Over the years I’ve bought 10 cars and 4 motorcycles; two of the motorcycles I bought new, everything else was used. The only lemon was a BMW 328ic which I bought from a dealer.

I don’t buy cars through dealers anymore.

If you look at Craigslist, you can see the premium that dealers put on cars; if you’re reasonably careful and use a mechanic to vet the deal, you can easily save $500 – $1,500 by buying from the owner. Often the buyers underprice the car or will move significantly off their initial price to get it out of their driveway.

I pay $24 for an annual subscription to Consumer Reports online; when I want to buy a car I always look at their “Recommended Used Cars” section for the amount I want to spend. I’m strongly biased to Toyotas, Hondas, and Lexus’– over the years they’ve proven themselves to be completely reliable. (My wife drives a 2004 Toyota Avalon, which we bought used and she loves.)

Although 186,000 miles is a lot, if any car was built to put 300,000 miles on it, it’s a Lexus. If you look at the wikipedia entry for the Lexus ES, it shows (1) J.D. Power and Associates named the 1998 ES 300 the “Best Entry Luxury Car in Initial Quality” and (2) Kelley Blue Book gave the 1998 ES its “Best to Hold Value.”

I live in northern Virginia and commute four miles to work. Two or three times a week I drive twenty to thirty miles to see clients.

I used Craigslist to find the car by searching for cars with a maximum value of $12,000.

Part of what I’m interested in when I look at a used car is getting a feel for the owner. When I met the owner at his house, he was a friendly guy with a well-maintained yard and home who’d just bought another (used) Lexus. He’d already printed out the CarFax report for me, which was a positive sign. He’d owned the car for 7 years and had bought it used himself. He had a good reason for selling the car and a good reason for the high miles — he has a 100-mile round trip commute each day.

The car was immaculate. The interior was spotless, the vinyl was spotless and looked like it had been regularly cleaned with ArmorAll. The floor was clean and unworn — very hard to do over ten years. The body had no dings and minor scratches, and the engine compartment was spotless.

When I took it out for a test drive, it felt tight, smooth and quiet; there was no vibration through the steering wheel. When I took my hands off the steering wheel the car didn’t move. When I found a quiet street and slammed on the brakes, it didn’t slew at all. Braking was firm, not soft or spongy.

As Clint Eastwood tells us, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” I’m no mechanic, but I have a good one. The owner agreed to knock off the price of the inspection, and let me have the car for the evening and next day so my mechanic could look it over.

My mechanic gave it a clean bill of health.

So for $4,800 I have a good-looking car with a clean title, no payments, low insurance, power everything, cruise control, and a great sound system. I’m looking forward to getting it to 300,000 miles, primarily through changing the oil every 3,000 miles and listening to my mechanic’s advice.

Good luck to all of you –

John P

It is important do research, as you’ve rightly suggested and laid out. A little looking can go a long way in saving some money!

I’m currently driving a 1996 Toyota Corolla that my parents gave me. It has about 79k miles on it; they bought it used about 7 years ago with 30k miles on it. I expect it to keep happily chugging along until used hybrids and my bank account meet in 5-7 years.