Has anybody ever bought from a used car lot?

jim72911t · 11-23-2007, 05:20 PM

Well after my POS '90 F150 blew a radiator hose Wednesday, I've decided that it's time to buy another truck. I've been looking casually for a few months at private party listings and haven't seen much of interest. (I live in a fairly small town.)

My needs are pretty simple: Full size 2wd extra cab with a V8. I'd like to keep the purchase under $10K, as the truck will be a secondary vehicle to be driven when I need to haul or tow, and when I need to take the two dogs to the park or on a camping trip.

Just for kicks, today I went to a couple of used car lots and drove a few trucks. The first lot I actually got a decent feeling at, and they had a '98 Dodge that seemed to drive okay and was being offered at a decent price. The second lot gave me the creeps. The salesman was sleazy, and all of there offerings were either overpriced, pieces of crap, or both.

Anybody ever bough from one of these lots? Were your experiences good or bad? I've only bought from private parties in the past and have had pretty good luck. I'm only entertaining the used car lot idea because there is not a lot available in this area and I'd like to purchase something sooner than later.

Thanks,
Jim

speeder · speeder's Garage

I'm selling my '99 F-250 diesel 4x4 for $8500 if you want, it's a little more beast than you are needing but it gets ~18 mpg highway.

nostatic · nostatic's Garage

Denis, were you at the larchmont peets wednesday eve?

jim72911t · 11-23-2007, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speeder

I'm selling my '99 F-250 diesel 4x4 for $8500 if you want, it's a little more beast than you are needing but it gets ~18 mpg highway.

Thanks Denis; my boss has a '99 F250 that I drive on occasion, but it's just a bit more truck than I need.

pwd72s · 11-23-2007, 05:42 PM

So> A blown H20) cooling hose is enough to make yiu abandon a car??? Geeze...buy a used Porsche man;. No hose failures to worry about. German quality, right??

jim72911t · 11-23-2007, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwd72s

So> A blown H20) cooling hose is enough to make yiu abandon a car??? Geeze...buy a used Porsche man;. No hose failures to worry about. German quality, right??

pwd72s,
The blown water hose was sort of the last straw. The truck has 230K miles on it, and it seems like I work on the thing more than I drive it. (master cylinder, alternator, battery, ignition switch, etc. all in the last six months.)

If I posted a picture of the truck, you'd probably understand why it's time to move on.

FWIW, I'll replace the hose and donate the truck to the Humane Society. I'm not sure they'll take it.

chapo · 11-23-2007, 05:59 PM

try the truck trader. I look once in a while for kicks. Saw a damn nice 99 Suburban for $6000.00 in there. Lots of deals now with gas prices the way the are.

the · 11-23-2007, 06:06 PM

The biggest issue with cars at used car lots is you usually have no history on it. The lot knows nothing about it, since they've only had it for a few days or weeks, and probably not really driven it or checked it out much. They mostly have no records with them.

If you buy from a private party, esp. an original owner, you can usually get a decent feel for how the car has been treated, they usually have at least some service records, etc. Just a little more to get clues from about the car.

The lot of course is going to have to add its profit to the price of the car.

I've never bought from a lot, I prefer to go mano a mano with a private party.

But a car is a car, and just because it is on a lot doesn't make it bad.

Flatbutt1 · 11-23-2007, 06:28 PM

bought from a lot once a LONG time ago, took it up the butt, however I was inexperienced, very stoopid.

Dottore · 11-23-2007, 07:55 PM

In my personal hiearchy of swine, used car salesmen come right after real estate agents and politicians.

LeeH · 11-23-2007, 08:29 PM

Check it out like you would any other vehicle purchase. The car lot either got it from the auction or they took it in on trade. Either way, they don't know anything about it. They're just trying to sell it for a profit. I find it amusing when a buyer asks me if a used car is a "good" one. Let's see... I bought it at the auction and drove it five miles to my house. So far so good!

The way I see it, if it's broken when you bought it you should have figured it out. If it's not broken when you bought it and it breaks later, then that's just bad luck. A few years ago we sold my wife's Nissan 4x4 pick up. We'd never had any problems with it. The kid who bought it backed out of my driveway, tached it up and dumped the clutch spinning the fairly large off road tires. Two days later his grandfather, who had test driven the truck, called me to say the transmission was bad and that I should help the kid out. I'm sure they thought I'd sold them a hunk o' junk. Oh well. There's no telling what that truck went through after it left my driveway.

Gogar · 11-24-2007, 12:23 AM

Lee's first paragraph is RIGHT ON THE MONEY. Test drive it like it's the worst truck ever. It probably is. 95% it came right from the auction. And the only reason it came from the auction is because they couldn't sell it anywhere.

