Archive for the ‘used cars’ tag
Top Vehicle Searches on iSeeCars in Q1 2009
Here are the top vehicle searches by iSeeCars.com users for the first quarter (January to March) of 2009. iSeeCars.com currently enables users to search over 2.5 million cars for sale across more than 10,000 different car classifieds websites.
The top 10 most searched used cars by make on iSeeCars.com were:
The most searched for used car by manufacturer was Honda. Toyota and Honda kept the same top 2 spots as 2008. Chevrolet was the most searched for American car manufacturer. In 2008, Ford took the top American spot but came in 9th most searched vehicle in the first quarter of 2009, dropping a whopping 6 places. In the luxury car segment, BMW had the most searches. BMW searches increased 3 spots from 6th last year.
The top 10 most searched for used cars for sale by make and model were:
- Honda Civic
- Honda Accord
- Toyota Camry
- Toyota Corolla
- Ford Mustang
- Honda Civic CRX
- Ford F-150
- Jeep Wrangler
- Chevrolet Impala
- Chevrolet Tahoe
The most searched for used car was Honda Civic. Honda and Toyota cars retained the top 3 spots from last year. Appearing in the top 10 this year but not last year were 2 fuel-efficient vehicles, mainly Honda Civic CRX and Chevrolet Impala. The truck with the most user searches was Ford F-150 compared to Toyota Tacoma last year.
The top 5 most searched cities for cars for sale were:
The most frequently search filter used was “moving sale” where users were looking for good deals on used cars for sale by owners who are moving and need to sell their cars.
The user searches and activities on iSeeCars.com continue to grow significantly on a daily basis. The amount of time a user spends per visit increased to almost 10 minutes. We look forward to growing the engagement level by introducing new features to make the site even more helpful to our users in searching for a car and finding a great deal.
More People Are Turning to Used Cars
It’s no longer a status factor to have newer and shinier, but to make do with what one has. Parts and service departments across the country are reporting good numbers as people chose to fix their current vehicles rather than trade out and into something new.
Taking this into consideration, there’s no better time to buy a new vehicle. February 2009 had the lowest prices and highest incentives in years. Both Chrysler and Hyundai offered the highest incentive levels ever, and the incentives offered were the highest in February ever for Ford, GM, Toyota and Honda.
Historically, it may be one of the best times to buy new, but more and more people are turning to used cars. In fact, according to a recent study by Edmunds.com showed that over half a million used cars sold in the past three months would have been new vehicle sales if the public wasn’t so worried about the economy..
Several factors are motivating this change, but the biggest one is the recession. Just a year or so ago, not only was everyone ‘keeping up with the Joneses’, they were trying to outdo their neighbors. A new car is a certain sign of success, and to many buyers it meant nothing to lose 25% or more depreciation in the first twelve months, as long as there was a new car in the driveway and it had all the latest technology. With the poor economy, buyers are now finding it more practical to let someone else pay the depreciation, and pre-owned vehicles are becoming a hot topic.
Another factor motivating the trend is the reliability of used cars. With the technology used on today’s cars, a used car buyer is no longer throwing money at an unknown. If the vehicle has enjoyed good care, and continues to be tended to, there’s no reason that any Honda or Toyota (or many American-made models, for that matter) cannot last well past the 200,000 mile mark. Certified pre-owned cars make it a safer bet to buy used, but many dealerships are seeing a request for used vehicles under $10,000.
What does this trend mean for the consumer? A person buying a used car may pay a little more for it now than he would have a year ago, but then again, trade-in prices on relatively late-model vehicles may increase as well, as the supply and demand of used cars continues to waver. It also means fantastic bargains for someone looking to buy new. Go ahead and trade in that used sedan and get a little more than normally offered, and buy a new vehicle with better incentives and lower process than ever before.
If you have a question you’d like our experts and community to answer, please ask your question at http://forum.iseecars.com. To start your car search, visit http://www.iSeeCars.com to find over 2 million cars for sale across more than 11,000 websites.
