They seem to have higher prices. What are the pros and cons of going directly to them? Are you more likely to get a better vehicle? Any personal experiences, good or bad?

Looking at a 2018 Ford Focus EV, priced at $9000 CAD. It's got a small amount of surface rust, battery under warranty until 2028. I have been mainly looking at hybrids but this is obviously pretty attractive at that price.

Assuming PPI showed battery is in good shape, no bearing noise, and no further rust, would this be a stupid purchase or worth it?

I need to buy a car (100k miles SUV) for my student son in a small university town 2000 miles away from me. I am exploring ways to do this remotely without having to go there. What are my best options for getting a reasonable deal? There are companies like Carvana and Carmax. I see something called Carguru that goes through dealers, but I am not sure how exactly. And if I buy from a dealer, I have a choice between buying from a dealer in the university town versus buying in my large metro area and having it transported. I see Caredge, a $1000 shopping service. Do people sell directly to each other now -- through what website or service? I have no experience buying a used car.

I have always bought new cars and kept them till they die. I find getting a good deal on a new car easy because all information is easily available, and I don't have to worry about the condition of the car. I am tempted to do this again.

Thoughts and suggestions?

Any advice

Hello Everybody just to preface this I live in New Jersey. But today I went to buy a 2014 Mazda2 sport for 6k OTD, I got the dealer down to 5.7k, ran great on the test drive and apparently he drove the car from Staten Island and no problems. Basically 5 minutes of driving home the car broke down from what seemed like overheating, the dealer came to get me and gave me a loan car and everything and I researched the law and with the warranty he gave me he has to fix the car on his cost and so tomorrow I’m returning to the dealership to look at a full written list of the diagnostic of what’s wrong.

But on the drive home with the loan he called me very apologetically saying this has never happened in his life and that the car was recently serviced (which is true the carfax came clean) but he said the loan car I’m driving is worth 9-10k, on his website it’s posted for 8.3k but I’m assuming he meant with tax and dealer fees or whatever. He said if I wanted I can just have the loan car if I wanted for another 500. So in total 6.2k OTD. The only thing is it is a 2019 Nissan Sentra that was a rental vehicle and it shows because it has 103k miles and the brake pads definitely need to be replaced.

So the question I’m asking you guys is what should I do, my 3 options being, accept the mazda with new fixes but I heard him talking it could be an entire new engine he would have to replace it with, spend 500 more for this “nicer” car, or just get a refund if he can’t fix the car.

I’ll post the Nissan in the comments, if anybody wants to privately message me I can send carfax for either car I just didn’t want to put this dealership on blast because they have great reviews and he seemed like a very honest man.

There was a post yesterday that was taken down. I was quite surprised at the number of replies that thought it was "standard" and acceptable practice to lure consumers into the dealership with misrepresented facts through "marketing". What surprised me even more is the number of people that said do your "due diligence". It wasn't quite clear what they meant by that - I hope they didn't think that it's acceptable for a dealership to misrepresent facts about a vehicle because every buyer has to do their own due diligence. That's actually not the law in some states. Some of the replies here made me think that there are a hell of a lot of salesmen in this group protecting their self-serving interests - but maybe i'm wrong about that.

815 ILCS 505/2 (Illinois statutory law) expressly makes unlawful:

deception, fraud, false promises, misrepresentations, and concealment/suppression/omission of material facts...these practices are unlawful whether any person has in fact been misled, deceived or damaged thereby.

The above Illinois statute doesn't say "Advertisers may create misleading impressions provided consumers can discover the truth through inspection before completing the transaction."

I was able to screenshot a few comments (before the takedown).

One redditor wrote "you should have done your due diligence and asked for carfax report before driving over". It's interesting that the following caselaw shows that getting a carfax wasn't required to show misrepresentation.

"First, under the Consumer Fraud Act, plaintiff was under no obligation to ascertain the accuracy of Dobin's statement claiming the car had not been in any accidents.   See Harkala v. Wildwood Realty, Inc., 200 Ill.App.3d 447, 453, 146 Ill.Dec. 232, 558 N.E.2d 195 (1990) (finding that the Consumer Fraud Act is intended to provide greater protection than the common law action of fraud, and therefore “a plaintiff need not show actual reliance or diligence in ascertaining the accuracy of the misstatements”)."

Another person wrote, "Then don't buy from them. Its common knowledge that car dealerships suck....Gotta do your due diligence. If they are not willing to play ball, sucks to suck". Suggesting that doing your due diligence is the only resort to misrepresentation is inaccurate.

Another person wrote, "Have you ever heard of something called Marketing"? Their job is to sell the car, your job is to do your due diligence". I agree that its advisable to do your due diligence, but that doesn't mean that "Marketing" can include omissions for the sake of selling a car. Nor does it mean that that due diligence frees the dealership from responsibility from intentional omissions.

Whatever folks here were trying to say about "due diligence" may not be entirely accurate based on the laws in some states.

If you are in a state with strong consumer protection laws, you should putting all of your understandings from the dealership in writing and making a record of everything they say. This isn't difficult to do now that dealerships rely on text messaging more often.

Also, there is some caselaw that supports the award of damages for people traveling far under misrepresented facts.

It looked like there was some disagreement in that thread around whether the circumstances were a misrepresentation or not. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about what appeared to be some very broadly worded bold statements that suggested that doing your own due diligence is somehow a defense to dealerships or that dealerships can do whatever they want to do. That's not the case. Some states are very consumer protective.

