Need help used car shopping! (New Orleans, Metairie: car rental, for sale, rental)

[nealfam6]

Tried the Craigslist route.....too many scammers wanting to ship me a car from God knows where....sight unseen...

Please advise an honest, reliable used car sales person or lot in Metairie/Kenner area.....need a first car for teenaged son.

Finally, we had great luck in another city purchasing a car that had been a company car for insurance corp...they would routinely park their cars for sale in adjacent grocery store lot....excellent care, and under blue book price to move the cars....anything like that here?

Thanks for any and all input!

[finalmove]

Seems you don't have much of a budget. Metairie has all the car makes and all those dealers carry pre-owned. Carmax is also a trusted source. Good luck.

[Chip N Sawbones]

If you want another fleet vehicle you could try calling some of the car rental companies. They always have cars for sale that are just a little too old to rent out, but have received scheduled maintenance all along. I doubt you'll find a used car dealer anywhere in the city, or the nation for that matter, that is absolutely regarded as honest and reliable. The truth is that they can't possibly know exactly how good or bad a car they're selling is, not when they've only owned it for a few days and have never driven it. As a result, every used car dealer is going to end up selling the occasional lemon from time to time. My recommendation is that you check everything before you buy. If you don't know how to identify problems in a used car, take it to a mechanic who can.

Personally I'm a big fan of buying sub-$1000 cars on Craigslist, but I never care if my car doesn't look so good and I know how to fix it when it breaks, so I don't recommend my method to everyone. The advantage of this is that if you buy a $500 car and keep it running, it will still be worth $500 when you sell it, no matter how much abuse you've thrown at it in the meantime.

[norb123]

Bryan Chevrolet-Subaru was very good to me. I actually got a much better deal than I thought I would get. Probably the easiest car buying experience I've had. They took a long time to get my tag though. If you are mechanically inclined, listen to Chip. You're best bet is to buy very used down here.

[finalmove]

Originally Posted by Chip N Sawbones

If you want another fleet vehicle you could try calling some of the car rental companies. They always have cars for sale that are just a little too old to rent out, but have received scheduled maintenance all along. I doubt you'll find a used car dealer anywhere in the city, or the nation for that matter, that is absolutely regarded as honest and reliable. The truth is that they can't possibly know exactly how good or bad a car they're selling is, not when they've only owned it for a few days and have never driven it. As a result, every used car dealer is going to end up selling the occasional lemon from time to time. My recommendation is that you check everything before you buy. If you don't know how to identify problems in a used car, take it to a mechanic who can.

Personally I'm a big fan of buying sub-$1000 cars on Craigslist, but I never care if my car doesn't look so good and I know how to fix it when it breaks, so I don't recommend my method to everyone. The advantage of this is that if you buy a $500 car and keep it running, it will still be worth $500 when you sell it, no matter how much abuse you've thrown at it in the meantime.

No offense, but with a budget like yours, you can only buy junk. I, like most motorists prefer to drive a newer, technologically advanced vehicle. Further, your tired assessment of the retail car business in general is confused at the least.
The OP must make the purchase decision on their own. If one has no skill at assessing the condition of a preowned car, they have little choice but to rely on the reputation of a retailer such as CARMAX.

[Chip N Sawbones]

Originally Posted by finalmove

No offense, but with a budget like yours, you can only buy junk. I, like most motorists prefer to drive a newer, technologically advanced vehicle. Further, your tired assessment of the retail car business in general is confused at the least.
The OP must make the purchase decision on their own. If one has no skill at assessing the condition of a preowned car, they have little choice but to rely on the reputation of a retailer such as CARMAX.

A budget like mine was what allowed me to save up a carpenter's salary and pay cash for an $80,000 house that took just a year's work and some building materials to turn into an $180,000 house. Tell me, are mortgages and car payments fun to have? I wouldn't know.

The OP didn't say what their budget was, so I don't know if the high end of the used car market with a service like CARMAX is a good option for them. If we're talking about a kid learning to drive in New Orleans there's no point in getting anything too fancy; not in a city where drunk driving is still a recreational sport. If you aren't able to spot problems in a used car you can always take the car to a good mechanic to have them look it over and tell if it's a good deal or not.