Best Online Classifieds For Buying or Selling a Used Car - Pros and Cons

If you're in the market for a good, used vehicle, then you basically have two options:

1. Visit local used car dealers in your area.
2. Find private owners whose vehicles are for sale.

If you're interested in buying from a dealer, they're not hard to find -- either online or in your local community. You can find them in the phone book. You probably pass by many of them when you're going about your daily business. And, most have their own websites listing their current inventory.

Private sellers, on the other hand, are harder to find. Other than coincidentally passing by someone's property and noticing a "For Sale" sign placed in the window of their vehicle, or tediously scouring through the local classifieds in the newspaper (which are not organized in any meaningful way), vehicles that are for-sale-by-owner are much harder to come by.

Which is why doing your research online can be quite helpful when you're in the market for a used vehicle. The Internet has enabled us to fine-tune our search criteria in order to view only the EXACT results we're interested in.

Review of Popular Online Classifieds

This article contains the results of a thorough review of six (6) popular online classifieds websites. Each of these sites provides services for both selling AND buying vehicles, but this review focuses specifically on the pros and cons of each individual site as viewed by a potential BUYER interested in purchasing a good, used vehicle. While each of these sites yielded better than average results, the "best" ones appear near the top of the list.

_{("Vehicles Found" indicates the number of vehicles for sale that each site found, as a result of my search for a Ford Explorer within 50 miles of a given zip code.)}

autotrader.com
Pros:

• Ability to search for "certified pre-owned" vehicles, increasing buyer confidence
• Also have auction-style sales, allowing you to place incremental bids on a vehicle
• Ability to sort results by various categories
• Can compare used vehicles side by side
• Vehicle reviews and other resources available at the site
• Most comprehensive list of search fields to fine-tune the search process
• Most vehicles found

Cons:

• Fair number of dealerships represented, but many private sellers as well
• Must do a separate click to see the photo for a vehicle

Advanced Search Fields:

• type of vehicle (truck, SUV, minivan, etc.)
• make
• model
• price range
• distance from your home
• range of years
• color
• mileage
• doors
• engine (cylinders)
• fuel type
• drive type (2wd/awd/4wd)
• transmission (auto vs manual)

Vehicles Found: 274

Cars.com
Pros:

• Ability to quickly find classics (1982 or earlier)
• Ability to compare vehicles located in your search - side by side
• Other helpful resources on the same page: auto reviews, prices and research stats, buying guide
• Ability to sort results by various categories
• Lots of private sellers
• Ability to email dealerships directly to haggle on price

Cons:

• Have to do a separate click to see the photo for a vehicle

Advanced Search Fields:

• type of vehicle (truck, SUV, minivan, etc)
• make
• model
• year
• mileage range
• price range
• distance from your home OR any given market area
• date posted
• keywords

Vehicles Found: 102

yahoo.com
Pros:

• Lots of helpful resources on the same page: Kelly Blue Book pricing, auto reviews, vehicle history reports, consumer reports' buying advice
• Photos appear next to each vehicle in your search results; no additional clicks necessary
• They'll e-mail you when another vehicle has been listed that meets your search criteria
• Ability to view results in a photo gallery format vs list of vehicle characteristics

Cons:

• Mostly (but not all) dealerships

Advanced Search Fields:

• make
• model
• range of years
• mileage
• price range
• distance from your home
• photos
• for sale by owner vs dealer
• date posted
• keywords

Vehicles Found: 25

carbuyer.com
Pros:

• They'll e-mail you when another vehicle of your specific make/model is added
• Equal number of private sellers vs dealerships
• Ability to sort results by various categories

Cons:

• Can't search by make AND model simultaneously (2-step process to search for make, then sort the list by model)
• Only searches by state, rather than distance from a zip code

Advanced Search Fields:

• type of vehicle (truck, SUV, minivan, etc.)
• make
• state

Vehicles Found: 13

ebaymotors.com
Pros:

• Large number of private sellers
• Ability to place incremental bids toward the purchase of a vehicle
• Ability to view results in photo gallery view

Cons:

• Can be a time-consuming process to win the bid for the vehicle you're interested in

Advanced Search Fields:

• make
• model
• keyword
• price range
• market area/state
• mileage

Vehicles Found: 1

Autobytel.com
Pros:

• They'll e-mail you when another vehicle of your specific make/model is added
• There are some related resources to assist you in your search for a vehicle
• Ability to sort results by various categories

Cons:

• Mostly dealerships
• Have to do a separate click to see the photo for a vehicle

Advanced Search Fields:

• make
• model
• price range
• distance from zip code

Vehicles Found: 3