Nada Guide

Nada Guide Tips
Know your limit.

I'm talking financially and, in a way, logically. What I mean is "I have $5000 to buy this compact sedan so I save money, drive my small family and can park in the city much...oooooo look a mustang!" isn't logical and beyond what you need (no matter what your inner child says).

The most important thing I do and I've bought/sold a total of 20 used cars in as many years without ever having bought a lemon is:
- Research the model to death (sometimes to a fault) to understand what model I want, known weak points, typical repair and cost intervals and price points. I use fan/blogs for that model vehicle when possible.

If buying person to person instead of through a dealership, check enthusiast forums before Craigslist. First when dealing with an individual your more likely to be able to get a better deal depending on the persons situation but with a little chat and some friendly conversation the bartering process is more likely to come out better than if dealing with a used car salesman and on top of that forum users are more apt to give deals to other users. Plus if you go through a forum like Naxja or AlfaBB (you can tell what cars I'm looking for) you can get a lot of feedback from guys posting about the car that might know more than you, or if it is long distance forum users are often open to checking out a car for you and you'll be getting an honest opinion back. Also you can look back to the users history to see potential issues, build threads or you can more honestly see if the car has been raced or beaten on. Finally in a forum environment all the info that you might need about the car is only a few clicks away.

You likely won't be able to do a pre-vehicle inspection with your mechanic, but you will have a good opportunity to save a lot of money. You may have some gremlins to deal with, but overall you'll probably come out on top.

My Dad has done this on his last 3 Volvo's and despite the mechanical issues he ran into with 2 out of 3 of them, he was thousands ahead of the curve compared to what e-bay or dealerships wanted for the same make, model, and year.

Just because a car is "certified" it honestly doesn't mean all that much. Do you realize that all a certification is for most dealerships is a cheap $350-$450 powertrain warranty that's backed by the factory?