I would advise you to meet the person in a public place rather than their home. ( Horror stories, you know )

Sometimes you can ask a mechanic to find you a car, from among his clientele. I'd never buy a low end car from a stranger, it would be very hard to be sure you know what you're getting.

Well Elmer J Fudd...sometimes you just have no other choice. Just trying to figure out the best way to go about it. I've only bought from dealerships, so this is new for me too. Except my first car back when I was 17, it was used VW bug me and my dad went and looked at. It would be great if my mechanic came across a car he was familiar with that would work out for us.

I'd never buy a car from craigslist. Too many scammers out there. Check your neighborhood B/S/T sites on Facebook.

Just my opinion: forget Craigslist. Too much chance for one kind of scam or another. I like Elmer's suggestion. There's always Car Max, if you have that in your area, or one coming off a lease from a dealership.

I've sold several cars using the want ads - not really any different than Craigslist. The potential buyer came to the house, I went with them on a test drive (for the ones that were still drivable!), and I also accompanied them not only to the bank to pay for the car, but to the County Clerk's office to be sure title was properly transferred (I would be liable for damages if it were still in my name). I know - most people would consider that dangerous, but the cities in which I live are smaller (we're not talking LA or NYC here), and I needed to sell those cars at retail.

A friend recently told me about cargurus.com (My son just graduated from college, and the car search was on!). You can plug in your zip code, run a list of cars for sale in your area (within x miles), and sort by price. That might give you an idea of what's available for ~ $4,000. Be sure to look at the dealer (and rating) to make sure it's a legit establishment. I don't know how comprehensive their listings are, but certainly every major dealer in our area (Houston) -- not-so-major dirt lots! -- popped up. It might be a good place to start. Good luck!

Every time I see this post, my brain reads it as, "shopping for a used/cardiologist.

Olychick...I might need a cardiologist dealing with all this teenage driving and shopping for a car and insurance!!

I've bought cars and other things from CL. If I remember right, you can search by private party and take the dealer out of the search. I've also sold cars this way. I have not had a lemon yet but I have test drove lots of lemons. They let me take the vehicle for a spin. They generally meet us at a public place and wait for us to get back. After all, my car was parked there and they could easily figure out who had their car if I don't bring it back.

I bought my last car off CL. However, my husband went with me and I google-earthed the address beforehand. After I saw the house online, no worries. Very high-income neighborhood in the next town down the road.

I'll tell you a few of my stories. I sold a car in the online newspaper listings. A red BMW with 269K miles. They had me take it to a nearby shop where "they" paid to have it inspected.

After I sold it the woman called me 3 times, telling me things wrong with it. ie: after taking it through a car wash it needed waxing. I told her if she didn't want the car she should resell it. She did.

On the other hand "I" purchased a used SUV from a newspaper listing. Met him in a grocery store parking lot. The SUV was leased, not owned by the person selling it. I had to contact the bank...which was the actual owner to set up the purchase. The town was 90miles away. I looked up the VIN# with an online service to see how many past owners, wrecks it had been in, floods?....etc. The vehicle had 14K miles on it, priced half of what a new one cost. The owner/leasee let me drive it home with his license plates and mail them back to him.

We've purchased several trucks from their owners as well....smooth transactions.

I think I'd rather craigslist than buy from a used car lot (other than a dealership) I did check out cargurus and Carfax. I like how Carfax lists details of the car.

We've bought cars from craigslist. In fact DH is driving the latest acquisition, a Ford one ton crew cab. No problems. It's so easy to look up everything online nowadays and our mechanic took a look at it before we bought it with the owner's permission. All above board.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/how-to-buy-a-car-on-craig_b_5648789.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a24892/how-to-car-craigslist-scam/

My husband bought our daughter's car off Craigslist. I was concerned for his safety, however it worked out ok. The person he bought it from told us he was BMW Mechanic which we looked up on Google and saw that he had won awards, which made us feel better to see that he wasn't lying. They met at a public place and then a different day met at the bank where a Notary notorized their paperwork and my husband paid him.

Another thought for you, I bought a very nice vehicle off of Ebay for an excellent price, it worked flawlessly for years. There is a search function where you can identify owners in your area who are selling.

i would be ok with CL, but i would stay in my area and have my mechanic look it over. around here they charge about $35-40 to go over a car for purchase. well worth it, IMO. i think most people understand the need to have a car looked over., if not, then run away from it!!

we had our mechanic look over a few cars of the years. he yes to two of them., no to about 5. still have both of them!

also, check "autos for sale" in your local paper. that's how we found one of our cars, a 2005 Jeep Wrangler with 23,000 miles on it.!! bought May of last year. car was practically new!! garage kept, owner had too many cars. sometimes u just luck out. also, ask everyone u know and have them ask everyone they know., almost always someone knows someone who is selling a car.!!

