Car buying guides
Complete, free guides to buying a used car, written by the people who inspect them for a living. No sign-up, no email capture, and no advice that only works if you hire us.
We spend our working days looking at cars other people are about to buy, which means we see the same avoidable mistakes over and over: a budget that stopped at the sticker price, a test drive around the block, money moved before anyone checked whose name was on the title.
These guides are the process we would want a friend to follow, written out in full. An independent inspection is one step inside it. The rest costs nothing but attention.
What to do before you buy a used car
Nine steps from setting a real budget to negotiating or walking away. Everything worth doing before you hand over money for a used car.
Read the guideGuide 02 · 9 stepsHow to buy a car from a private seller
Nine steps through a private-party purchase in Arizona: marketplaces, curbstoners, branded titles, the ownership check, safe payment, and the transfer at MVD.
Read the guideWhere an inspection fits
Every guide here reaches the same point: you have found a car that looks right, you have done what you can do yourself, and what is left is the part you cannot see from the driveway. That is what a pre-purchase inspection is for, and why it belongs after the filtering rather than instead of it.
We inspect cars across the Tucson metro. The Tucson page covers the neighborhoods and the desert-specific wear we look for, and the service area page lists every town we drive to.
Related pages
Done your homework?
Send us the listing. We'll inspect the car where it sits and tell you what we found, whether that makes the sale or ends it.