Shopping Online for Cars

Thanks to the internet, it is becoming much easier to shop online and to research products or services we as consumers are interested in buying or selling.

Cars are no exception. As a result, I do all my shopping for cars or car stuff online and you know that I prefer to buy and sell cars privately due to the savings.

Rather than wasting time and money, driving from dealer to dealer or house to house looking at cars which may or may not interest me, it's all too easy to jump online and to search from the comfort of home.

No need to go to a dealership and be pressured to buy on the spot.

No need to ask a thousand questions about a car you are interested in, the information is available right in front of you if presented correctly.

With the economy slowing down due to spending cut backs, now is the best time to buy believe it or not. Whether it's household appliances or cars, I like to sell when most people are buying and I like to buy when most people are selling.

I have never paid retail price for a car and I most likely never will as I am willing to wait and see how the market pans out. Those who do pay retail or more for cars are those who want to be first in line when a new model comes out and that comes with a premium price hike.

Whether that premium is worth it depends on the buyer and the type of car.

Most new cars as any indication will drop 30 odd % in price as a general rule. So that new $30,000 car after 6 months ownership, whether you drive it or not, is worth $20,000. To most people, $10,000 cash in hand savings is huge!!

How do I know this? 1st hand experience trying to sell my new car not long after I bought it. The dealer I worked at only wanted to pay me half what my car was worth meaning essentially they were getting a new model car for half price. Stuff that!!

So I went and sold my car privately, got most of my money back and the new owner got a car as new (almost), at a price several thousands below dealer invoice!! Win-win situation for the buyer and private seller!!

When buying a car online, I have many questions which I hope can be answered by the ad selling the car. If the description is poor, chances are likely that I will skip the ad and move on to the next one.

Neither the buyer or seller wants that to happen, so how an ad presents itself can be the difference between winning or losing a sale. I'm into the details of a car. I am not interested in the features as that information is generally known by most people.

Sellers need to pay attention to detail.

The details most important to me are - Is there any finance owing on the car? Has the car been in an accident? How many owners? Contact details of previous owners? Is the owner a smoker? Who and what kind of use was the car subjected to? Pets, kids?

Any mechanical problems or issues, I can check in person by test driving to make sure the car matches its description online. If it doesn't, breathe a sigh of relief and cross it off my buy list.

There is ALWAYS another great buy waiting to be found.