5 Tips for Buying Toyota Used Cars in Beaverton

Buying a used car can be intimidating, especially if your automotive expertise only covers getting your regular oil change and the occasional tune-up. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be. At Beaverton Toyota, we want to make your purchasing experience as easy as shopping for your weekly groceries—maybe easier. Here are five tips for buying Toyota used cars. They are sure to make you feel confident in your choice.

1. Determine Your Budget

With any major purchase, it’s important to set a budget early on to be your guiding light through the process. Buying Toyota used cars is no exception to this, but with the wide variety of options on the market, you should have no trouble finding plenty of options within your budget.

Decide early on how much you’re willing to spend, giving yourself both an upper and lower price threshold so you have some wiggle room. When coming up with your initial budget, don’t forget to factor in any specifications or special features that are important for you to have in the car. Make, model, year, and even details like built-in GPS capability can all have an impact on the value of a car, so don’t forget to keep your wants aligned with your budget.

While it would be nice to drive something with all the bells and whistles, it may not always fit within your budgetary constraints. Think about how much all of your car wants are worth to you and be willing to let them go if they push you too far out of your comfort zone.

2. Do Your Research

Once you have an idea of the range of money you’re able to spend, you can start looking at the market around you. While you can always go down to a lot to look at Toyota pre-owned cars in person, many sellers list their inventory online now, giving you the convenience of browsing your options from the comfort of your own home.

With these online tools, you can quickly get an idea of what options are available in your area as well as how well they fit into your budget. This is also a great time to check the market value of particular models and years against a service like Kelley Blue Book, Autotrader, or Edmunds in order to get an idea of how fairly a particular vehicle is priced. If it well exceeds its statistical market value, it may be worth looking elsewhere to get more bang for your buck.

3. Get the History of the Car

Just because a car looks perfect at a glance doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to buy. Luckily, Toyota used cars have a reputation for being dependable and durable, often running like a dream for miles and miles. That being said, whenever you’re buying a used car, you need to be familiar with its history. Its performance and reliability are heavily impacted by how the previous owner, or owners, have treated it. So learning its past will give you valuable insight into its future.

Most reputable businesses will be able to provide you with a detailed vehicle history, but it’s easy enough for you to pay for your own should you need to. There’s little point in buying a car within your budget if you’ll just have to pour money into repairs—or even another used car—sooner rather than later, so get the history and save yourself the potential headache.

4. Look Into a Certified Used Toyota

If you’re in the market for a Toyota pre-owned vehicle, it may be wise for you to consider a vehicle that has gone through the Toyota Certified Used Vehicles program. The program exists to further Toyota’s commitment to quality and dependability, only giving their seal of approval to the used cars that meet their stringent standards.

In order to qualify for the program, the vehicle in question must be no older than six model years and have less than 85,000 miles on it. Once the car qualifies for the program it undergoes a rigorous 160-point Quality Assurance Inspection, scrutinizing everything from top to bottom to ensure its quality. Every used vehicle purchased at Beaverton Toyota receives a full CARFAX Vehicle History Report, giving you the full breakdown of its life up until the point you’re looking to buying it.

And if you’re concerned about the health of your car once you drive it off the lot, worry no longer. Any vehicle that makes it through the Toyota Certified Used Vehicles program also gets a 12-month/12,000-mile limited comprehensive warranty, a 7-year/100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty, and 7 years/100,000 miles of 24-hour roadside assistance. With that kind of assurance backing up Toyota used cars, you have nothing to worry about on the wide-open road.

5. Take It Out for a Test Drive

After doing all the research and checking market values, there’s only one thing left to do before you lock into a new-to-you car: drive it. It’s important to know it fits within your budget and has all the features you’re looking for, but until you sit behind the wheel and take it out for a spin, you just can’t be certain if it’s the car for you. See how it feels to drive, how comfortable you are navigating the roads in it, how it looks in person. The actual driving experience is impossible to communicate through online listings, so you can’t really know how well a vehicle meets your expectations until you’re right there in it.

If you’re looking for Toyota used cars in the Beaverton area, Beaverton Toyota is here to give you the best used car shopping experience possible. With our wide selection of vehicles, you’re sure to find something to suit your tastes. So when you’re ready, set up a time to come on down to the lot. We’ll be ready to help you get where you’re going.

Tags: Beaverton Oregon, Beaverton Used Car, Certified Used Toyotas, Used Car, Used Toyotas
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