It is always a hard decision to make when you are purchasing a used car. There are many things that you need to lookout for, the worst thing that can happen to you is buying a new car and having to take it to the shop the next day.

The first thing is price you want to make sure you do your own appraisal go to and appraise the car yourself. That way you can negotiate the price, since usually the markup is about $4,000.

Try to avoid non-franchised dealers: Non-franchised dealers are dealerships that are not part of a name brand dealership. For example if you go to a Ford store and they have used cars that is a franchised dealer, if you see a used car lot on the side of a busy road such as Joe’s Motors, then Joe’s Motors is not a franchised dealer. Non-franchised dealerships obtain their inventory from larger Dealership auctions. There are some good cars that you can buy at auctions, like government auctions. The auctions these small time dealers are buying are basically bottom of the barrow autos, for good auction resources see the bottom of this page.

What is wrong with buying a car from a non-franchise dealer who purchased a car at an auction?

Buying a car from a certified Government auction is OK, but buying junk cars near me from these small dealers could cost you big money in repairs.

A common tactic that wholesalers use is buying cars from insurance company auctions, the cars that were totaled and have been issued salvage titles. They often have body shops where they fix-up the car just enough to make it look desirable to a potential customer. These cars often have bent frames, airbags do not work, bad suspension, etc. Do they tell their customers the history of the car? Of course, not they tell their customers the car had been sitting in some garage, or that it was a one-owner car.