Normy · 11-24-2007, 01:53 AM

I bought a '97 Ford Aerostar off of a used car lot. I had a GOOD PPI done on the thing before I bought it; it turned out to be a good deal. Still have the thing, it runs fine. Looks like a loaf of bread...and drives like one too, but it worked out and it was cheap.

Again, it isn't where you find it that matters; it's who does the PPI-!

Good luck-

Sonic dB · Sonic dB's Garage

I got my 993 two years ago from a used lot in Norwalk.
Prior to checking it out, I ran the VIN and saw that it was one owner....
talked with the used car lot guy, a Persian gentleman... and he said that
he had bought it from auction... Checked the books and they were complete
with recent maintance from RMG in San Jose area... so I called them and talked
with the owner, who knew the car and was really cool talking about the work that they had done on it...
that was enough to satisfy me, so I made the
offer, the Persian gentleman agreed to do some touchup work on the rims
and seats and 2 years later, it has been one hell of an awesome car.
Good stories do happen from used car lots sometimes..

(before this good experience, I had a terrible experience looking for the same car... I almost bought one from Houston
at a scam-place called Advantage Porsche off of their used lot. I had a PPI done from a poplular Porsche garage in Houston and they claimed
that it was a great car, so I flew out intending to buy it and drive it back but it turned out to be a complete POS, flood-vehicle
probably from Katrina. The Advantage Porsche people totally misrepresented it in the advertisements, were dishonest in dealing
with me there, and the garage that did the "PPI" later admitted to me that they never really even looked at the car! They gave me
the money back from the PPI, but I was out the money from the flight to Houston, however I learned a big lesson from that one...
anyone out there who is ever looking for a car from Advantage Porsche should strongly reconsider)

strupgolf · 11-24-2007, 05:58 AM

I haven't bought a new car since, well a long time. I only buy cars 1 or 2 years old with low mileage. All have been bought from used car dealers and I've never had any problems with any of them. Look for a dealer who has been around for a long time, look over the car, drive it. When they buy it from a auction, they look for the better cars, they dont want crap on their lot. That just my 2cents.

Dave L · 11-24-2007, 06:02 AM

I almost pulled the trigger on a really nice Mazda 626 for my wife last year, the car was exceptionally clean and appeared to be in great working order. As with all used dealers they knew nothing other than it was "a great car". Unfortunately for the used car dealer the PO had left info in the glove box. As the car was from Barrie I walked into the Barrie dealer and asked about the car. The service advisor told me that car the came in with a blown head gasket and warped head. The total for the repairs was in the thousands and the car was towed away. Given the low cost of the car on the used lot I can only assume that the car was cobbled back together and was likely a ticking time bomb.

motion · 11-24-2007, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim72911t

Well after my POS '90 F150 blew a radiator hose Wednesday, I've decided that it's time to buy another truck. I've been looking casually for a few months at private party listings and haven't seen much of interest. (I live in a fairly small town.)

My needs are pretty simple: Full size 2wd extra cab with a V8. I'd like to keep the purchase under $10K, as the truck will be a secondary vehicle to be driven when I need to haul or tow, and when I need to take the two dogs to the park or on a camping trip.

Just for kicks, today I went to a couple of used car lots and drove a few trucks. The first lot I actually got a decent feeling at, and they had a '98 Dodge that seemed to drive okay and was being offered at a decent price. The second lot gave me the creeps. The salesman was sleazy, and all of there offerings were either overpriced, pieces of crap, or both.

Anybody ever bough from one of these lots? Were your experiences good or bad? I've only bought from private parties in the past and have had pretty good luck. I'm only entertaining the used car lot idea because there is not a lot available in this area and I'd like to purchase something sooner than later.

Thanks,
Jim

Jim, You might want to re-consider and buy a new Ford F150. Its a bit more, but new, with warranty, etc. This time last year, I bought a new 2006 F150 Super Cab, XLT, 2WD with the 5.4L V8 for $18,900. Sticker was $31,000. Ford was blowing out the old trucks CHEAP! Just get a Saturday paper. You will be amazed at some of the prices on the "3 At This Price" trucks. Worked for me.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

I used Carmax to purchase our BMW. They are not the cheapest, but they do have history and offer a warranty and the price is reasonable. Also, the price is the price.

VINMAN · 11-24-2007, 07:25 AM

Bought my wifes Camry off a used car lot. Over 100,000 trouble free miles.

BTW they are no longer "used " cars . They are called "pre-owned". Where is your political correctness??

Blanco · 11-24-2007, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dottore

In my personal hiearchy of swine, used car salesmen come right after real estate agents and politicians.

ahem, where would you put Lawyers at?

Just kidding.

I've had good luck with Pre-Owned vehicles. I've been thorough in checking them out and stuff.

My last purchase a long time ago was a Lexus that I ran for ~200k miles. G/f wrecked it.

My guess is that it is also dependent on the make/model as well. Toyotas seem to fare well. Kia's and Hyundais, well, you get the picture.