Buying a Used Car from New Car Dealer Vs Used Car Dealer
By Ali Koomen, who spent over a dozen years in the car dealership busines, provides her expert insights
Where do resale lots obtain inventory?
Both the corner used car lot guy and the big resale lot attached to a new car dealership get vehicles via trade-ins, fleet/lease returns, auto auctions and individual sales.
The trades that are taken in by a new car dealership tend to be nicer, late model vehicles. Those that are not in good shape are wholesaled out, and those cars often end up at auction, where the corner lot guys may buy the vehicles. The used car lots take in older units on trade, and many are not suitable for resale.
The big dealer has more capital available than the corner guy, and better connections. When a fleet turn-in comes available, the big guy can say, “Sure, I’ll take all ten of those Malibus.” Meanwhile, the little guy has to be content with buying a few cars at a time, and doesn’t get the financial breaks the bigger dealer would.
The small lots are often approached by individual sellers, and some small lots obtain some of their inventory by chasing the classified ads, whereas the large dealer simply does not have the time to obtain inventory piecemeal.
Is there a better deal to be had at a small lot or a big one?
While the big guy probably paid less for the same vehicle, the asking price is generally higher than the little lot. Of course, when the deal is negotiated, that will help make it appear as if the buyer got a smoking deal.
The resale lots at large dealerships run by the same credo as the new lot does. Hammer the sale, don’t let the buyer get away, push, push, push. That’s not to say that the salesmen at the little lots aren’t going to be pushy, but most of them tend to have a little more ‘good ole boy’ personality than the slick larger lots do. At the large lot, you’re dealing with a salesman, who reports to a manager, who reports to a GM, who reports to an owner/corporation board. On a small lot, the guy that is selling you the car could very well be the owner of the place.
What about finance?
The big dealers have a lot more lending sources at their disposal, but the small lots often specialize in secondary financing (for those with bad credit). However, beware those lots that advertise “buy here, pay here”. That does not mean the friendly owner is financing the purchase out of his back pocket. What it does mean is that the lot is contracted to use a particular secondary lender, one whose interest rates are ridiculous. Often, the BHPH lots require a payment to be made every other week, which means in a twelve-month period the buyer will be making two more payments than he would have with conventional financing. When a car is financed with a BHPH lot, the buyer is on a very short leash, and woe betide one who misses a payment. The BHPH lenders tend to do repossessions a lot quicker than some of the larger banks and lenders.
What about service/warranty work?
The large dealer has the advantage here. Most corner lots don’t have a service department, or if it does, only limited work can be done there. The large lots have comprehensive service areas available, making it easy to have warranty work done by certified mechanics.
If you have a question you’d like our experts and community to answer, please ask your question at http://forum.iseecars.com. To start your car search, visit http://www.iSeeCars.com to find over 2 million cars for sale across more than 11,000 websites.
iSeeCars.com’s Top Used Car Searches for 2008
iSeeCars.com, the leading Web 2.0 car search engine providing the best unbiased experience for consumers to search pre-owned cars for sale quickly, easily and smartly, reports the top used car searches for 2008. iSeeCars.com currently enables users to search over 2 million cars for sale across more than 10,000 different
car websites.
The top 10 searched used cars by make on iSeeCars.com for 2008 were:
1. Honda
2. Toyota
3. Ford
4. Chevrolet
5. Nissan
6. BMW
7. Volkswagan
8. Lexus
9. Mercedes
10. Dodge
The most searched for pre-owned car by manufacturer was Honda; Ford was the most searched for American car manufacturer. In the luxury car segment, BMW had the most searches.
The top 10 searched used vehicles by make and model for 2008 were:
1. Honda Civic
2. Honda Accord
3. Toyota Camry
4. Toyota Tacoma
5. Toyota Corolla
6. Ford Mustang
7. Ford F-150
8. Nissan Altima
9. Jeep Wrangler
10. Chevrolet Tahoe
The most searched for pre-owned auto was Honda Civic. Japanese cars from Honda and Toyota occupied all top 5 car searches. The truck with the greatest number of user searches was Toyota Tacoma followed by
Ford F-150.
