Used cars are more attractive than ever, but things have gotten complicated over the years. While Autotrader, Craigslist, and eBay used to be good starting points to search, there’s far more competition these days and each site has their strengths and weaknesses.
Facebook Marketplace has effectively replaced Craigslist and it’s not hard to understand why as nearly everyone has a Facebook account and listings are free. This is a blessing and a curse as some sellers spam their vehicles, while others are scammers and crooks.
If that wasn’t bad enough, finding a good car on the site is a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Countless cars have accident damage or rebuilt titles, and they’re virtually impossible to avoid. On top of that, the filters are pretty basic and this means lots of legwork.
QOTD: Show Us What You’d Buy With $10,000
Facebook Marketplace
Sites like Autotrader and Cars.com have better filters, but they’re dealer-focused and have issues of their own. In particular, the latter site doesn’t let you fine-tune your price range and there are $5,000 intervals between $10,000 and $50,000.
There’s also a seemingly endless number of sites listing used cars for sale these days. Besides the usual suspects, there are banks as well as everyone from CarFax to the AARP. This results in a lot of fragmentation as vehicles are listed on some sites, but not others.
With all that being said, what’s your favorite website for used car shopping?
