If you’re searching for a used car right now in the United States, please don’t strangle your car dealer. It’s not his or her fault that there are virtually no cars in your price range ($6K, < 100K miles, < 10 yrs old). It’s the government’s.
I like our government, don’t get me wrong. But the Cash for Clunkers program effectively made the type of car I’m looking for qualify for the Endangered Species list.
If you’ve been living under a rock, here’s what happened. Everyone with a decent-ish car that qualified for the Clunker’s program turned it in to buy a new one. Then the dealerships had to freeze the engines, so those cars can’t be resold. Ever.
E. V. E. R.
And then those folks bought new cars.
And now folks like me in a pinch are only able to buy truly crap cars, worn inside and out, or something with sky-high mileage (like the Jeep Grand Cherokee with 195,000 miles I saw this weekend). It’s nuts. It’s driving me crazy. I need to get a car like TODAY, and it’s so bleeping hard!
So what should you do?
Listen to your dealer when he says that there are a lot of people looking for good used cars. S/he means it. If you go to the lot on Saturday, your car will be gone on Monday.
Be prepared to act fast. I’m finding that the best way to shop right now is to have my CARFAX and Consumer Reports accounts handy and to work the Internet and the phones like they’re going out of style.
Use the Internet to find your car. Search sites like Cars.com and AutoTrader.com, and even your local dealers if you have one in mind, to look up cars that are possibilities. If the VIN number is there, look that puppy up and either eliminate it or keep it on the list.
Then use your phone to confirm it is still on the lot. Especially if you’re using a dealership, their stock moves faster than their Internet can keep up. Call to see if anyone has purchased it, then set up an appointment to see it. Make them call you before the appointment if it sells, and save yourself some frustration.
I’m glad I called before I went to put a deposit on the car that someone else bought. I wasn’t that sold on the car (although I had talked myself into being satisfied – good enough is good enough right now), but it’s still aggravating to know that the search had been over, and now it needs to start again.
Oh well – another day, another 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number.
I’m in the market for a used car (I may have mentioned this once or twice), and have been for about a month now. Friday night I wrote about the new motivation I have in my car search.