New to the USA, any good suggestions of sites to find a car?

[cheeky dog]

Hi folks, so ive just moved to the USA from England am looking to buy a used car.

Ive tried autofinder.com but the general feeling Im getting from these sites is no one really sells their cars privately, it seems most are trading them in to main dealers which are being sold for a bit more money as main dealers.

At the moment im just looking for a normal non performance car but soon i will be looking for a German or Japanese performance car from the early 2000's.

Please any good suggestions of sitesof both types of cars would be appreciated, also any tips on things to look out for esp when buying from a main dealer.

Thanx in advance my new fellow residents.

[244Brick]

Welcome to the otherside of the dirt haha



the best place is to search www.craigslist.com
find your state, main city and search

[cheeky dog]

244brick Thanx pal,


Although i've heard of craigslist i was under the impression it was mainly the really cheap stuff that finds its way onto that site, but i shall give that a try now.

thanx again.

[244Brick]

O no problem. CL is where you can find all ranges of vehicles. from Geo metros to Porsche Carreras

[cheeky dog]

right, let me get on it.

[Celli]

O no problem. CL is where you can find all ranges of vehicles. from Geo metros to Porsche Carreras

This. A little tip, unless you want to pay dealer fees make sure you do "cars and trucks by owner". Also, edmunds.com is a really accurate place to price a car.

[Rob&co]

This. A little tip, unless you want to pay dealer fees make sure you do "cars and trucks by owner". Also, edmunds.com is a really accurate place to price a car.

You make me want to BAN my self! SO I never have to read your shit again!

[Celli]

You make me want to BAN my self! SO I never have to read your shit again!

May I ask what the problem is? Do you have any issues with me referring someone to edmunds.com?

[Herr Faust Schinken]

craigslist and welcome to the land of the free

[therealvilla]

I'd reccomend Craigslist as well. But I'd suggest searchtempest.com and autotempest.com. It searches all the CL sites within a set mile range. That way you're not searching individually by city. I actually bought my 03 GTI off autotrader.com. Autotrader, cars.com and even automart.com are decent if you're looking for late 90's and newer. I know autotrader has private seller, dealer, and all results filtering options. I always prefer buying privately. Better price and you can usually feel out the owner for how the cars been treated. Vs a dealer who can only read you the numbers they have and basic history. And you never can tell if they're being straight up or blowing smoke up your ass. But if you want older cars CL is the way to go. Or search out the local forums. Most forums will have a cars for sale section.

Welcome to the US by the way. Good luck with the car search...

[joshg51]

craigslist and welcome to the land of the free

and home of the whopper

[M.Doban]

Welcome to the States, man! And yes, CL is legit and the way to go. Like therealvilla said, Searchtempest.com is wonderful. I use it to buy basically everything I own from CL.

[Nick475]

craigslist. IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS. people on craigslist are idiots. just try to sort through them

[Celli]

craigslist. IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS. people on craigslist are idiots. just try to sort through them

This. First thing I did before buying my car was check for rust, leaks, strange noises, and the gear box. Well, my dad checked the gears. I could drive standard yet. Well while I'm at it, I'm not sure if you want standard or if you know how to check the gears out. Learned this from NC.org, take off in first gear and listen/feel for noises. Then take off in second and third gear just to make sure you can. Then take off normally and at 10ish mph shift into the lowest gear and cram the gas pedal. If the RPM's climb fast while the speed isn't, the clutch is slipping and probably needs replacing.

TL;DR if you don't know how to test a manual gear box before buying a car.

[Kielan]

Where in Connnecticut are you going to be? CL is a great source in our area, I would just search by owner rather than by dealer. All of those cars are marked way up are tend to be pieces of shit. Private owner cars have a lot of results and a lot of shit in them, but you can also get some screaming deals, and find really clean well cared for cars. It just takes time and patience really.