Consumers on iSeeCars.com also took advantage of other unique features on the website to more easily find quality used cars at great deals. Car buyers searched cars for sale by owner 6 times more than they did
those for sale by dealer. There was also a high frequency of searches by users for “moving sale” listings to find bargains — with the idea that cars for sale by private sellers who are moving could potentially
be had for lower prices since the sellers are under a time constraint.
The variety and the amount of search activities performed by users on iSeeCars.com in 2008 definitively shows that iSeeCars.com is addressing a huge need for consumers for an unbiased integrated search
experience focused on helping the car buyers. Evidence that iSeeCars.com is providing a key service for car buyers is the vast number of positive feedback sent in by users about the usefulness and ease of use of the website.
In 2009, we look forward to improving iSeeCars.com and providing additional features to make the website an even better experience for car consumers. Visit iSeeCars.com to search for a car.
Inside the Used Car Business: How and Where Do the Dealerships make their Money?
By: Sarah E. Sanuth, an insider in the automotive industry with many years of experience in the car dealership and repair business
Used car dealerships are very different than many of your new car dealerships; therefore they make most of their money a different way. They seek their inventory from very different avenues.
Your traditional new car dealership will obtain their inventory from a manufacturer, such as General Motors or Ford, on a line of credit. When a used car dealer purchases inventory, they pay cash or finance through something called a “Floor Plan.”
A “Floor Plan” is where a lender gives the dealer a line of credit that can only be used at the auto auction and has a high interest rate and very strict terms. They have to sell their inventory fast in order to make profit or they risk losing the vehicles to repossession, along with many other items the dealership owns. More fortunate dealers have the ability to obtain a normal line of credit from a regular bank. These lines are mostly unrestrictive.
When a new car dealer obtains trades in the process of a sale, they sometimes try to sell the vehicle on their lot, but when they can’t or don’t want to, they bring the car to a dealer-only auto auction. Financial institutions also bring their repossessions to these auctions.
From there, used car dealers bid on these vehicles and the highest bidder wins.
During the month of November 2008, a 2006 Chevrolet Malibu LT with 59,000 miles sold for $6,500 at one of these auctions. According to KBB.com, the value of this vehicle and what you would expect to pay for it at a used car dealership is $10,300. The dealer might have to put a small amount of repairs into the vehicle totaling about $500, which still leaves the potential for up to $3,300 profit on this one vehicle.
Used car dealers are not under any franchise agreement, therefore they can use whatever brand parts they want to repair these vehicles, saving them a vast amount in the repair department.
Now let’s say you’re purchasing this vehicle and have a trade-in. Dealers however, do not give you full boat on that trade-in. Your trade-in is a 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier LS with 100,000 miles and a book value of $1,775 trade-in and $4,680 retail. Again the dealer will not give you $1,775, but rather something closer to $1,000.
This decreases the price of the new vehicle to $9,300, making the profit for the new car $2,300 and you just gave them another $4,680. Now they might not sell the vehicle for $4,680 but rather $3,500-$4,000 just to move it, making the total profit on the sale about $5,800 minus any repairs that may need to be done to the trade-in. If they don’t sell the trade-in on their lot and rather bring it to the auction, which also in the month of November 2008, a 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier with about 100,000 miles sold for $2,100, making the profit now a total of $4,400. If they bring the vehicle to the auction, they don’t need to make any repairs. But if they do, they will see a bigger return on their money.
The older the vehicle is the smaller the profit margin. This is because older vehicles need more to repair them in order to make them salable.
