Used car buying

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Jeef

NO MA'AM
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Basically I have been looking for a wj Grand Cherokee 99-04 as a third vehicle. I want the high output 4.7l with a leather interior.

I have been looking at craigslist and finding that sellers are royal pitas. Today I drove 45 min to see one that looked good in pictures but had a few dents that didn't show and a knocking engine that hardly turned over. Seller claimed to run mint but had a few hacked items on it. Another seller was pushy when I looked at the Jeep, started yelling at me for wasting his time when I said give me a few minutes I want to talk to my wife about it. Said F you then hightailed it out of there.

What are some other sources than craigslist for finding vehicles, and how do you weed out shitty cars/sellers?
 
lol the hustle of buying and selling used cars via private party can be a whopppping pain on both sides, generally speaking to weed out the shit if im buying a car I go directly to their house and or location very close to their house after getting detailed information and pictures of the car if not in the ad, request any proof of maintenance or vehicle history they can come up with and very clear with asking about any issues the vehicle has, seller will be like runs/drives great for 200k miles and say needs nothing but when reality its got tons of leaking seals, is due for all fluid exchanges, due for timing service etc lol if cannot prove any maintenance history or proof of work done that cant be visually seen I always assume its not been done, believe it or not ive actually had better luck buying and selling cars off facebook the last few years over craigslist , on the selling side to avoid bullshit I take tonsss of sale pictures, provide a long detailed report on the car , and I will not do or accept any sort of haggling on price unless in person, person buying the car comes to me im not meeting or driving anywhere for you to buy it , if you come to me and inspect the car and want to talk me down with cash in hand in person that is perfectly fine, I also completely avoid non local vehicles, ive owned 67 cars now and literally only went out of state for 1 and that was literally 20 mins into the next state over and was picking up a car with a friend at the same place from other personal friends we have both known, it sucks playing the waiting game for a good one to pop up but it will... man I didnt mean to rant that long
 
You can generally weed out asstards with a simple phone call.
people who LOVE their cars will tell you everything about it and want to talk about it.

people with junk are like, yeah, it's good, come with cash and drive it
 
Yeah you can usually tell how much someone cares about the car just by talking to them about it. Maintenence records are a bonus, although if you're like me and DIY everything you don't have receipts to prove work done.
 
The simple answer is to just call them. If someone won't talk on the phone and only wants to text, they're likely an asshat millennial.

I just flew with my best friend down to Sacramento to for him to buy an Audi wagon and we could drive it back. We made an 800 mile trip and knew what we were getting into because he talked to the guy probably 10 times over the phone.

But then again, it depends what you are buying. If i'm driving 20 miles to buy a $1,500 civic, I know the best/worst case scenarios. If I'm spending some money, I'm not going there without being 90% likely that I'm going to buy it.
 
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Basically I have been looking for a wj Grand Cherokee 99-04 as a third vehicle. I want the high output 4.7l with a leather interior.

I have been looking at craigslist and finding that sellers are royal pitas. Today I drove 45 min to see one that looked good in pictures but had a few dents that didn't show and a knocking engine that hardly turned over. Seller claimed to run mint but had a few hacked items on it. Another seller was pushy when I looked at the Jeep, started yelling at me for wasting his time when I said give me a few minutes I want to talk to my wife about it. Said F you then hightailed it out of there.

What are some other sources than craigslist for finding vehicles, and how do you weed out shitty cars/sellers?
Do you want to buy my mom's? Her's has the v8, she just bought a 2016 grand cherokee to replace it.

To be honest those WJ's are massive piles of shit. Always had issues (father in law and step brother also owned these, also piles of shit), still has some electrical issues and sensors that need to be replaced. I could probably get a good deal for you! :p

The only good thing about these are the solid front axle.
 
If it wasnt on the other side of the country I may be interested. I still see a bunch of them on the road, hopefully it won't be a pos. My search originally started off for an XJ but a WJ will suit me better.
 
WJ Jeeps are massive massive piles of shit ESP V8 models, wouldnt touch that with my enemys dick, 4.0L is ok but chassis has tons of issues
 
If it wasnt on the other side of the country I may be interested. I still see a bunch of them on the road, hopefully it won't be a pos. My search originally started off for an XJ but a WJ will suit me better.
XJ is a much better vehicle, I've owned one and my mom also had one before her WJ (she loves her jeeps). Find an XJ with the 4.0L inline 6, those things run forever.

WJ Jeeps are massive massive piles of shit ESP V8 models, wouldnt touch that with my enemys dick, 4.0L is ok but chassis has tons of issues
Exactly.
 
A few people I know have had the 4.0 not even make 200k, but I know a lot keeping going strong past that.

An XJ would be nice but they getting rare here. The ones I see pop up are either over priced of rotted.
 
A few people I know have had the 4.0 not even make 200k, but I know a lot keeping going strong past that.

An XJ would be nice but they getting rare here. The ones I see pop up are either over priced of rotted.
My mom's 4.0L made it to about 450k before she sold it. Was still running strong. :)
 
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