A Guide To Your Next Used Cars Sale – Hobart, Indiana
Oct 6, 2022
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If it’s been weighing on your mind lately, it’s probably time that you investigate buying a used car. There are so many used car sales and dealerships in Hobart and the Chicago area, and even more cars available online. But when it comes down to it, it’s still a challenge to find a quality vehicle at a great price all while meeting your personal requirements.
Fortunately, Eagle Motorsport is here to educate you on how to find the best possible cars for your needs and price point. As used car dealers in Hobart for several years, we understand the types of concerns that car buyers have when they come to us. We put this article together to help educate you on the used car buying experience.
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Buying A Used Car Vs. Buying New Cars
If you’re thinking of buying a used car, you might have also considered buying a new one. That said, there are plenty of caveats that come with buying new cars. Without a doubt, new cars are far more expensive than used ones. The car depreciates the moment you drive it off the lot.
New cars are also at a disadvantage because they are not as proven as old ones. You can easily research the known issues of a 2017 Toyota Corolla, but finding those same issues for the 2022 model might be difficult. Therefore, buying a used car could also help you mitigate risk.
How To Search For Used Cars
Now, let’s consider how one might go about searching for a used car. It might seem overwhelming to browse various newspapers and car listings online. You should instead start by outlining what type of car would best suit your needs and go from there.
Finding Your Dream Car
First, think of all the things that you need from your next car. If you want to transport your kids to school and soccer practice, then you might need a spacious SUV or minivan. On the other hand, you might not need a particularly resilient car. Instead, you just need to commute to and from work. In that case, you could go for a mid-range sedan.
Whatever your requirements, you can build from there to develop a list of ideal cars. You might also have some dealbreakers, so you can factor those into your decision-making too. Then, you’ll be able to search for terms like “best 2019 sedans” and see which cars come up.
Do Your Due Diligence
With a list of cars in mind, you can start reading the specs and imagining what it would be like to drive the car yourself. Some websites will allow you to compare different vehicles to one another to help you get a sense of where their features stand.
Since buying a car is such a big decision, then it makes sense that you spend a lot of time on this phase. After a while, you can narrow your list of cars down to 2 or 3 which you can research in-depth.
Read Reviews
After looking at the specs of cars, you can start drilling down and reading reviews. You’ll be able to observe a few ongoing themes with each car. We recommend reading both customer reviews and professional reviews to gather as much information as possible. There are caveats to both, but they can be quite fruitful in the research process.
When you read customer reviews, there is quite a lot of low-effort content to sort through. The quickest way to filter for thoughtful reviews is to read those that range between 2 and 4 stars. That way, you eliminate all the extremists. The value of these reviews is that they will give you an honest account of what it’s like to drive the car on a daily basis. After all, they could have owned the car for years. This differs substantially from professional reviews.
Professional reviews are often lax because they don’t want to criticize a car model or company too harshly. That said, the professionalism makes these reviews a little more digestible than amateur ones. Plus, they will always focus on key topics like fuel consumption and handling so you can quickly get a sense of those key details.
After finishing these reviews, you will better understand what kind of problems people who drive this car face. As we mentioned earlier, some of these problems might be complete deal-breakers, while others could be tolerable for your particular needs. For instance, a shorter person might not care how tall a car’s roof is. Nothing is perfect, you’ll have to choose to make concessions wherever you see fit.
Research Car Dealers
Now that you’ve thought seriously about what types of cars you would consider buying, you can start looking at what car dealerships in your area have on offer. There are several approaches you can take to this. You might land on the website of a local car dealership, or you might spend hours browsing through the listings available on online marketplaces. Either way, you should find a car dealer that sells the cars you want, that’s a prerequisite.
At this stage, you’ll mainly evaluate car dealers based on their websites rather than anything else. One can detect their professionalism in the care and attention that they put into building a usable, interactive website that makes it easy for you to search their cars.
Of course, you can also peruse some buyer reviews for the dealership as well. The same rules apply as they do to car reviews, make sure to read the detailed ones to get an idea of what the buying experience will look like. Take every review with a grain of salt, but understand that it’s also the best insight you’re likely to get. Unless of course, you know someone who has bought from the dealership before. Then, you might ask them some questions to find out whether they were satisfied. Local forums could be a good source for this information too.
In the end, these reviews will help you build confidence in a dealership and encourage you to take a test drive. Or, you might instead decide that you don’t trust them enough to give them your business.