Now if you are financing the vehicle, the dealership might have a relationship with the financial institution where the dealer receives a “kickback.” This is where each month, quarter or year, the dealer receives a small percentage of the interest that you have paid to the bank for bringing the bank business. This is an incentive and essentially profit for the dealer for not doing anything. If you get the financing through the dealership, it is more likely that they will receive a “kick-back.”
Used car dealers also obtain the inventory from two other sources, impact auctions and the public. An impact auction is almost the same as a regular dealer-only auction, except these vehicles have been in major accidents. Most of the components of these vehicles still work; they just have major body damage. The used car dealer will buy the parts at a huge discount and repair it themselves and sell it for full retail. There is a lot more labor that goes into it this way, but the initial cost of the vehicles is much less than the traditional auction.
Many people have vehicles that they don’t want to repair, such as a perfectly good vehicle that has a major issue, like a blown transmission or motor. They will then replace the motor or transmission and sell it for retail. Again, this is more labor than cost.
With these two means, they will spend about $2,000 on the vehicle, $2,000 in repairs (if they own the repair facility as well) and in the end have an $8,000-$10,000 vehicle. However, not all used car dealers go this route. Larger used car dealerships will just use the traditional auto auction.
Some used car dealers also make money in another way that is unique to the used car industry. Very few used car dealerships go this route, because time and headache involved in the process. This is called “Buy Here Pay Here.” This is when a dealer will finance the consumer himself, usually someone who has bad credit who couldn’t get a loan elsewhere. These vehicles are usually a little older, but still have plenty of life left in them. A dealer will purchase a car, such as the Chevrolet Cavalier mentioned above, for $1,000 and with some minor repairs, sell it for retail with interest, or above retail with no interest. The consumer makes a deposit of $1,000 and makes payments until it is paid off. However, if the vehicle is not paid off, then it will be repossessed and sold again to another “Buy Here Pay Here” customer, for what is owed with the addition of storage, repair and repossession fees.
Used car dealers make their money very differently, but there is also a higher risk involved than new car dealers. All investment is out of pocket. But keep in mind when you decide to negotiate with a used car dealer that they also have bills to pay such as rent or mortgage, electricity, heat and salaries. These costs come out of the profit margin.
If you have a question you’d like our experts and community to answer, please ask your question at http://forum.iseecars.com. To start your car search, visit http://www.iSeeCars.com to find over 2 million cars for sale across more than 11,000 websites.
Avoiding Buying a Flood-Damaged Car
In the aftermath of a series of hurricanes, the Better Business Bureau in Texas (in their Press Release yesterday) provides the following tips to avoid buying a flood-damaged car.
In the wake of a major disaster in your area, the Better Business Bureau urges new and used car buyers to be cautious of unscrupulous businesses and individuals who may try to sell flood-damaged cars without revealing the vehicles’ history.
The BBB recommends the following tips to help consumers determine if a car is flood-damaged:
Ask to see the title of a used car. Check the date and place of transfer to see if the car came from a flood-damaged state and if the title is stamped “salvage.”
Check all gauges on the dashboard to make sure they are accurate, and to look for signs of water.
Test the lights, windshield wipers, turn signals, cigarette lighter, radio, heater and air conditioner several times to make sure they work. Also, flex some wires under the dash to see if they bend or crack, since wet wires become brittle upon drying and can crack or fail at any time.
Check the trunk, glove compartment, and beneath the seats and dash for signs of mud, rust or water damage.
Look for discolored, faded or stained upholstery and carpeting. Carpeting that has been replaced may fit too loosely or may not match the interior color.
Check for a well-defined line, or watermark, and for musty odors resulting from mildew.
Check out the reliability of the dealer by contacting the Better Business Bureau where the company is located.
If the car’s history seems suspicious, ask the dealer or individual directly if the car has been damaged by flood water.
Before buying any used car, always get a pre-purchase inspection by a trusted mechanic. The extra cost may save you money in the long run.
Step-By-Step Guide to Buying a Used Car
Used cars can save you thousands of dollars on cars just as spectacular as new cars and with relatively low mileage. Used cars can be some of the most fuel efficient vehicles as well. But used cars can also be complete junk and cost you more than a pretty penny.
