tl;dr Find one, optionally pay a company to check it isn’t stolen or legally written off, and has no outstanding finance. Agree an amount of money. Sign the vehicle ownership documents, trade those and the car for the money within any applicable laws governing trade in your area. If your car has the required tax and safety certificates, and you have the required license and insurance, drive away, otherwise sort those out next. Cross your fingers and hope it isn’t a lemon, but realise that if it is, it is a setback, not the end of the world.
end tl;dr
You decide what you are looking for and/or what you can afford, and search around for ones within your area or however far you are willing to travel. If you are searching yourself then you will look at vehicles on the street with “for sale” signs on them, in local newspapers and advertising boards, on local search sites, or national ones such as Craigslist, Ebay or Autotrader, or at dealers/garages or their websites.
If you are searching with a dealership, you can discuss you requirements with them and they can suggest available cars, possibly distant ones in other garages in their group which they can transport to you. Many official dealerships for car manufacturers run approved used car schemes where they take recent cars (typically 3 years old), service them and then offer better than normal guarantees / warranty extensions, for an extra cost.
When you find one you are interested in, make contact with the seller and arrange to look at the car before buying. It would help here if you know someone you can take along, not just for a second set of eyes looking at the car, but also for a defence against pushy sellers or a second set of eyes checking your behaviour isn’t too biased towards/against purchasing. Have a look around in advance in price guides and listings so you know expected prices for that make, model, specification and age. Find a checklist from somewhere online and look for things to check when inspecting a used car, to take with you. You primarily want to make sure it:
Is what you were expecting and will do what you want or need.
Has not been crashed seriously.
Has been basically looked after (serviced regularly).
Has not been rebranded as a higher model, had any low quality modifications such as nonstandard wheels or engine enhancements which might be dangerous, or indicate the owner drove it hard (and thus wore parts surprisingly heavily), or did crummy repair work which might not last.
Doesn’t surprise you—find out what works and what doesn’t.
I don’t think they are under any obligation to give you a test drive, and if you do want one you will need to have the usual driving license and insurance cover to do so. I don’t know what you are looking for on a test drive beyond a general “does anything feel, look, sound or act wrong or suspicious” and “is it ergonomically OK”.
Before buying, you ought to get a vehicle background check (at a cost) to confirm it isn’t stolen, written off, financed with money owing, etc., and you may want to pay a mechanic service to give it an inspection. In the UK, The AA can do both—other companies can too.
(Again UK specific) cars more than 3 years old need MOT certificates (meets basic safety requirements) annually, so make sure the car has one or will have by the time you get it. It will need a tax disc (again, annual) before you can drive it, so if it has one in-date that is good. During the trade you will need to complete a form on the vehicle papers which the seller signs to say they are no longer the owner, and you sign to say you are the new owner, and the seller needs to send it to the DVLA to officially make the car no longer their responsibility.
Optional extra: haggling. You may wish to for the sake of saving money, but you don’t have to (notice the societal disapproval of people who pay the asking price). Offer them less, or if buying from a dealer, convince them to give you more into the deal such as a tank of fuel, a free service, etc).
Dealerships can be evil. They may try to get you to agree to pay X dollars/month for N months without telling you what the total actually is. Bring a calculator and for Merlin’s sake Read Before Signing Anything.
And remember that you can always just walk out of there and buy a car off craigslist. That’s what I ended up doing.
Craigslist has worked for me. Expect to spend some money on repairing the car. Taking it to a mechanic first seems like a big deal but you will need to take it there and you may as well take it there before buying it.
I suppose the short answer is to go to nearby car dealerships and interact with the salespeople—they may have some for sale and, if they do, can probably find one that they think you can afford to buy.
Buying a used car without getting ripped off may be more difficult.
This exchange is a good example of why this post needs clarification on types of knowledge that should be sought here. “how do you buy a used car” is not a simple procedural question that can have a clear answer in a web posting. It’s a VERY large set of options with pretty widely varying constraints and preferences. Not unrelatedly, it has a large number of people making a living in helping people do this.
[edit: I retract this, as I’ve just seen some useful advice on horribly complicated topics. Please ask (and answer!) whatever you think might help. ]
A subscription to Consumer Reports might be well worth your time- you can look up their yearly auto issue, which gives detailed ratings on cars (including information on what you can expect for used models of various years, and what would constitute a good deal on one of them).
After you’ve figured out what you’re looking for and how much you expect to pay, start looking at local dealerships (and look through your local newspaper’s auto classified section every day); test-drive different models that interest you; look at quite a few cars before making a final decision. (The salespeople will of course want you to think that there’s some sort of time pressure, but they’re usually wrong.) Then, as EY mentioned, take your car of choice to a mechanic for a check-up (tell the mechanic that you’re considering buying the car) before you sign.
It’s a fair bit of work, but having a good car for several thousand less is well worth it.
I don’t know much about buying from private individuals (on Craigslist, etc)- obviously there’s one fewer profit margin involved, so it’s probably better in terms of expected value if you’re willing to take the higher variance.
How do you buy a used car?
