Where would you all suggest I look for the best deal on a used truck? Dealerships, Carmax, private sellers? Any suggestions welcome!

Dealerships can be a good place and will offer some good deals to move a product. Also, they tend to get them cheaper on the trade-ins, so they have a little room to work. I have only dealt with Carmax twice, and have not been impressed at all. Private sellers would be the best option IMO, but you might have to wait for the right deal to come along. My

I usually take my time looking for just the right deal to stumble across. Bought my wife's Z71 Tahoe from an individual. My current pickup I found at a VERY small mom and pop dealer in Oklahoma. They had a total of 5 vehicles on the lot. It was a good enough deal I flew to Oklahoma and drove the pickup home. Take your time, but be ready to buy when you come across a good deal.

I have to disagree on CarMax, we bought a Buick Enclave CXL there last month for my wife. We had every intention of buying a minivan, but when they offered us 4 grand more for our Explorer (Blue Book was 7k they gave us 11k) than we were expecting we splurged a little. Total time spent from test drive to drive off, a little more than an hour. No haggling, no long wait on finance arrangement, Look at the car, drive it, estimated trade in, 20 minutes of paper work, done.

I didn't want to stop there and look as we drove by it, but my wife saw a van she wanted to check out so we did. It was so painless I will keep them on my short places to look in the future, although their truck inventory is low. This was CarMax in Plano BTW.

I bought a great truck off of ebay. Matter of fact, I have bought 2 good trucks off of ebay.

Think a lot of it depends on how used your looking. Relatively new and Id shop dealers. Older and I would shop individuals.

Gotten some offers from CarMax to buy my used vehicles and they have always been the best offer, up to $4000 better than others but never purchased anything from them.

Autotrader and Craigslist are pretty good, if you can get past the dealer mass-advertising and the folks that still want KBB excellent pricing for 300k mile trucks or salvage title vehicles. Ebay can be good, but it seems like they've started down the road of classified ads that are a waste of time. Get to know a couple good used salesmen (oxymoron, I know) at higher volume dealers to let you know if something comes in on trade. A lot of trucks, especially high demand ones, are sold before they hit the used lot; I bought mine before they had a chance to detail it and put it in inventory.

Thanks everyone - these are useful tips. I had heard carmax would lowball me so I didn't plan to get an estimate from them. I guess I'll have to check them out.

How much do you want to spend and do you want it strictly for hunting/beating or also a daily?

I will never waste my time with carmax again. Last time I was there they were wanting new prices on a used camero that had been in an accident than I got the salesman down to on a new one. They also low balled us majorly on a trade in. They will not lower their price at all and are way too high for used cars that I saw in plano.

Walter

Used trucks scare me, I have seen what people do with odo rollbacks and some of the stuff that people put them through. I bought used trucks for many years and had pretty good luck but now only buy new for my DD's and only from individuals that have records etc on used trucks.

My vehicles are some of the most meticulously maintain you will probably find for a used vehicle. Im over the top on oil trans dif fluid changes air filters etc. don't abuse them etc. but in the hundreds of thousands of miles ive loged in my vehicles I don't have a single service record.

But when I sold my used pickup with 265k miles on it it cranked right up didn't studder didn't smoke idled smooth as glass and the oil trans fluid and coolant were full and clean like always.

Get to know some salesman I bought my truck the same day it was traded in everything I was looking for and the price was below kbb if I jumped on it before it hit the lot couldn't get any better than that!

Hogreaper that sounds like a good idea right there. Jordan I'd be looking for a daily driver + hunting truck and I'd like to keep it below $24K, though won't be in the market officially until the end of the year I think.

I have been helping my younger brother look for a truck for the past month. Prices are high on used trucks. be patient, youll find a deal eventually.

I have a good running '99 GMC 1500 that I would sell. Good shape.