How do you avoid regretting your used car purchase? How do you remain in control of the steering wheel—and not get taken along for a ride? How do you find the best deal and get a quality car that will best serve your individual needs?
Here are the eight steps that should guide your search for a used car:
Determine your budget. One of the reasons you’re looking to buy a used car is because money definitely is an object. Go over your monthly expenditures and income and determine the maximum amount of money you could spend on a car. If you think you’ll have to take out a loan or use a charge card, make sure you can afford the monthly payments and that the interest rate isn’t too high. If you have the money saved up already, your buying options will be broader since you can pay cash, which is typically preferred when you buy used cars for sale by owner.
Determine your vehicle needs. Why are you buying a car? What are you going to be using the car for? Is low mileage and high fuel efficiency important to you? What kind of features are you looking for? (Automatic transmission, navigation system, air conditioning, power windows, etc.) Do you prefer buying cars from used car dealerships, which can often include warranties? Do you want a used car with a relatively clean vehicle history? (One owner, no accidents, few repairs, etc.)
Go “window” shopping. Go online, get a Kelley Blue Book, or test drive cars at dealerships to research different models, makes, and years of cars to find the vehicle type you might be looking for. Once you know which used car you’d prefer, like a used Honda Civic, a used Honda Accord, a used BMW, or a used sedan…
Search through used car listings online. Used car search engines like iSeeCars.com make searching through used car listings on Craigslist, eBay, car classifieds, and on local used car dealership lots a breeze. Compare prices and features like warranties, vehicle histories, condition, and mileage easily.
Contact the sellers of several vehicles that pique your interest. Don’t pick just one yet. You may get excited about a car, but you could find problems with the car once you see it firsthand. Ask the private seller or the used car dealer to tell you more about the car and schedule an appointment to examine and test drive the car. For some tips on the questions to ask the seller when you contact them, see http://blog.iseecars.com/2008/07/28/top-10-questions-to-ask-a-used-car-seller-before-you-buy/
Also, there’s a difference in price and peace of mind depending on whether you purchase a car from a new car dealer, a used car dealer or a private party. Read the pros and cons at http://blog.iseecars.com/2008/08/28/pros-and-cons-of-buying-a-used-car-from-a-dealership-vs-private-party/
Get the vehicle’s VIN number and/or vehicle history report. The seller of the vehicle should be able to provide you with the vehicle’s VIN number from the car title, the owner’s insurance, or from under the windshield. Request an official vehicle history report online. If you’re buying from a used car dealership, you may be able to request this report from the used car dealer. But you should still pull the report from a site like CarFax.com to verify the history. Learn about any accidents or major repairs and factor these into your purchasing decision.
Conduct a thorough examination of the vehicle. Do minor maintenance checks of the vehicle yourself the first time you see it; you should be able to catch any glaring problems, like rust, mismatched paint, and cracked or leaking parts under the hood. If the vehicle passes your first examination, take it for a test drive and bring it to a mechanic whom you trust for a more thorough examination. For tips on the inspections you could do yourself, see the used car inspection checklist at http://blog.iseecars.com/2008/08/15/used-car-inspection-checklist-make-sure-you-bring-this-along/
Negotiate—and don’t let your emotion show. Just like with new cars, the sticker price is the asking price. The seller is likely willing to part with the car for less, but be sure to tread a fine line. If you think the price is fair, start with a bid of $500-1000 less than the asking price. Don’t let the seller know you’re really excited about the car and be sure to let him or her know that you’re still strongly considering other vehicles. The seller may take your price—or at least counter-offer a lower price than the asking price—because he or she’s anxious to get the car sold! For tips on negotiating with a dealer or a private party, see http://blog.iseecars.com/2008/08/21/negotiating-tips-for-buying-a-used-car/
If you have any questions, ask the iSeeCars.com community at http://forum.iseecars.com
For more information on used cars, visit blog.iseecars.com which provides tips, advice, and commentary on searching and buying used cars. The blog is written by the team at iSeeCars.com, a search engine for used cars for sale, created by people who think buying used cars are better than buying new and who are passionate about building better tools and providing helpful insights and information for users to more easily and smartly search for and buy used cars.
