Any good recs for reputable used car dealerships? (Austin: how much, to buy)

[the_minorityreport]

not working, looking for a beater car that can do light errands and hopefully a fair commute in the near future. want to buy in cash from a dealership or atleast from someone looking to sell a car before a move or something

[supfromthesite]

I would recommend facebook marketplace and offer up. I made a facebook just so I could use it.

I have bought 4 cars and 3 of them were very good deals. 1 was sour but I should have seen it coming. There were warning flags I ignored.

Just test drive it and make sure that there are no weird noises, ac works, check engine light isn't on, etc. If you are not at all mechanically inclined then hire a mechanic to look at it with you and check it out. If you don't have/know one I can give you my buddies number.

If you can, not sure how much money you are looking to spend, but try to buy one from a rich person. They take it to the dealership for repairs and keep good care of them from my experience. The best 2 I bought were from a rich old dude in Austin that met me at his country club and a lady that lives in Stone Oak and had a porsche and rolls royce in the drive way. I paid $6500 and $2500 for these cars and they were both very very good. Both got totaled though.


PS
Sorry I don't have a req for a dealer. Personally I would rather buy from a person, dealerships are full of scummy people and used dealerships are even worse imo.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by supfromthesite

Sorry I don't have a req for a dealer. Personally I would rather buy from a person, dealerships are full of scummy people and used dealerships are even worse imo.

Totally agree with this, especially on a sub-10K car. Why? Because I typically sell my own cars, I just can't stand to take the lowball trade-in offers. And as an individual, I'm not going to rip someone off for 1 transaction I may do every few years. Dealerships might, as their motivated to do so and have experience selling for a profit. An individual owner, especially the first owner, isn't looking for a return on investment. If they are like me, they are just looking for more than the lowball offer. A reasonable price. Everyone gets what they want.

Now, there are obviously scammers and shady people, but they are generally easy to spot. Social media means you can quickly verify a person legitimately trying to sell their car vs. someone who is scamming. With things like Carfax it's a bit easier. And eBay, they hold the sellers to a pretty high standard, if they are individuals. Just don't be afraid to buy a bus ticket to check out a car in another city if it's a good deal. You'll come out better in the end despite the travel expense.

[the_minorityreport]

Originally Posted by supfromthesite

I would recommend facebook marketplace and offer up. I made a facebook just so I could use it.

I have bought 4 cars and 3 of them were very good deals. 1 was sour but I should have seen it coming. There were warning flags I ignored.

I'm gonna try the facebook route then - do you have any tips about the red flags you've seen so I can be prepared? I'm VERY new to SA and am not familiar with the surrounding areas yet.

[supfromthesite]

The red flags were that the car had problems and I ignored them, thinking they would be easy fixes. As it turns out it had more problems than I thought.