Evaluating cars from the dealership
Each dealership should have a section on its website that lists its inventory. You could filter through this page to find the types of cars that you want. Each car should hopefully have a photo associated with it along with a list of specs. One of the main attributes that you should pay attention to here is how much mileage the car has on it already. This is a significant determining factor behind your purchasing decision.
On average, people drive cars for around 12,000 miles per year. So if you see a four-year-old car that’s already logged 100,000 miles, then you know that the previous owner already got a lot of use out of it. Expect to pay less for cars with high mileage. And be cautious accepting discounts for them too. This isn’t the only trait you should consider, other aspects of the vehicle’s history matter. However, this is an easily quantifiable metric you can obtain just from looking at their website.
Places To Find Used Cars for Sale
There are many spots online where you can find used cars. Some of these are more reliable than others. Here, we’ll answer all your questions regarding car dealerships, online car marketplaces, and private sellers.
Car Dealerships
We already spent quite a bit of time talking about car dealerships. We just want to add that the easiest way to find a car you want at a dealership is to look at an online aggregator website like Autotrader which will then link you to their website.
Generally speaking, you should buy from a dealer that has had a good amount of experience with car sales in the past. After all, people wouldn’t keep giving them business if they didn’t appreciate their service. You should also consider what types of financing options they offer. Some will be very flexible and find you an affordable rate for your vehicle. Others might put up all sorts of roadblocks for things like proof of employment that end up shutting you out from buying the car you wanted.
AutoTrader
These days, it seems that online marketplaces like AutoTrader are the go-to for most car buyers. After all, the experience is quite seamless and it’s easy to find their pages on Google. All you need to do is enter a few search terms. That said, that car might not be available in your area, since AutoTrader aggregates car listings from all over the country. Not to mention, this website hosts a mix of dealerships and private sellers. So, you might not get the ideal car-buying experience here.
You can find quite a selection of cars on this website. To help you hone in on the right one, you would do well to use its car comparison tool. That way, you can see how two cars you’re interested in stack up when it comes to traits like mileage and price.
CarGurus
Just like AutoTrader, CarGurus is an online car marketplace that helps you filter to find your ideal car. However, it differs from AutoTrader in that it provides detailed car reviews. These reviews are quite convenient since you can easily navigate to them through their site.
Instant Analysis is another one of CarGurus’s helpful features for buyers. It allows you to set a budget and look at whether you’re getting good value out of the cars that you’re analyzing. They can do this because they have acquired plenty of data on past car sales, so you can rely on the insights they offer here.
Private Sellers
Private sellers are a bit of a challenge to deal with. It’s hard to know whether they’re trustworthy or not. The internet is rife with misleading or outright false car advertisements. Of course, the average private seller has good intentions. But it’s still a challenge to navigate buying scenarios here that would be easier at a dealership.
The main advantage to private sellers is that they could sell to you at a lower price. After all, no salesperson needs to take their commission. That said, it’s not uncommon for you to meet delusional sellers who think that their car is worth much more than it is.
The disadvantages to working with private sellers are numerous. Aside from those we’ve mentioned already, you can also expect to have trouble getting a test drive at a time you can both agree on. You will likely need to pay for your own Carfax background check on the car. And forget about getting financing or trading in your old car.
Aside from the traditional classified ad, there are a few marketplaces where private sellers list their cars. On sites like AutoTrader, car sellers must pay for their listing, so the stakes are higher for them.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook is one of the best platforms for buying and selling regular household items. However, we’re not entirely sure that this fact holds true for cars. Facebook gets the communication part right, which is unsurprising. However, the rest of the buying process is a bit sketchy. For instance, the site is rife with scams. You can expect to see plenty of listings where some cousin hasn’t been in town for a while and stopped using the vehicle being sold. This allows them to command a higher price for a vehicle that had its mileage artificially lowered. This is what makes getting a Carfax report so important.
Ebay motors
Ebay Motors is another typical buy-and-sell platform. Just as it is on the rest of eBay, you can bid on cars here using their renowned bidding functionality, which is unique compared to the typical car-buying experience. You need to give eBay props for trying to help minimize buyer risk with seller ratings, but it’s still not a perfect solution.
One further inconvenience: you can only make payments on this platform via Paypal. Not everyone finds it easy to move large sums of money in and out of Paypal, so you might encounter issues.
