How to avoid being scammed when buying a vehicle from a private seller.

The internet is rife with horror stories of people misrepresenting themselves while selling a vehicle, and scamming shoppers with schemes that seem legitimate, but end up with them losing hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. How do you protect yourself from people who would abuse an honest car shopper?

Are all used vehicles of the same year, make, and model the same?

Say you're searching on a site like Autotrader or KBB's Classifieds, and you see two used vehicles that seem identical, but are drastically different in price. What's the cause for this? Why do vehicles of the same year, make, and model, have such a range of values?

Where do our used vehicles come from?

Hi there! Rob here,

I'm going to tell on myself a little bit. Before I began working at Daniell Motors, I thought that used vehicles on car lots were all trade-ins. Which, if you think about it for more than ten seconds, doesn't make too much sense--especially in relation to an independent used dealer. So, just where do used vehicles come from?

What to bring with you when buying a used vehicle.

If you spend much time around an owner of a quality used vehicle, they will likely share the many benefits of buying used versus new, such as the lower buying price, great values on extended warranties, and the joys of interacting with dealers like us! Whether you're planning to buy your first used vehicle, or your fifth, here are some things to make sure to bring with you.

Should I trade in my vehicle or sell it myself?

Breck often tells customers that it would be better for them, financially, to sell their vehicle privately than to trade it on a new vehicle. But how is that distinction made? Breck says it's fairly simple.

Been A While Since You Shopped For A Car? Be Prepared For "Sticker Shock"

How long has it been since you shopped for a car? A year? Two years? Ten? If it's been very long at all, you may be surprised when you see prices on currently available used vehicles.

We've seen steady, sizable increases in the prices paid for vehicles in the auction lanes for the last several years. This has led to a relative increase in our asking prices for the same styles of vehicles, which has led to some "sticker shock" in a lot of shoppers.

The Windows XP End of Support Date and Daniell Motors

Microsoft is ending support of Windows XP on April 8th, and Daniell Motors is not unaffected. The machine our Internet Manager uses to get our used vehicles online is a six-year-old HP Pavilion and could still have a year or two of good service--if it weren't for needing a new operating system. We've tossed around the options of whether to simply upgrade this machine, or replace it with a brand new one.Very quickly, some things we considered:

To upgrade, we would need to buy a copy of Windows 7, a new hard drive (the average life of a drive is about 5 years, give or take), and we decided that it was time to upgrade from Office 2003, so we would also need to buy a copy of Office 2013. This was the cheaper option.

To replace the machine, Windows 7 is included, and there would be no worry about the physical components. We would still need to buy Office 2013, though. This option is about twice as expensive.

The deciding factor was the fact that while it's not common for non-moving components in a computer to go bad, everything wears out eventually. Being six years old, the current machine could keep trucking for another six--or go down in a cloud of smoke tomorrow. We've opted for the security of brand new components and the manufacturer warranty.

We've also decided not to go all the way to Windows 8, for both ease of use and standardization within the office. This position is fast-paced, often performing clerical duties alongside posting vehicles, and we need to be able to do it quickly. We don't believe there's anything wrong with Windows 8, we just feel that the familiarity of Windows 7 will help our Internet Manager do their job faster and easier.

One of the small headaches we can foresee is having to reinstall and set up all of the software on the new machine. That would have been the case with either path, though, so we'll just tough it out. Hopefully anything unexpected we encounter will be an even easier fix.

Which path would you have taken? Upgrade or replace? Or did we miss an option? Let us know in the comments!

For more information on the Daniell Motors family, and to find your own vehicle, visit DaniellMotors.com.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? We'd love to hear them. Tell us what's on your mind in the comments!