I'm looking on autotrader, carsoup, vehix, craigslist, here, FTW. Anywhere else I'm not thinking of?

 

Yeah, the classifed ads in the newspaper.. Look in the local paper and any large market paper within a reasonable distance you can get ahold of.. much more possible to haggle a bit with a private seller than a dealer..

Look at carmax.com for an idea of what to NOT pay.. lol

Look at their site and then take about $2.5 to $3 k off anything you find anywhere. Carmax loves their used vehicles even more than a dealer does.

Weird.

 

yeah I knew that about carmax, I'll check the local papers though.

 

Yeah, a few years back I wanted to trade my Escape for a F150... but they wanted wayy too much on carmax... such a freakin' rip off.

Like seriously, there are no good trucks around here.

 

Shopping for a USED truck (from private sellers) has been one of the most disappointing and frustrating endeavors I've ever attempted.

 

I bought my truck from a dealer which i found on Craigslist

 

I've found both of my trucks on Autotrader.com actually. My F-150 was kinda funny... I had been looking for a truck for 6 months. One day I was looking, like always. My brother says, give me 5 mins and I'll find you the truck of your dreams. It was the first truck he clicked on... The F-250 I thought was a scam cause the price was so low.

 

I've bought my last 2 trucks from www.cars.com and sold one on the site less than 24hrs. of posting on it.

 

I've gotta keep you in mind when I get done with college and I get a diesel...

 

It's all about the shopping around and knowing where to look. I paid trade in value for my 1999 F-150. Sold it for the same price I bought it for, 40K miles later with a few mods left on it. I paid under trade in value for my F-250. 18K miles later and a crushed front bumper, I put it up for sale and was getting offers for more than I paid for it. No, I'm not selling it. That was just to keep the parents happy and make them think I wanted to get rid of it.. Oh, and both of my trucks came from dealerships.

 

i look on auto trader and ajccars.com (newspaper)

 

I relay on the paper and "private seller" ads in Autotrader.com (which has been taken over by the dealers of course). I also smile when people gripe about "how hard" it is to buy from an individual. Get over it and realize that you'll make at least $100 per hour for the little bit of work you put into it. So to make at least $2K off on a truck purchase, you only need to put in half a work week. That's nothing! It's a game and a hobby for me actually and I filter out a lot of trucks over the phone and with a drive by.

I bought my 02 s'crew for $500 under trade in value from someone with a huge house who was in over his head on house and car payments. It had 2 defective trim pieces that I fixed under warranty and the truck was perfect for 45K miles. Now, the 2 times I've bought used Fords from a dealer, they were problems. The '89 bronco had a warped windshield corner that leaked water. The '93 Explorer was beatiful and < 15K miles cause the original owner blew out the motor seals on the POS 4.0LV6 they used to put in the Explorers.

Bottom line, is used car dealers are as bad or worse than individuals and you paythe premium for it. All the talk about warranty and "dealers will stand by the vehicle" is nice, but the PITA factor of actually getting them to live up to it isn't worth the premium you'll pay on the vehicle.

Just be careful, let the deals that don't feel right in your gut go, and wait for the right deal and you'll be proud of that extra $ sitting in your pocket once you find the right one. Now, go get 'er done!