Craigslist
Finally, Craigslist has a combination of both car dealers and private sellers that use their platform. As always, buyers on this platform must be wary of scams; only meet buyers in broad daylight. Plus, the platform isn’t nearly as easy to use as the others that we mentioned. All the haggling is pretty much up to you instead of being formalized. What little you might save here is negated by all the extra work you need to put in to get the purchase completed.
What To Expect From A Professional Car Dealer
If you’re going to pick a car dealer, we can give you loads of tips on which dealer to select. You don’t want to waste your time working with a dealer that doesn’t respect your time or listen to your concerns.
When you contact the dealer, you can expect a certain standard of professionalism. You’ll be able to get a feel for the buying experience from the reviews you might have read. However, you won’t truly know until you reach out to them. You can start by inquiring about a particular car. Then, you can evaluate them based on the quality and promptness of their responses.
Financing Options
One of the critical factors for many used car buyers when choosing a car dealership is trying to find financing. You can often consult with a dealership ahead of time to ensure that they have financial terms that are affordable for you. Some will let you fill out a credit application that will get you pre-approved for a car loan before you go into the dealership.
Trade-Ins
In case the dealership can’t provide the type of terms that you want, you can always ask for a trade-in. Many car dealerships have financial departments that handle the valuation of the car, which can then be applied as a discount to your next purchase.
3 Things To Consider Before Taking A Test Drive
Once you get to the dealership, there are a few things you must do in advance to prepare yourself. Be aware that if you intend on purchasing a car, it will take around 2 hours or more for you to get in and out of the dealership. That time includes a test drive, plus any negotiation or paperwork.
Before taking your test drive, you’ll need to do a bit of planning. Make sure that you bring a partner along with you. The first step to the test drive is to check the electronics; switch things like brake lights, turn signals, and air conditioning on and off.
The Value Of A Partner
Your partner is your backup and second conscience the entire time you’re at the dealership. They’ll be the one to hover behind the car and confirm that the brake lights work OK. They’ll also keep an eye peeled for any issues while you’re on the test drive. You’ll be focused on the road, so it’s easy to miss some subtle noises or other problems. This experience might also help your partner understand what it’s like to drive this car if they wish to do so too.
Once the test drive is over, you can confer with your partner on whether to buy the car. If you’re overly excited, they might help calm you down. They can also ensure that you stick to your budget during negotiation.
Plan Your Route
You don’t want to spend your whole drive just driving on smooth highways. You want to select a route ahead of time that reflects your typical day as a driver while still incorporating a few challenges. Therefore, you need to take a look at a map and plan your route carefully so that you get a variety of surfaces to drive on. If you live far away from the dealership, you might benefit from scouting the area in your own car ahead of time so that you know the best places to go for a test drive.
A great way to test the car is to drive on the highway on-ramp. You can use it to see how fast your car accelerates and how it handles at high speeds. Make sure to enter highway traffic during the test drive.
Visit Us At Eagle Motorsport
After years of experience buying and selling used cars, we’ve made a name for ourselves in the Hobart area as a reliable car dealership that provides a one-of-a-kind experience for all our buyers. Here are some of the reasons why over 30,000 clients have chosen us.
Great Customer Service
It doesn’t matter how much money you earn and what kind of car you’re aiming to buy. We treat each of our buyers with dignity and respect. We know exactly what kind of service our buyers like.
When you meet our staff, you’ll also be impressed by their knowledge of the cars on our lot. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want, they’re well-educated and take the time to inform themselves about the cars we list for sale.
Diverse Financing Options
No matter what your credit history is, we’re confident that we can find the right financing options for you. All you need is proof of income to get some kind of loan. Unlike some dealers with overly stringent requirements, we accept proof of income from a variety of sources, including Uber and Lyft.
A Myriad Of Quality Cars
Every time we bring a car onto our lot, our service department inspects it to ensure that it is of a suitable quality to sell to our customers. Each car comes with a Carfax and Autocheck report. Rest assured that we are transparent when it comes to providing vehicle history. We don’t want any mysteries lurking beneath the surface.
Not to mention, our inventory is quite diverse. We offer cars with premium wheels, brake assist, rear-wheel drive, adaptive cruise control, and much more. And whether you’re looking for a sedan or an SUV, we probably have a recent model that caters to your needs.
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Come In For A Test Drive
You can kick off your used car search by browsing our inventory online. Contact us if you have any questions or doubts and then come out and take a test drive to find out if your car is a good fit. There’s sure to be a friendly team member waiting to show you around our lot!
