Dear Tom and Ray:

I have heard about a used-car buying service called AutoNation. It's supposed to be a place where you can buy a used car without haggling (kind of like the Saturn philosophy, I imagine). Is this all it's cracked up to be? Can I really get a good car there? Do they have inspection criteria that are above and beyond anyone else's? Thanks for the advice. -- Marde

Ray: There are actually two big players in this business, Marde. There's AutoNation, and CarMax. We've actually visited a CarMax store, although I understand that AutoNation works the same way.

Tom: And it IS a pretty good place to buy a used car. We're big proponents of late-model used cars. And both CarMax and AutoNation specialize in just those vehicles.

Ray: They tend to buy the cream of the used-car crop, buying cars that have just come off two-, three- and four- year leases. So you do get a huge selection of good-quality cars (at least at the CarMax we visited).

Tom: You also get a set, no-haggle price. Is it the very best price? Probably not. If you were really savvy (or carried a baseball bat), you might be able to haggle a better price from an individual or dealer. But that's a pain.

Ray: Plus, we didn't find CarMax's prices outrageously high. From what we saw, the prices were a little high, but pretty fair.

Tom: And they do check out every car before it's put on the lot. How good is that inspection? It's really hard to know. That's why we'd still recommend that you have a car inspected by your own mechanic prior to buying it, no matter who you buy it from, and no matter how many times it's been "pre-inspected."

Ray: But the CarMax/AutoNation screening process certainly does filter out the real losers. And unlike an individual seller, they're less likely to intentionally try to dump a lemon on you since they're trying to build a good reputation in the business.

Tom: So I'd say places like CarMax and AutoNation are excellent places to look for a used car. They offer no haggling, a huge selection of good-quality cars, and a distinct dearth of plaid pants, white belts and white shoes. But we'd still recommend that you do some independent research on prices (try www.cars.com or Kelly Blue Book) and check out any used car independently before plunking down your money.

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© 1998 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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