People choose to buy cars online for many reasons. Maybe you’re fed up with the constant sales pitches of auto salesmen or tired of being hounded the moment you walk onto the lot – or maybe you just don’t have the time to shop around the local dealerships during their hours. Whatever the reason, choosing to buy online has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Decide on the car you want
Because you won’t be able to test drive a car you buy through an online auction, it’s important to decide what kind of car you want to buy before you get online. If there isn’t a particular make or model you want, make a list of must-haves. After you’ve made your list, you can either research online or take a test drive at a real dealership in your area.
You also need to decide how much you’re willing to pay. If you decide this before you begin your search, you can limit your searches to only cars in that price range and you won’t have to worry about going over your budget. Not limiting your searches to your price range can lead to disappointment, or finding yourself spending more then you want!
Get prepared
Before you start looking for cars, sign up for a car history report website like CARFAX. Many of these sites will allow you to do unlimited searches for a month for a one-time fee. When viewing cars through online auto auctions, look for the car’s VIN number – a unique number specific to the car you’re looking at. Running a VIN number through the car history website can give you a lot of information that the auction description does not!
You should also decide on how far you’re willing to travel for your car once you find it. If you don’t want to drive more than 100 miles just to pick up a car, make sure you limit your searches to shorter distances from your home.
Finding your car
Using the list you made, start your search on websites like Autotrader.com, Carsoup.com and even eBay.com. Each of these sites offer ways to modify the search to select only the vehicles you’re interested in, by excluding listings based on variables like price or distance. If you don’t find what you’re looking for on your first go, expand your search – you could be letting the perfect car slip by if you limit your criteria too tightly. However, this doesn’t mean bidding on more than one car at a time – just giving yourself options before you start bidding.
Research the car
Now that you’ve found a few cars you’re interested in, pull each car’s history using the VIN number on the reporting site. This report will list any past accidents, flooding incidents and other important details you should know before buying. Some also list current and prior owners. If the car is listed as being flood damaged or totaled, or if it has a rebuilt or salvage title, proceed carefully!
If you feel the car passes the car history report inspection, contact the seller for any other details that aren’t listed in the auction description. For example, you may want to know about the odometer reading, gas mileage, defects both inside and out, maintenance records or anything else not listed already. If you aren’t sure what questions you need to ask, a quick search on the internet will give you a printable checklist for buying a used car to help you in the process.
