Used Cars

[jaihawk]

My middle daughter totalled her car on Wednesday. Based on the damage, she got lucky to only have bumps and bruises. I got lucky last time, finding a 2019 Hyundai Accent that had about 30k miles on it for about $12k. I wanted her to have something that would last her through high school, college, and part way into her career so she wouldn't have to worry about a car payment.

I know the market is crazy right now. Any advice on the best sites to use to look for vehicles? I don't mind paying to have it transported. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[God is a Husker]

 

[HuskerGarrett]

I know two people that have both used Vroom recently. It's like Carvana, basically buy online and they ship it to you.

Otherwise, I use AutoTrader or just Facebook Marketplace

 

[Grits and Gravy]

Glad your daughter's okay jailhawk.

I wish I had some good car buying advice for you, but I'm afraid this is a bad time to buy late model used vehicles. You might want to look at local estate sales and try to "steal" one at an auction.

 

[Pipe Line]

Car gurus helped me find my current truck and my dads current truck when we were in the market. Both were around early 2020 though

 

[iruletheskool]

Got my last one from enterprise. They run em for 2 years then swap em out. Some decent deals

 

[Tyneb23]

Buy one of these, if anyone hits her or she hits anyone else she is totally safe. Stay away from trains tho. Plus she can drive her friends around with the extra cargo. The engine life is fantastic on these bad boys.

 

[ChocaEgg]

Carvana & AutoTrader are what I usually look at. If you have USAA, they have a decent new/used search tool as well.

 

[jaihawk]

Thanks for the responses. It looks like a lot of the vehicles available have salvage titles on them. I'm not familiar with what that means or how it might impact her when she eventually goes to trade it in. Pros/Cons to a salvage title?

 

[vailhusker]

Thanks for the responses. It looks like a lot of the vehicles available have salvage titles on them. I'm not familiar with what that means or how it might impact her when she eventually goes to trade it in. Pros/Cons to a salvage title?

It means at some point the vehicle was declared a "total loss". This article explains it further.

What Is a Salvage Title Vehicle and Are They Worth Buying? | Edmunds

Salvage title vehicles can appear to be a good used car bargain, but there are a number of factors you should be aware of before considering one.

www.edmunds.com

Here's another one.

What Is a Salvage Title Car?

Here's what to know about salvage titles, given to cars that are so badly damaged they cost more to repair than they are worth.

www.carfax.com

 

[HuskerGarrett]

Thanks for the responses. It looks like a lot of the vehicles available have salvage titles on them. I'm not familiar with what that means or how it might impact her when she eventually goes to trade it in. Pros/Cons to a salvage title?

Make sure to check with your insurance before buying a salvage. I think it’s hard to insure some of them

 

[Skerz4Life50]

Thanks for the responses. It looks like a lot of the vehicles available have salvage titles on them. I'm not familiar with what that means or how it might impact her when she eventually goes to trade it in. Pros/Cons to a salvage title?

Salvage titles just mean the car was totaled, so it was more expensive for the insurance company to pay to fix it than the car was actually worth.

In order to be able to buy and drive the cars, they have to have been "rebuilt" and have a rebuilt title. So, basically a body shop or someone buys the car, fixes them up to where they are legal to drive on the roads, and then they sell them.

A couple things with salvage cars/titles:
1. You most likely will only be able to get liability insurance on these cars from an insurance company, but you may have to shop around to find companies willing to insure you.
2. I would definitely recommend having someone you trust (mechanic) look over the vehicle extensively to see how well it was rebuilt. My first car was a salvage title car and while it did last me like 7ish years, there were still many issues with it where it had to go back to a mechanic fairly regularly. Some stuff was just things that lots of cars experience (oils leaks, etc.), but others were larger issues that probably wouldn't have occurred with normal vehicles.
3. Resale of these will be much lower than non-salvaged vehicles, and there may be some dealerships that will not allow trade-ins. Kind of depends on the dealership.

 

[Red Finger]

 

[HCFord1]

This thread made me curious about what my car would be worth if I sold it now. Bought it new 11 months ago for $500 over MSRP, and now I would be able to sell it with 12k miles on it for $8k more than I paid brand new. Absolutely absurd.

 

[HuskerGarrett]

This thread made me curious about what my car would be worth if I sold it now. Bought it new 11 months ago for $500 over MSRP, and now I would be able to sell it with 12k miles on it for $8k more than I paid brand new. Absolutely absurd.

What is it?

 

[Jim14510]

What is it?