Anyone bought a car online?

[rabbit]

I'm thinking about selling my 1998 Mercury Tracer and moving up to something slightly larger. The problem I'm running into is that I haven't been able to find anything around here that floats my boat. I perused ebaymotors and found a couple prospects. Are there any other websites I should also check out or any I should avoid? What kind of advice would you offer?

[Stu]

I just bought a car online. A 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX. I am generally pleased with my purchase. I live in Cleveland, and got a good enough deal that the cost of flying to Nashville and driving the car back was justified.

I met the guy on ebay motors. He set a reserve on his car, and I've noticed that reserves get people to look away. He was selling a 2004 with 32k miles with a reserve of $18,500. A 2003 with 30k miles and less options went for $17,700 with no reserve.

So if you find something on ebay motors, I would contact sellers who set a reserve and didn't sell their car and see if they want to negotiate. I got the guy down to $17,800, just by talking to him on the phone.

Autotrader.com is great. I looked on there a lot. You can find a lot of cars there. Some people are good sellers, have open communication, and some are horrible and will never contact you.

If you ever find a screaming deal, and someone wants you to transfer the money through E-Trade don't do it. E-trade does not do escrow and it is a scam.

Edmunds.com is a great site. You can do a ton of research there for what the car you are interested is worth. Not based on blue book value, but based on what people actually pay for the car. It's Edmunds True Market Value. Awesome.

Lastly, go to carfax.com for running VIN numbers. I must've ran 50 when I was looking for my car. It helps out a lot.

Any questions, PM me or post here.