If you don't want to spend too much money on a new car and prefer to go in for a second hand model in good shape, Craigslist is surely the place you should be looking first. Craigslist has an entire database full of ads put up by individuals who want to sell their cars and also ads by dealers who make a living out of selling used cars.

If you want to buy a car from Craigslist there are two things you can do. Either you could do a page by page ad by ad search for the model you want to buy under the For Sale section of Craigslist, or you can post an ad for what you want in the Wanted section. When it comes to used cars, again you have two options - you can either buy it directly from the owner, which in some cases is a good option because they sell cheap or you can buy it from a dealer. Buying from a dealer could be more expensive because dealers re-paint cars and mend he engines and have to raise the price to include their costs and their profit margins.

If you want to find a car quickly and don't have the time to run a page by page search of the hundreds of car listing on the site you can either post an ad in the wanted section or even better get a search tool. Both these methods are better because when you post in the wanted section, people will come to you instead of you going to them. Searching with a tool is also helpful because you can look through as many cities as you like and pin point ads that match your search without going through the useless bulk.