Hi Guys,
I am moving to GTA (Mississauga, ON) from California next week. I plan to stay in Canada for ~1 year and I am thinking of buying a used car. Are there any recommended websites for buying used cars?
In the USA, we have certified used car dealers like CarMax, Carvana, Shift and vroom. All of them have pretty good websites to browse their inventory.
Is there something similar in the Toronto area? Any other suggestions on this (dos and don’ts)?
We used Autotrader, Kijiji and FB marketplace during our car search. Our experience with personal sellers was not so good; ended up finding a used car dealer through Kijiji and bought our car there.
You need to get a safety certificate for the car you buy. We noticed that most dealers (not all) include this in the price of the vehicle whereas independent sellers usually ask for the buyer to pay for it. This was our personal experience.
Not everyone provides CarFax report. You can ask to see one before purchasing. If the seller doesn’t want to pay for it, you can ask for the VIN and get it yourself to know the history.
To get the car value estimate, you can use Canadian Black Book (CBB) which is similar to KBB.
It is also recommended to get the car checked by your mechanic or probably Canadian Tire before buying it so that you know that you are not getting into heavy expenses right after buying the vehicle.
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