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How can I find cheap used cars online?

The hunt for a cheap car online can be a bit daunting at first, with websites of all sizes and scales promising the best deals on a pre-owned vehicle. Not all of these websites are reputable enough to consider a serious source of bargains, however, and the best way to get a great deal on a used car is to stick with the best sources for contacting private dealers and low-cost automobile dealerships. These sources vary from online classifieds to more traditional dealer listing sites.

Keep in mind our FREE auto insurance comparison tool to find cheap coverage for your used car!

Craigslist.org

It might sound cliche or all too familiar, but Craigslist is actually a very good source of great deals on a used car. That’s because the site charges no listing fees to its customers, nor does it generally permit or encourage the practice of shipping vehicles. When those fees are eliminated, private sellers can offer their cars at much lower rates than they can at traditional subscription-based websites.

The free nature of Craigslist ads also encourages used car dealers to post their latest bargains to the site, making it a good place to navigate both private listings and dealer listings side-by-side. As always with Craigslist, communication is done off-site using email communication between the buyer and seller, and sellers have the option of listing their phone number as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that the site offers no insurance or policy of reimbursement for fraudulent items or those which are not as the seller describes them. This may be a problem for buyers who encounter a “lemon” or a car with unmentioned mechanical or aesthetic problems.

AutoTrader.com

Buying a used car on AutoTrader is one of the easiest ways to score a great deal on a vehicle. The site is similar to Craigslist, in that it encourages users to list their own vehicles for sale to private customers. They can even enable an email communication option, leaving the confines of the site behind when communicating with buyers. The site is free to browse for sellers, and every entry is required to have a picture and a vehicle VIN number that can help verify the number of owners and any accidents or maintenance incurred by the car in question.

More than that, though, AutoTrader has special pages for used car dealers that can help buyers locate the best deal on a certain type of car. Unlike Craigslist, which has a simple text box search interface, AutoTrader users can search by make, model, and year, and find cars at local dealers as well as competing options from private sellers in their local area.

This intuitive search tool often means that dealers and private sellers are competing on price to win the hearts and crucial money of used car purchasers. When that happens, the used car buyer can get a really great deal on their next set of wheels.

UsedCars.com

It’s one of those website titles that just sounds obvious, but many people haven’t yet heard of UsedCars.com. The website is less well-known than AutoTrader, but it indexes used car listings from several different websites including its own database of pre-owned vehicles. Both private sellers and used car dealers are featured on this website, which is free to browse. Communication with sellers is done either via the site’s own messaging system or external options like email or telephone.

Following Up a Used Car Purchase with Sensible Insurance Choices

Don’t assume that a car insurance company is going to pass a great deal on coverage from an old vehicle to a new one. In fact, most insurance companies view the purchase of a new vehicle as a great time to hike a policyholder’s coverage rates and get even more money out of them on a monthly basis. This can be avoided with some smart shopping, however, and there is a particularly great resource for avoiding this near-inevitable price hike.

That tool is the common online insurance quote comparison tool which sends driver information to all of the major national insurance brands and returns a side-by-side comparison of rates, limits, and deductibles available to the buyer. Be sure to get a general idea of what the going “rate” is nationally for the new car you plan to buy, as this will help avoid the customary rate hike (and probably rip-off) that happens when an insurance company knows you’ve switched vehicles.

Always Shop Intelligent to Avoid Scams and Save Money

Whether it’s obtaining an insurance comparison quote from an online shopping tool or carefully perusing used car listings to avoid “lemon” vehicles, smart shopping is the key to saving money. Always be aware of what a car’s real value is, how many owners it has had, and how many mechanical problems or accidents it has encountered during its time on the road.

And always know how much an insurance company sees fit to charge you for the vehicle you’ll soon be buying. Remember, the best way to get discounts on anything, be it a product or a service like car insurance, is to be well-informed and use that knowledge aggressively in pursuit of the best deal in your area.

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