ONLINE
Don’t buy a used car sight-unseen over the Internet without a privateinspection. If you are willing to get the car thoroughly inspected
mechanically and cosmetically by an unbiased, professional outfit like then it can make sense to buy online, especially for harder to find vehicles.AIM, (^)
Even then, expect surprises—I get them all the time when sourcing carsfrom out of state.
expected.TIP: Build in an extra $500-1,000 to fix things that aren’t as^
That’s the range I usually have to spend to bring cars up to the very higheststandards, even though the seller tells me things are good. It’ll be items like
scratches and dings, broken parts, missing keys and remotes that you’ll bespending for. The chapter on buying used cars has lots of tips and sources
to help with this. With new vehicles, the decision to buy sight unseen isperhaps easier, though there are still things you must watch out for. I went (^)
into depth in that in the chapter on buying new cars.
Perhaps I’m old school here, but I never buy cars at a distance (i.e. online)without certain very specific guarantees. These come from the Manheim
and Adesa auction company that only dealers can buy cars from. I can paya wholesaler to buy at one of their auctions, bid directly at auction using my (^)
computer, or buy direct from other dealers through Manheim’s OnlineVehicle Exchange (OVE).