Tips for buying a car in the Bay Area? (San Francisco: rental car, sales)

[Bellefigure]

This is my second thread in this forum! The first was about a possibility of coming to the US for a job. Anyhow, I am arriving next month in here. I will be working from home 3 days a week and 2 days will be commuting to San Francisco from Albany ( I will live in Albany).

I need to buy a car, like to use it for around 1 year - 14 months max. I have no idea how to do it in here, but websites are helpful, like Craigslist, to buy a car from its owner directly. Any tips? What if I saw a car that I really like and meet the owner in a public place, should I tell him to go to a designated place to do a full check up for the car? Should I pay him/her in cash?

[Ruth4Truth]

Craigslist isn't the best place to for buying used cars. IMO it's better to check the newspaper classified advertisement listings.

When you see listings for cars that interest you, look the year, make and model up on the Kelly Blue Book website (kbb.com) to see if the price the owner is asking is a fair price. If it seems overpriced, you can try to bargain the seller down to the Blue Book price. Also, if you're looking at a car, get the VIN number, and look it up on carfax.com. This should tell you the car's repair history, and whether it's been in serious accidents that would render the car undesirable.

Are you a mechanic? Are you able to evaluate the car, or do you have a friend in the area, who could go with you? If not, ask the seller if s/he would allow you to take the car to a local mechanic for a buyer's evaluation. Many sellers allow this.

The main thing is to make sure the car will qualify to pass California's smog tests, i.e. emissions control tests. I'm not a California car owner, so I can't tell you more about that, but others here can.

Congratulations on your job, and your new location in Albany! However, I just wanted to mention, that I hope you're not buying the car for your commute. It's far better to take public transit to SF for commuting, saving the car for weekend trips to explore scenic areas and to get out of the urban environment. The commute travel in the entire area is a nightmare, and commute hours now have extended to include roughly a 3-4 hour period around the morning beginning of the work day, and the evening closing of the work day. People try to schedule an earlier or later beginning and ending of their day, in order to avoid the worst of the traffic. This, of course, only extends the duration of the heavy-traffic period.

[Bellefigure]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Craigslist isn't the best place to for buying used cars. IMO it's better to check the newspaper classified advertisement listings.

When you see listings for cars that interest you, look the year, make and model up on the Kelly Blue Book website (kbb.com) to see if the price the owner is asking is a fair price. If it seems overpriced, you can try to bargain the seller down to the Blue Book price. Also, if you're looking at a car, get the VIN number, and look it up on carfax.com. This should tell you the car's repair history, and whether it's been in serious accidents that would render the car undesirable.

Are you a mechanic? Are you able to evaluate the car, or do you have a friend in the area, who could go with you? If not, ask the seller if s/he would allow you to take the car to a local mechanic for a buyer's evaluation. Many sellers allow this.

The main thing is to make sure the car will qualify to pass California's smog tests, i.e. emissions control tests. I'm not a California car owner, so I can't tell you more about that, but others here can.

Congratulations on your job, and your new location in Albany! However, I just wanted to mention, that I hope you're not buying the car for your commute. It's far better to take public transit to SF for commuting, saving the car for weekend trips to explore scenic areas and to get out of the urban environment. The commute travel in the entire area is a nightmare, and commute hours now have extended to include roughly a 3-4 hour period around the morning beginning of the work day, and the evening closing of the work day. People try to schedule an earlier or later beginning and ending of their day, in order to avoid the worst of the traffic. This, of course, only extends the duration of the heavy-traffic period.

Hi Ruth. Thank you for the useful tips. I am not a mechanic, and I am not able to evaluate the car. I have read about the traffic, and that it is better to use the BART. I will do that when commuting to San Francisco. But, you know, on weekends I want to have a car to drive around the Bay area.

[davdaven]

Craigslist is fine for buying used cars. I've done it before--for a car and a motorscooter--as have people I know. But don't limit your search just to Craigslist. Other platforms have become more popular over the past few years, such as Facebook Marketplace, so Craigslist no longer has the lion's share of listings. You should take a mechanically inclined person with you or somehow arrange to have a reliable mechanic check it out.

All that being said, do you really need to buy a car? If you aren't going to use it to commute, there is no shortage of alternatives available in the Albany/Berkeley area. Besides BART trains and AC Transit buses, there are numerous easy rental options. For cars: Getaround, Gig, Turo, Zipcar. For bicycles (regular and electric assist): Lyft's Bay Wheels, Uber's Jump, etc. For electric kick scooters: Lime, Scoot Kick, etc. For electric 50cc scooters: Revel, Scoot. And when none of those options work, there are traditional rental car companies and services like Uber and Lyft. Plus taxis of course. You can even lease a car from a place like Rent A Wreck.

[5thgenSF]

Originally Posted by Bellefigure

This is my second thread in this forum! The first was about a possibility of coming to the US for a job. Anyhow, I am arriving next month in here. I will be working from home 3 days a week and 2 days will be commuting to San Francisco from Albany ( I will live in Albany).

I need to buy a car, like to use it for around 1 year - 14 months max. I have no idea how to do it in here, but websites are helpful, like Craigslist, to buy a car from its owner directly. Any tips? What if I saw a car that I really like and meet the owner in a public place, should I tell him to go to a designated place to do a full check up for the car? Should I pay him/her in cash?

a bit out of the way for you, but the burlingame police department has an area for craigslist buyers and sellers to meet. they have cameras there i think too. my latest car came from hertz in SSF. (south san fran) under bluebook, no haggling, paid zero out the door and they financed in everything including tax and license. cars have been maintained and all records available. worked for me! especially since i didn't have five cents in my pocket. you can browse inventory online and it's a piece of cake. it's not far from the train station so the sales guy picked me up and drove me over when i went to get it.
https://patch.com/california/burling...-exchange-zone

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by 5thgenSF

a bit out of the way for you, but the burlingame police department has an area for craigslist buyers and sellers to meet. they have cameras there i think too. my latest car came from hertz in SSF. (south san fran) under bluebook, no haggling, paid zero out the door and they financed in everything including tax and license. cars have been maintained and all records available. worked for me! especially since i didn't have five cents in my pocket. you can browse inventory online and it's a piece of cake. it's not far from the train station so the sales guy picked me up and drove me over when i went to get it.
https://patch.com/california/burling...-exchange-zone

This is important. My concern about Craigslist was the potential for deals to go wrong, crime to happen (especially if the seller requires cash payment), and the like. Incidents have been known to occur. So it's great that a police department voluntarily set up a supervised space for this activity.

[davdaven]

Originally Posted by 5thgenSF

a bit out of the way for you, but the burlingame police department has an area for craigslist buyers and sellers to meet. they have cameras there i think too.

Excellent mention. The cities of Richmond and El Cerrito also have these. I'm sure other jurisdictions do too, so look around!