Used Cars Sold by Owners Who are Moving Point to Potential Deals
From personal experience, I was able to get a great deal on a car because the seller needed to move out of the state, relocating for work from Boston, Massachusetts to New York, New York and needed to do so quickly. At the time, I founded the car listing by accident and was not deliberately looking for sellers who were moving. But as we were building out iSeeCars.com, helping consumers to find “moving sale” car listings was a feature we thought would be useful to incorporate.
As you can see from the screenshot below, you can click on the “moving sale” checkbox (which is circled in red in the picture) to search for car listings whose owners may be moving out of state or country or relocating. Behind the scenes, what we do is to analyze the description of each listing and semantically pick out the keywords that best describe whether the seller is moving. When I last checked, you can find more than 1,000 “moving sale” car listings across all the locations we currently cover.
Let us know what you think of the feature. Enjoy and Happy 4th of July.
Small Used Cars Increasing in Price
With gas prices at $4/gallon, compact, more fuel efficient used cars are going up in price due to higher demand by car buyers while trucks and SUV’s are sitting on the lot, according to an article in the Courier Journal. “The average used Civic, for example, rose in value 2.7 percent from April 1 through May 11, according to data J.D. Power collects from new car dealers that also sell used cars. The price of used Ford Focuses rose 1.3 percent during the same time, from $9,838 to $9,963.”
The New York Times today reported that the trend is being seen in new cars as well. “…four fuel-efficient cars made by the Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda became the industry’s top sellers last month, according to figures released Tuesday. Toyota said it sold 104,117 of its Corolla compact car and Camry midsize sedan, while Honda reported 97,027 sales of its Civic compact and Accord midsize, along with record-high vehicle sales over all…The Civic and Corolla ranked first and second, respectively, taking positions that for decades have usually gone to the Ford F-series and Chevrolet Silverado pickups.”
Buying a Used Car Better than Buying a New Hybrid
A recent Wired blog “Go Green — Buy a Used Car. It’s Better Than a Hybrid” pointed out something interesting — that buying a fuel efficient used car reduces the carbon footprint more so than buying a new hybrid. The article indicates that making a new Toyota Prius takes an amount of energy that is equivalent to 1000 gallons of gasoline — which means the Toyota Prius has to be driven 46,000 miles to make up for the energy used in producing it. Some of the fuel efficient used cars the blog mentions worth a look include:
1998 Toyota Tercel gets about 27 mpg city / 35 mpg highway miles
1994 Geo Metro XFi, matches the Prius’ 46 mpg
Ford Festiva can deliver 33 mpg
Ford Aspire can get about 33 mpg
Mid-’90s Mazda Proteges about 30 mpg
Honda CRX HF models can get in the range of 39 to 45 mpg
Toyota Echo - 30 mpg or better
Consumer Reports Best and Worst Used Cars
Consumer Reports just came out with its list of best and worst used cars selected from the past 10 model years from 1998-2007, based on data from Consumer Reports’ 2007 Annual Car Reliability Survey.
