Los Angeles: the city of glamor, sun, and cars, lots and lots of cars. Getting around on foot is not really a viable option in a city as sprawled out as Los Angeles, and the result is the massive amount of vehicles lined up on the highways. Eventually the time will come when you are in need of a used car, and you are faced with two alternatives: You can fight through L.A. traffic to visit all the dealerships around town and then bounce between Santa Monica, downtown, and San Fernando to find all the individual sellers, or else you can simply log onto the Craigslist Los Angeles cars section and do the exact same thing from the comfort of your chair.
Assuming you don’t feel like sitting in your car in the heat all day, the first thing you will notice when you get on to the Craigslist cars board are the many warnings about frauds and scams. This might make you shy away from making a purchase, but the warnings are there for two reasons. The first, is of course to ensure that you, the consumer, are safe and can shop for a car with confidence, but also to scare away potential scammers. Much like the neighborhood watch signs posted in the suburbs, those with ill intentions will be hesitant to post on a site that is constantly on the lookout for frauds.
Once you have read and are familiar with all the scam and fraud warnings (Take the time to do so; it could save you thousands of dollars), the next thing you’ll notice is a date, and a lengthy list of cars. Each day hundreds of people post their vehicles for sale on the board, so take note of when the ad was posted in case you wish to view it again later. Directly next to the description of the advertisement will be the asking price. This can often times be haggled to a lower amount; think of it as a starting point, with the price only shrinking from there. Beside the price you will likely see the phrase “img” indicating that the ad has photos of the vehicle available. Last, will be a link indicating whether the seller is an individual (“owner”) or a major car dealership, like Jim Falk Lexus (“dealer”). Clicking these will organize all of the ads by a given seller into one location for easy viewing.
Choosing one of the blue advertisement links will take you to the ad proper, where you can see vital information about the car including mileage, features, price, etc., complete with photographs. If the car is Carfax certified you can see how many owners the car has had, or whether or not it has ever been in an accident. Of course, contact information for the seller will be available, and if the car suits your fancy, you can arrange to meet and test drive it. From there, buying the car works just like any other business transaction. It is as simple as that!
