if the right deal comes up.

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/cto/3448373576.html

This was another I was considering. It really depends on how long I can save, there's really no rush (I have access to three cars, but it's not ideal driving family member's vehicles) but it's better for me to get on the road sooner than later. I'm really not sure what I'll do, but I just upped my search results from 2k to 2600 and there's a lot of clean vehicles in that extra range, and I'm thinking that even if it takes about six weeks, it might be a wise idea to wait it out. We shall see.

[bolink654]

Originally Posted by tedmich

Clist ads with numbers written as: "five OH three-2ll8-4s3two" are hiding their number so you cant search by tel # to find their multiple posts for 8 "by owner" cars they're selling for their "cousin" who will send them the title (not in their name) "very soon".

I dunno about that. I do my number like that when selling on craigslist. Well to be honest I have alot of zeros in mine so I just put them as OOO's

But I was always under the assumption, and this comes from early internet days, people would do this to their email addys, as there are bots searching the web looking for "xxxx@xxxx.com" which harvest them and send spam. Likewise there are bots looking for 555-555-5555 formats to harvest the numbers to spam. Like the text you get that are asking for paypal and to arrange shipping and stuff. You think they manually browse craiglist to get them numbers? Well maybe some do, but I bet most of them scam messages are sent to numbers that a bot harvested because you entered it 555-555-5555

So that's why I enter my number on craiglist like that. I'm not a scammer, or a curb sider. Not saying you are wrong, now that you mention it I bet that is why most people do it, but I wouldn't discount those ads entirely, maybe the person is just internet savvy?

[tedmich]

Originally Posted by bolink654

I dunno about that. I do my number like that when selling on craigslist. Well to be honest I have alot of zeros in mine so I just put them as OOO's

But I was always under the assumption, and this comes from early internet days, people would do this to their email addys, as there are bots searching the web looking for "xxxx@xxxx.com" which harvest them and send spam. Likewise there are bots looking for 555-555-5555 formats to harvest the numbers to spam. Like the text you get that are asking for paypal and to arrange shipping and stuff. You think they manually browse craiglist to get them numbers? Well maybe some do, but I bet most of them scam messages are sent to numbers that a bot harvested because you entered it 555-555-5555

So that's why I enter my number on craiglist like that. I'm not a scammer, or a curb sider. Not saying you are wrong, now that you mention it I bet that is why most people do it, but I wouldn't discount those ads entirely, maybe the person is just internet savvy?

not everyone who does the creative formatting is hiding their multiple posts, but many are; its a telltale for curb siders. Here is an example of what we have to deal with in PDX, posted by a cool guy who does mobile inspections:
http://pdxinspections.com/Scams/tlscam.htm

not every curb sider has a thick foreign accent either, but its highly correlated in my area, CAVEAT EMPTOR!

[heartdisease]

Great Great resource. I haven't bought used except from Family and an old dodge pickup that was way past any of this stuff to worry about but this makes me glad I get new! They have their problems, more than I would like buying new, but heck at least you know for a fact what it is! Crazy stuff. I do have the sense to look for sloppy paint and check all the fluids but man. I didn't know you could still roll back the odometers in modern cars unless you had access to dealer tools?

[Vibe]

Originally Posted by tedmich

not everyone who does the creative formatting is hiding their multiple posts, but many are; its a telltale for curb siders. Here is an example of what we have to deal with in PDX, posted by a cool guy who does mobile inspections:
http://pdxinspections.com/Scams/tlscam.htm

not every curb sider has a thick foreign accent either, but its highly correlated in my area, CAVEAT EMPTOR!

Originally Posted by heartdisease

Great Great resource. I haven't bought used except from Family and an old dodge pickup that was way past any of this stuff to worry about but this makes me glad I get new! They have their problems, more than I would like buying new, but heck at least you know for a fact what it is! Crazy stuff. I do have the sense to look for sloppy paint and check all the fluids but man. I didn't know you could still roll back the odometers in modern cars unless you had access to dealer tools?

excellent info..........IMHO..the bottom line is this is all common sense.......most people don't want to put the needed work into finding a good used car...........they are looking for the it's to good to be true deal. So they listen to some fast talking crook.......just don't deal with the fast talking crook..........Look at it the same way you would any transaction.....or any encounter with another human!.....search for one owner cars, then weed them out ....a lot of the dealers are advertising in the owners section now.....you can pick 9 out of 10 of them out.......then call the other ones......The good deals from the real people that are just trying to sell their cars go fast....They don't want to deal with this either....LOL....use the alerts like I said earlier and call the people right away.......a lot of the good deals are removed in 4 or 5 hours from Craigslist.....

[bolink654]

Originally Posted by Vibe

excellent info..........IMHO..the bottom line is this is all common sense.......most people don't want to put the needed work into finding a good used car...........they are looking for the it's to good to be true deal. So they listen to some fast talking crook.......just don't deal with the fast talking crook..........Look at it the same way you would any transaction.....or any encounter with another human!.....search for one owner cars, then weed them out ....a lot of the dealers are advertising in the owners section now.....you can pick 9 out of 10 of them out.......then call the other ones......The good deals from the real people that are just trying to sell their cars go fast....They don't want to deal with this either....LOL....use the alerts like I said earlier and call the people right away.......a lot of the good deals are removed in 4 or 5 hours from Craigslist.....

+1 To this. I flag the dealers and you gotta be quick on the rare legitimate deals.

[zzyzzx]

For that price, I would assume that it's been in a flood and move on.