Helllllo ladies!!!!! Here are my quick and dirrrty notes on buying a used car in Ontario -- rarrr! Firstly, I hope that you're not prone to impulse buying. If so, well, I can't help you. No one can -- impulse buying is a rather risky affair. There's a lot of paperwork in purchasing a used vehicle, so do you really want to go through it THREE times if you happen to not like the car? Once for buying, once for selling when you decide you made a bad decision, and once again for buying a different one! Two excellent sources of free car reviews are Edmunds.com (edmunds.com) and Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com). Just remember that the numbers are in USD. Ok, so you have an idea of what you want, and you know your budget... where to start looking? Well, you could waste a lot of time picking up print versions of the AutoTrader or the Toronto Star. But this is the digital information age, so forget about scanning tediously through static listings. There are plenty of good on-line sites that will let you search for free -- usually only the seller pays for the ad, and they'll give all the contact info etc so it costs you nothing and is really quick. AutoTrader (by far the most voluminous) -- http://www.autotrader.ca/
Ontario used cars -- http://www.usedcarsontario.com/ One suggestion when looking for a used car (based on what I've read and have been told): Don't bother with ones that have been in an accident. Too expensive, too much trouble, unless you happen to have a lot of spare time, money and patience. My dad said one tell-tale sign of a rebuilt car is that the hood or trunk won't line up exactly with the body. If you can notice an uneven gap, the car's been in an accident. Once you've found a few cars you're interested in (and the prices seem right, you've driven it around a bit, AND you've had them checked out by a mechanic (you did have someone check it out, right??)), you'll also want to check out the history of the vehicle. Luckily, in Ontario this is simply done by purchasing a Used Vehicle Information Package (mto.gov.on.ca). You will need one if you do buy the vehicle anyway. It costs around $20, and they will print one out for you on the spot. Once you buy the car (pay for it and get the owner to sign the little card, stating that it's yours), you will now need the SSC (Safety Standards Certification, $35) and the DriveClean certificate ($65) before you can get a licence plate (mto.gov.on.ca) and legally drive it.. but you need to drive the car to have it checked out by a mechanic and get these certs! The way around this apparent catch-22 is to rent a temporary license (those yellow plates with black lettering). Note that you have only SIX days after the date of purchase to get one, so don't put it off too long. I guess that about covers it. Most of your time will be (and should be) spent on researching cars and looking through ads and checking them out. Some Links of interest Confessions of a Used-Car Salesman http://edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html -- interesting account of life on the other side of the deal
Repo-Depot http://www.repo-depo.com/ -- silent bidding on repossessed vehicles. Note that you cannot test drive the car (although you may start them up in their parking spot). Generally, the cars are in alright shape. However, don't think you're going to get a fantastic deal or anything -- the site is popular enough that the bidding prices are generally around the actual value of the car. Also, you have to do everything in person (no bidding online), so get ready to make a trip or several to the west end.
Car Talk cartalk.com -- humourous and highly informative site, with plenty of good stuff to flip through. The radioshow deals primarily with car maintenance, but can be educative for car-buying as well.
CarFax -- carfax.com Purchase car histories. There's been a fair bit of speculation on how accurate they are. It seems to me that there may be some holes in their database, but what they do find is true so knowing that it doesn't hurt to try them. In Ontario you have the UVIP, which pretty much covers it.
If, like me, you're interested in fuel economy (and being nice to the environment), you'll want to check out FuelEconomy.gov, which has exhaustive lists of mileages and ratings. You can also try checkin gwith the EPA (epa.gov).
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