Examples of the best used cars include: Toyota Prius, Acura Integra, Infiniti G35, Nissan Altima, Subaru Impreza, Lexus LS, Toyota Highlander, Lexus IS, Toyota RAV4, Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Honda Pilot, Toyota Corolla, Mazda Miata and Honda CR-V
Examples of the worst used cars include: Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay, Land Rover Discovery, Volkswagen Touareg, Pontiac Aztek, Nissan Armada (four-wheel drive), GMC S-15 (four-wheel drive), Chevrolet Blazer, Volkswagen Cabrio and Buick Rendezvous (all-wheel drive)
Here’s an excerpt of the article and link to the list on Consumer Reports website:
Reliable models to look for–and troublesome ones to avoid
“Is it time to replace your car? Owners of 27 percent of the vehicles in our latest Annual Car Reliability Survey acquired them used last year, and they’re definitely on to something. Data from our exclusive survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, show that hundreds of used-car models provide good reliability. And they can be safe, fuel efficient, and affordable….Used vehicles are often some of the best values you’ll find because you sidestep the biggest expense associated with buying a new car: depreciation. For example, a seven-year-old Lexus RX SUV, a safe and reliable vehicle that typically costs $40,000 when new, can be found for $12,000 to $14,000…”
Why is iSeeCars Different?
In the first blog post, we described that iSeeCars is a search engine for cars for sale or used car classified listings and talked a little bit about why it offers a unique value proposition. In this post, we’d like to elaborate upon some of the unique differentiation.
- iSeeCars searches thousands of car websites across the Internet all at once so you don’t have to (and we’re continually crawling new ones)
- The car listings results are automatically sorted by “deal potential” according to the extent a certain car might be a potential deal based on a variety of factors such as market price comparison and what we can gather from the listing description regarding things like whether it has a warranty, # of owners the car has had, is it a non-smoker’s car, car history, and other factors (While being able to search and see a lot of listings is great, sometimes too many search results may be overwhelming so we thought it would also be helpful to rank the search results similar to the idea of Google ranking)
- Users can get a quick snapshot summary of a car listing using “Listing Insight” which summarizes in a structured format the key information found in the listing description such as warranty, car history, ownership, etc (the idea was save users time by not having to drill down into the listing description for every listing)
- Users can compare the car listings and sort/filter by key features like moving sale, etc (going under the assumption users like to shop for deals, we created a special filter to look for car listings where sellers are moving)
- Users can also compare prices across similar cars for each listing so you can see if there is a better deal (so if you’re looking at a 2006 Honda Accord EX listing with 20K miles and asking price of $18K, you probably would also be curious to know if there are other cars with same make, model, year and similar mileage and how much they’re going for so you can see if there’s a better deal from another seller)
- As you can see, iSeeCars does a lot of the work for you so you don’t have to. what’s even better is that it’s free to use.
These are some of the examples. We have other ideas that we look to implement to help users even more in their search for a car.
Give iSeeCars a try next time you’re searching for a car
A Smarter Car Search Engine
When searching for a pre-owned or used car for sale on the Web:
- ever find yourself spending a lot of time going from website to website such as Craigslist, Cars.com, or dealership sites in search of the perfect car for a reasonable price?
- ever find yourself feeling a bit overwhelmed with the flood of car listings?
- ever find yourself wondering what exactly to look for in a car listing and spending too much time reading each classified that catches your eye?
Well, we had been through all that before, multiple times (we don’t like buying new cars because of the depreciating factor). We thought wouldn’t it be great if there were a Google for cars for sale that lets you search for all used cars across the Web, across all websites containing car listings like local newspaper, dealership, auction, and classified websites. If we were feeling the pain, we thought perhaps a good percentage of the 40+ million car buyers a year was as well.
So, being the PhD’s and programmers that we were, we decided to build a smarter search engine for used cars — a website that focuses first and foremost on making the search process easier and quicker for the car buyer. The “smarter” part reflects one of our goals to help users get smarter about the search by providing relevant analysis, information, and guidance. iSeeCars.com is in its first version; it only covers the Boston and New York areas at this point but we will be launching in other cities and regions soon.
This revolutionary new way to search for a used car online was conceived and developed by experienced PhD’s, coders and former entrepreneurs hailing from such renowned universities as Harvard, IIT, Peking University (the top university in China), and Princeton.
We continually make improvements and changes to the site to make it better for users. So, if you have any suggestions or thoughts, we would love to hear from you. We strive to make iSeeCars the best search engine for you, the car buyers.