The Unofficial Craigslist Cars Blog

Craigslist.com is a free online advertising service that can get you to the specific town in the state you would like to purchase an item, whether it is furniture, appliances, clothing, or cars.

There are a lot of new and used car dealerships in the Tucson, Arizona area with a major block of auto dealerships on the northwest side of town by Tucson Mall, called Auto Mall. Every car manufacture available has a dealership there. There are several others around town, but if looking for one-stop shopping, that would be the area to go. If looking for a brand new car, probably the best place to go would be a car dealership, but if wanting a used car there are many more options. The car dealerships are a good starting point; they keep the best-used cars coming into their dealership and sell the others to auctions or the smaller used car dealers. The car dealerships will do general maintenance work on the vehicle, clean it up, and sometimes even have a short warranty on the vehicle. The smaller used car dealers generally do nothing to spiff up the vehicle, they sell it as is and give no warranties. Generally, unless you are on a very tight budget or are very handy in the car maintenance field, it would be recommended to stay away from these dealers.

When looking for cars on Craigslist you can often find fantastic deals, nearly new, and more inexpensive vehicles than car dealerships. By putting a vehicle on Craigslist, the seller will usually receive more for their vehicle than he or she will by trading it in to a dealership and then the purchaser will in turn be able to get a better deal. Do not be afraid to offer a lower price to the seller, usually they have allowed a little wiggle room into the price they are asking. Be aware when buying cars this way that there will be no warranty so definitely try to take it to a mechanic for a quick check-up before purchase to avoid ending up with a vehicle with major unforeseen problems.

Take note that Craigslist has received some bad press lately for scams. Most people selling on Craigslist understandably require cash for their items up for sale. There have been instances where the seller insists the potential buyer bring cash with them, then the buyer is held up and their cash is stolen. To avoid this possibility from occurring especially on larger ticket items, insist that the seller meet you in a public place, do not go alone, and since you will have to go to a bank for the title transfer, usually a check is acceptable. If using a check, unfortunately sometimes there will be a waiting period for the check to clear and that may not be acceptable to the seller so cash could be brought along, but do not have it on your person when meeting with the seller, leave it locked in the vehicle you come in instead.

Also, note that several used car dealers advertise on Craigslist. If you want the best deal, avoid those and go directly to the individual owners ads. Do research on the vehicle you will be looking at prior to going to see it and know ahead of time the Blue Book value. Avoid the ads for vehicles that are from out of town, stating the car will be shipped to you. These are most often scams. On the most part, purchasing Craigslist Tucson cars is a fantastic and less expensive way to acquire a good used car and the majority of sellers are very honest and safe.

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