Month: October 2023
I am sure you have heard of the website Craigslist by now. This guy named Craig started it as a way to share information with people in the San Francisco area. Long story short, 15 years later the site has established itself in about 700 cities in over 70 countries. It is one of the top 50 visited websites on the internet. It is a pretty good resource to find used equipment, baseball cards, real estate, you name it. One of the better resources is its cars+truck section and this is what we are going to focus on.
#1 Go to the Craigslist website
You will reach a pretty generic page with a list of 100’s of cities and states. If your closest metro area is listed, choose it. If not, pick your state and it will give you a list of areas to choose from.
#2 The ‘For Sale’ section
Under the ‘for sale’ section you will find a listing that says ‘cars+trucks’. This is where you can find almost an unlimited amount of listings. Some listings will be by private owners and some will be from the dealership. Either one is fine and can turn into a great deal for you.
#3 Bring someone with you when dealing with a private owner
When at all possible, have your mechanic friend go with you. Sometimes these guys can get a really good feel for what the car is worth just by starting, looking under the hood at the hoses and what not, and checking underneath for leaks. I can’t stress this enough. It would be worth setting up all your car appointments in one day, buy the mechanic lunch and check out the cars. Most people are honest, but just cover your bases.
#4 Dealer vs. By Owner
There are two people to buy from on this site: dealer or by owner. Buying from a dealership can be good because the dealership has a reputation and a standing in the community. They don’t want you to be unsatisfied, so hopefully they will represent the car in a true fashion. The price from the dealership may be a little bit higher though. The private owner on the other hand could be anything. They could be a con artist or a great person just trying to get a fair price for their car.
#5 Do your research
Pick the cars you are interested in and do some comparison online. It doesn’t take long to find out if what they are asking is too much too little, or just right.
Bottom line: a) go to the site; b) go to the car section; c) pick the cars you want to research; d) do some online research; and e) go check out the car with your mechanic if you can.
The research and the mechanic part are the most important. Try not to skip them.
Have you ever locked yourself outside your car? If yes then you can follow some of the simple home tips to unlock your vehicle if you ever happen to face such kind of situation in future.
Getting yourself locked outside the car is a very frustrating situation and finding the easy way out is the only way out. There are number of easy ways which can help you to unlock your car and some of them are as follows:
In case you are into such a situation dont panic purchase a tennis ball instead and create a hole on it. Once you are done with this place it at the outside door lock and by using your muscle power insert pressure from the other end. This will create a vacuum or air pressure which supposedly pop up the inside lock. Believe it or not this method really works and is also an economical way to unlock your car.
If you have a keyless door lock then you can also use your cell phone to unlock your car. In a situation where you have locked yourself out of the car remove your cell phone and call up your family member or friend who has a spare key of the car. Then hold your cell phone a distance away of one foot from the car door and ask the person with the spare key to press the unlock button on his/her cell. You may not believe this, but its really true and is very effective. Such method works with the help of a radio frequency system.
Besides this you can get a spare key made which will not cost you more than 10 to 15$. You can place the spare key on the magnetic holder which are easily available in the market and place it on the exteriors of your car. In such method you need to find such a place where others cannot find your key.
You can even call up a police and ask them to unlock your car. The policemen are equipped with such equipment which helps them to unlock the car easily. Such option is free of cost or may cost you very little.
Signing up to American Automobile Association can also be really very helpful as you may receive a roadside assistance which can unlock the car for you.
If you have no other option you can call up a locksmith as they can make the spare keys immediately for you.