chuckles67

I just bought a car in Palo Alto, California. Here's some info that helped me:

research and reviews, prices and local listings
http://www.edmunds.com
http://www.cars.com
http://www.autotrader.com

classifieds, for which I set up a few RSS feeds by model and location to get daily alerts
http://www.craiglist.org

before purchase, check asking price for a specific car, mileage, condition at
http://www.kbb.com

before purchase, check car history. You must ensure you get a clean title, understand if there is an outstanding loan. and are not buying a salvage title. I paid for a cheap time-limited subscription and must have looked at the history of 50 cars. Essential!!!
http://www.autocheck.com

I also browsed some very comprehensive sites on buying cars on the web which covered negotiation and not getting ripped off. Basic things
- ask seller if they are selling a clean title (not salvage crash damaged)
- ask seller if there is an outstanding loan ("lien" pronounced line)
- and the rest: what needs doing, why are you selling, show me service history, etc etc
- do not pay unless you get the signed pink slip for the vehicle

Ask colleagues! How and where they bought? Is anyone selling?

Over two weekends I test drove some private sales, and I met some potentially dodgy sellers, including the classic no-go: "give the money and the bank will send you the title papers in a week or two"... There are also a lot of high mileage cars outside of warranty. So after all that I decided to pay the extra and go with a dealer certified vehicle with extended warranty.

I'm going to still follow the craiglists etc as we'll need a second car fairly soon but buyer beware!

Michelmas

Congratulations.

Many people use Carfax instead of autocheck.

And lien is pronounced as lean, not line.