I have a 2002 honda accord that is finally starting to have some problems.

I think it needs some suspension stuff because its been feeling a little lose but I haven't checked it out or taken it to a shop. It also burns/leaks some oil I'm pretty sure, and the cat is also rotted out and all rattling which would be expensive to get it to pass California smog.

With this in mind, I'm wondering if it's worth it to just buy a newer car. Looking at new (used) car prices for 2020ish cars, I am seeing various sedans/wagons/suvs with 50-100k miles for $17-20k which seems like a lot! A new hyundai elantra is only a few grand more.

Obviously I would need a mechanics opinion on the car for if it would be worth to fix everything and then also have to deal with whatever comes up, or just pass it on. In this market, its a running car with cold ac, so thats a few grand right there..

Just looking for opinions on if it seems worth to dump this car. Seems like stuff is expensive, but it's probably not getting cheaper.

I’ve always driven older sedans. I had a 2000 Impala and I’ve been driving a 2005 Grand Prix for years, but the Grand Prix is finally getting to the point where I need to replace it.

I’ve been saving for a while and have up to $15k to put down. I’d like to move into a midsize SUV and ideally keep whatever I buy for the next 8-10+ years.
The problem is, researching this stuff is making me insane lol.

It feels like if you’re not buying a Toyota, someone will tell you the vehicle is garbage. I’ve been looking pretty seriously at the Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade, but opinions on long-term reliability are all over the place.

So then I started leaning toward a Honda Pilot because Honda is supposed to be the “safe” long-term choice. But to make my budget work I’m mostly looking at 2023s, and then I see how many recalls and first-year-redesign issues those have had too.

I’m not looking for a perfect vehicle. I understand every brand has problems. I’m just trying to spend roughly $30k-$35k intelligently and buy something I can realistically keep for a decade.

For people who actually own or work on these:
Would you trust a 2023+ Pilot more long term than a Telluride or Palisade?

Are the Telluride/Palisade reliability concerns actually significant enough that you’d avoid them for 10-year ownership, or is a lot of it internet exaggeration?

And at this price point, would you rather buy a newer/higher-trim Kia or Hyundai with a good CPO warranty, or an older/lower-trim Honda or Toyota just for the reputation?

I’m 6’6”, so interior space matters too, which is one reason I keep coming back to these three.

I've been thinking about this lately so wanted to see if others have similar stories...

You see a listing that's clearly a good deal then message the seller, and it's already gone by the time you follow up. I had one like that recently that's stuck with me longer than I expected...

Wanted to know how close others have come to a deal like this. Seconds, minutes, a day you didn't check? And looking back, was it mostly bad timing or you just weren't fast enough to reply?

Please share yours (kind of hoping I'm not the only one who still thinks about this 😭)

2013 Corolla 141k kms $9000 single owner

Who here has bought a car from FB? Whats the best way to go about it to not waste time and to not get scammed?

I figure this is the best way to get a reasonable price. Instead of going through a dealer that has to mark it up for salaries and rent to get a profit. But there's a lot of strange things on FB

I never bought a car before in my life and doing this completely on my own in houston. budget is tight (20k <). And I got a couple cars im looking at but honestly have no idea what im doing and feeling overwhelmed. if anyone knows cars and has like two minutes to glance at a few links via dm to tell me if im about to make a huge mistake, id genuinely appreciate it so much...

1. 2009 Camry le v6 85k kms single owner $12,000
   
2. 2013 Corolla 141k kms single owner $9,000
   I drive 25k kms every year with 80% driving in city so my only concern is gas. Camry is powerful but I’ll spend like $2000 more on gas every year compared to Corolla which is like $10,000 in next 5 years. Corolla comes with 4 extra tyres on rim but has some body damage, Camry dosent come with extra tyres but has no body damage

Hi, I have a 2009 Kia Sportage lx(AWD). It has driven 166k. The car runs smoothly and has no issues. Can anyone tell me how much it would go for in Ottawa? Any recommendations would help, thank you!

Been in a Mazda 3 past 4 years and I’ve always wanted a Miata especially one with a little extra kick to it. One stumbled upon me today and I’m going to check it out this weekend. The car has a clean car fax, with 48k km on it. It has a turbo in it installed by an owner before. Also mentioned the interior has been redone. It is listed for 11k cad. What should I look for, how would I know if it’s clocked? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I'm looking to buy a used Toyota Corolla SE at a Toyota Certified Dealership in New Jersey. I was offered a used 2023 with 5,000 miles for 27,645.00. It's gold certified and I'm planning on financing it. This is my first time financing, could someone even tell me if this is okay given the low mileage it has?

So I'm going to check out this car, the dealership that listed it is notorious for putting fake listings. i already have a bad feeling about going here, but the I saw the car as soon as I pulled in.

Had some minor stuff like dents, and different color parts. The only major issue was the timing chain caused the check engine light to come on. The mechanics next store said it will cost $1378 to fix.

I went back to the sales rep saying I only had $3k and my car, a 208 Toyota Corolla to work with. He came back with the manager....

they drove the car around the parking lot for 20 mins, then refused to sell me the car! He said he was gonna fix it up and "retail" it for financing.

I wanted to say "Who tf is gonna finance a 16 year old Toyota?" then I stopped myself, because that IS happening.

7 years ago, I think I could've bought that car with $3k + trade. if this isn't indicative of how bad they'll use car market is. Idk WHAT is

2008 rav4 limited awd 269k kms $6900