Shopping for a Used Car

[pogoowner]

So I'm looking for a used car. And not anything nice, either. My price range isn't going to extend much beyond $2000. Besides sites like Autotrader, does anyone have any advice on searching for one? Also, what sorts of things should I be looking for? Any possible red flags or good signs that I should recognize? I've never purchased my own car before, so I'm open to any and all pieces of advice.

Also, I realize there are other more appropriate sites for these kinds of questions, but I figured I'd start here where I'm already registered. Feel free to recommend other sites as well. Thanks, guys.

[El Barto]

Autotrader isn't bad.  Most of what you'll see on Craigslist are scams.  EBay tends to be mainly dealers, so not too many good deals there,  but occasionally civvies will put their cars up. 

If you know what you're looking for, you can often find good deals on forums related to that kind of car.  As a BMW guy,  I peruse bimmerforums.com all the time looking for my next car. 

Dunno if you're in a time crunch or not, but the best move is to do a bunch of research to figure out what you want, and then take as long as you need to find the right deal. 

[lordxizor]

If you have a relationship with a mechanic, it would be a decent idea to bring any car you're looking at in to get it checked out. With that low of a budget there's really not much you can do besides going to a private seller or a crappy used car place.

carsoup.com is decent as well, but is mostly dealers.

[EPICVIEW]

buy the lowest mileage Japanese car you can get, like a camry or sentra, that are mass produced and a dealer is looking to sell at any fair offer. 
I would never buy a car without driving it and inspeacting myself or with friend who is a mechanic, you may save on the front end of the deal, but may lose if its been abused.

all the best to you and good luck..take your time and make sure you buy a solid one

[Fuzzboy]

Try a Reliant Robin

[theliloutkast]

My friend recently bought a used car that wasn't that bad for about $2000, and he did the whole buy here pay here thing and it seems to be working out for him. They financed it very well, with very little interest, and the car passed the state inspection on the first try (which is very rigorous). My suggestion from car shopping with him for two months would be to be picky, don't get suckered in to anything, fight for the price you want, shop around and always look for a better deal, and if you absolutely nothing about cars (which he didn't) bring someone with you who knows a lot about cars (like myself). This is all very common sense stuff, but you would be surprised how often people get suckered in to buying absolutely horrible cars.

[carl320]

I don't know if you're in the midwest, but there's a free weekly magazine called Auto & RV (www.autorv.com).  They always have a bunch of cars, both dealers and private sellers.  If you're not in the midwest, then there might be something similar in your region.