Do your homework.
You probably thought that remark was reserved for youngsters.
But when you want to know how to get the best deal on a used car, doing your homework can make all the difference in the world.
And there’s plenty of help online: Googling “how to get the best deal on a used car” generates nearly three billion results, while a similar search, “how to get a good deal on a used car” generates even more. So what are you going to do with that many results?
Well, giving up is not an option.
A good place to start is The Art of Manliness’ blog post, How to Negotiate for a Used Car, published in 2010 but which Google still likes enough to use in its featured position atop search results. (Despite the blog title, the writer gave credit to his wife for being a better negotiator.)
“In the negotiation game, knowledge is truly power,” wrote the blogger in the post.
The blog ranking might be a surprise considering that other highly ranked resources included U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger, Investopedia, Edmunds.com, ABC News and CNN Money.
But there it is, The Art of Manliness … followed by two results from U.S. News & World Report – How to Negotiate the Price of a Car (2016) and 14 Ways to Get the Best Used Car Deal (2018), and then on one search Kiplinger’s How to Get the Best Deal on a Used Car (2011)
Other top-ranked results include:
- Investopedia’s How to Get a Good Deal on a Used Car.
- Edmunds’ 10 Steps to Buying a Used Car and How to Get a Used Car Bargain Part Three, with links to parts one and two of the online series.
- And the 14-Step Guide to Getting a Great Deal on a Used Car at doughroller.net.
By the time this homework is done, you should have a pretty good handle on how to find your next car.
But, for extra credit, you might want to study up on these topics at the Santander Consumer USA blog:
These are the best used cars to buy in 2018
The 10 best-selling cars of all time you can still buy – new or used
14 almost-new (used) cars you can find right now for under $20,000
Find out where the most-affordable used cars are sold in your area
Your cheat sheet for car shopping (infographic)
The bottom line to all of this?
“Do everything you can before physically going to buy a car,” advised Philip Reed, a senior consumer advice editor at automotive review site Edmunds, in Investopedia.
These top-ranked articles may help tip the scales in your favor when you finally are ready to buy.
It may not be as exciting as touring car lots with all that colorful, gleaming metal, but that’s how to get the best deal on a used car.
