Craigslist is a great resource when you're searching for a deal on a vehicle, but it can also be time consuming. This Craigslist-centric Firefox extension displays consumer reviews, pricing info, and similar vehicles to make searching as painless as possible.
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We've purchased vehicles from Craigslist several times in the past, and there's always a certain amount of extra internet searching that goes on. When you find what seems like a deal, you're sure to look up Blue Book pricing, consumer reviews, and check up on safety information. The new 'Craigslist Car Buy Research Firefox Extension' (longest name ever) is a simple install that provides all of that available information at the top of each page so you can quickly determine whether sifting through the posted ad is worth your time.
We road tested it on several different ads in our area and it did its duty when it came to notifying us of cars that had been in accidents before we got our hopes up on finding a real deal; it also alerted us to pricing that was likely too good to be true, suggesting inquiries to make about its condition. In all, the extension aims to round up the following information on each car classified:
- Gives estimated price from multiple sources. Also provides links for further research.
- Factory car recalls for the car model.
- Consumer reviews, this is the real gem.
- Car reliability information. It shows the msn autos page focused at reliability section. This shows what kinda engine problems occur in that particular car. Other info is also there but reliability info is most useful on that page. Takes like 2 sec to get idea of how reliable that car model is.
- Scans the posting and shows a highlighted message on top informing about:- accident car, rebuilt car, moving sale, one owner, suggests buyer to ask if the car was involved in an accident.
- Lists similar (year/make/model) ads from craigslist on top. This gives the idea of going price and the supply/demand.
- If there is a phone number in the post then it makes it easy to do a search of the phone number on Craigslist to find out if the ad poster has posted any other ads. This sometimes help in determining if its moving sale or [an] ad by a reseller etc.
Give it a go to see how else this add-on can make your Craigslist searching a little easier. Craigslist Car Buy Research is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.
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