Thanks mdln for those links. I don't think I would have thought to ask for their info regarding insurance, license etc. Makes sense though, to check to see if their name is on the paperwork. There was one CL where in the ad it said "selling for a friend" and that caught my eye, but not in a good way.

Glancing quickly at the title of this thread, I thought it said Shopping for a used cardiologist. :-)

Hi Sue,

How much need do you have for a used cardiologist?

Maybe you could refer me to one ... when I have need.

ole joyfuelled ... which fuelling helps, some claim, to delay the need for one

I would be very leary of buying anything from Craigs list because you really just don't know who you're going to meet up with, but I think it can depend greatly on the area your in too.

Autotrader now has private parties selling cars and as Mdln noted, Carfax is a great resource. Also, I beleive that Kelly Blue Book has private party listings as well, kbb.com.

Good grief! I read the title without my glasses on and thought it said "shopping for a used cardiologist".

And, glancing up at some of the other responses, I see that I was not the only one!

We've bought many used vehicles through the want ads in the newspaper. Never had any problems with the sellers or the vehicles. One thing hubby always asks to see is the maintenance records of the vehicle we're considering. If the vehicle has been properly maintained, it's an indication to us that it has been well cared for.

"I'd never buy a car from craigslist. Too many scammers out there. Check your neighborhood B/S/T sites on Facebook."

Uh, so there's no scammers on Facebook??? LOL It amazes me that people are so paranoid about Craigslist, but they're just fine with newspaper ads, magazines, other internet listings. Amazing. What's the difference between CL & FB? Nothing really. Craigslist is nothing more than an advertising medium, as is Facebook and newspaper sites, AutoTrader and all the others. It is that hard to understand? People have given CL a life of its own for some reason and it makes no sense. I imagine it's because of publicity of a few incidents where CL was read but people ignore the same incidents when it happens in a bar, a grocery store, neighborhood, church or other place. Put away your pitchforks and torches and wake up to reality. I'd trust a private owner through CL far more than a car jockey. No matter where you find the lead to it you still need to do your due diligence.

I bought my last vehicle off from a CL ad. It was a small car jockey place. They posted the VIN and a lot of pictures of it. I looked at Carfax but decided to use Autochek instead because it gave a lot more info and was cheaper, plus I had the option to use it more than once within a period of time. I went and looked at the vehicle and no, I didn't bring six armed guards with me. Been a long time since I had worked on vehicles but still know quite a bit about vehicles. My biggest problem with it is they were asking too little for it, and it seemed to be in way too good of condition. It was a lease return apparently purchased from an auction. I checked for flood damage, it showed clear. I lowballed them and we negotiated a deal that was $2000 below loan value on it (and $4500 below retail/$3000 below wholesale). I thought the engine had been steam cleaned which made me suspicious too, tires appeared new and shouldn't need replacement at 25k miles. But the price was good and I needed a vehicle so I bought it. (Autochek showed it clean) Took it to my mechanic for routine maintenance and had them go over it. Was fine. Engine was actually that clean. And the tires were original, just long-wearing. They lasted about 55k miles and only needed replacement because of alignment issues. Great vehicle. My point is you need someone who knows something about vehicles to take a look at it. You don't need a total expert but do what makes you comfortable.

People who are so scared to let someone near their house to look at a vehicle aren't thinking too clearly. The vehicle title will have your name and address on it, so they know it anyway.

I had made a deal to buy a vehicle from my mechanics. It had a blown engine and they were just going to charge me the cost of the engine. However at the last minute they decided to give it to the daughter-in-law and have her drive it. She confided in me that she didn't like it and wouldn't be driving it long and if I would be interested she'd call me, which was fine. But then I found the other one.

A car is a piece of machinery. Nothing more. You can have trouble with any of them, no matter if you buy your parents' car or a stranger's. Budget for trouble and check it out a bit. Don't obsess about it. If things go drastically wrong, junk it and get something else. That's the worst case scenario. Nobody wants to buy a lemon but it can happen and there's no guarantee you won't get one, even having a mechanic look at it. They DO NOT guarantee the vehicles they look at. Plus, if you really want them to do a thorough exam and take apart the wheels to check brakes, test compression, etc, it's going to cost you. How much is it worth to you to have that little bit of info? Cost vs benefit needs to weigh in.