Dealerships for Used cars

[payitoff]

For SoCal Mustachians:

Where's a good dealership that has reliable used cars? we're looking to spend $5000 max. I prefer to go to a small dealership (independent) rather than the big ones, they still price used cars quite high there.

[Thegoblinchief]

Just a note - put SoCal in the title.

[Beckyemerson]

In my experience it is much safer to buy a used car private party rather than a dealership. Yes from a dealership you know that a mechanic has looked it over and tuned it up. But if you buy private party you meet the owner and you get a feel for the way they take care of their stuff. Oh and the price is lower.

[socaso]

I used to sell ads to independent used car dealers and although it is not quite the squinty-eyed plaid sportcoat nightmare from the movies from what I observed they did not do that much to fix up the cars prior to the sale. I think CarMax probably does more in the way of inspections. You'd be better off taking a private party car to your own trusted mechanic. And do a LOT of research before you start looking. Narrow your field down to a few cars you are interested in. A couple of years ago we bought a used first generation Prius and it broke down within a month. When we took it to the mechanic we found that all the issues we were encountering were well know problems in that particular car and we suddenly realized why we had gotten such a good deal on it.