(UK Specific post, not a car person).
tl;dr Find one, optionally pay a company to check it isn’t stolen or legally written off, and has no outstanding finance. Agree an amount of money. Sign the vehicle ownership documents, trade those and the car for the money within any applicable laws governing trade in your area. If your car has the required tax and safety certificates, and you have the required license and insurance, drive away, otherwise sort those out next. Cross your fingers and hope it isn’t a lemon, but realise that if it is, it is a setback, not the end of the world.
end tl;dr
You decide what you are looking for and/or what you can afford, and search around for ones within your area or however far you are willing to travel. If you are searching yourself then you will look at vehicles on the street with “for sale” signs on them, in local newspapers and advertising boards, on local search sites, or national ones such as Craigslist, Ebay or Autotrader, or at dealers/garages or their websites.
If you are searching with a dealership, you can discuss you requirements with them and they can suggest available cars, possibly distant ones in other garages in their group which they can transport to you. Many official dealerships for car manufacturers run approved used car schemes where they take recent cars (typically 3 years old), service them and then offer better than normal guarantees / warranty extensions, for an extra cost.
When you find one you are interested in, make contact with the seller and arrange to look at the car before buying. It would help here if you know someone you can take along, not just for a second set of eyes looking at the car, but also for a defence against pushy sellers or a second set of eyes checking your behaviour isn’t too biased towards/against purchasing. Have a look around in advance in price guides and listings so you know expected prices for that make, model, specification and age. Find a checklist from somewhere online and look for things to check when inspecting a used car, to take with you. You primarily want to make sure it:
Is what you were expecting and will do what you want or need.
Has not been crashed seriously.
Has been basically looked after (serviced regularly).
Has not been rebranded as a higher model, had any low quality modifications such as nonstandard wheels or engine enhancements which might be dangerous, or indicate the owner drove it hard (and thus wore parts surprisingly heavily), or did crummy repair work which might not last.
Doesn’t surprise you—find out what works and what doesn’t.
I don’t think they are under any obligation to give you a test drive, and if you do want one you will need to have the usual driving license and insurance cover to do so. I don’t know what you are looking for on a test drive beyond a general “does anything feel, look, sound or act wrong or suspicious” and “is it ergonomically OK”.
Before buying, you ought to get a vehicle background check (at a cost) to confirm it isn’t stolen, written off, financed with money owing, etc., and you may want to pay a mechanic service to give it an inspection. In the UK, The AA can do both—other companies can too.
(Again UK specific) cars more than 3 years old need MOT certificates (meets basic safety requirements) annually, so make sure the car has one or will have by the time you get it. It will need a tax disc (again, annual) before you can drive it, so if it has one in-date that is good. During the trade you will need to complete a form on the vehicle papers which the seller signs to say they are no longer the owner, and you sign to say you are the new owner, and the seller needs to send it to the DVLA to officially make the car no longer their responsibility.
Optional extra: haggling. You may wish to for the sake of saving money, but you don’t have to (notice the societal disapproval of people who pay the asking price). Offer them less, or if buying from a dealer, convince them to give you more into the deal such as a tank of fuel, a free service, etc).
More specific advice: http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/buying-advice.html
Wow. That is a very thorough answer. Thanks!
Dealerships can be evil. They may try to get you to agree to pay X dollars/month for N months without telling you what the total actually is. Bring a calculator and for Merlin’s sake Read Before Signing Anything.
And remember that you can always just walk out of there and buy a car off craigslist. That’s what I ended up doing.
Craigslist has worked for me. Expect to spend some money on repairing the car. Taking it to a mechanic first seems like a big deal but you will need to take it there and you may as well take it there before buying it.
I suppose the short answer is to go to nearby car dealerships and interact with the salespeople—they may have some for sale and, if they do, can probably find one that they think you can afford to buy.
Buying a used car without getting ripped off may be more difficult.
This exchange is a good example of why this post needs clarification on types of knowledge that should be sought here. “how do you buy a used car” is not a simple procedural question that can have a clear answer in a web posting. It’s a VERY large set of options with pretty widely varying constraints and preferences. Not unrelatedly, it has a large number of people making a living in helping people do this.
[edit: I retract this, as I’ve just seen some useful advice on horribly complicated topics. Please ask (and answer!) whatever you think might help. ]
A subscription to Consumer Reports might be well worth your time- you can look up their yearly auto issue, which gives detailed ratings on cars (including information on what you can expect for used models of various years, and what would constitute a good deal on one of them).
After you’ve figured out what you’re looking for and how much you expect to pay, start looking at local dealerships (and look through your local newspaper’s auto classified section every day); test-drive different models that interest you; look at quite a few cars before making a final decision. (The salespeople will of course want you to think that there’s some sort of time pressure, but they’re usually wrong.) Then, as EY mentioned, take your car of choice to a mechanic for a check-up (tell the mechanic that you’re considering buying the car) before you sign.
It’s a fair bit of work, but having a good car for several thousand less is well worth it.
I don’t know much about buying from private individuals (on Craigslist, etc)- obviously there’s one fewer profit margin involved, so it’s probably better in terms of expected value if you’re willing to take the higher variance.