Buying
Choosing the car, reading the seller, and knowing what you're looking at.
A first car for a teenager
Small, cheap, slow, exciting, newest possible, in their name. Six good instincts, and the case against each one.
A week on a small lot
Monday to Sunday on a six-car lot, including the parts nobody puts in a brochure.
Buying a car in winter
What the cold exposes on a used car, what it conceals, and how to buy around both.
Buying a vehicle for work
The things buyers discover in month three, arranged by when they tend to show up.
Buying for a growing family
A worksheet for the parking lot. Bring a tape measure, your own seat, and the stroller.
Buying for a long commute
Ten criteria, ranked by how much each one matters once you are driving 25,000 miles a year.
Color, options, and what holds value
Three questions, run over nine options and colors. A framework, deliberately without invented resale figures.
Dealer-speak, decoded
Twenty-two words you will hear in a car deal, defined plainly - and what each one actually does to the number you pay.
Does one-owner actually matter?
Four things people assume one-owner means, each rated on how much the fact really supports it.
Field notes from the lot
Twenty-two numbered observations from six cars and a front row. No connecting argument.
Getting your own mechanic to look at it
The procedure, in order, plus the exact request sheet to hand the shop.
How dealer auctions actually work
Ninety seconds in the lane, a colored light, a spoken announcement, and a window to complain that closes fast.
How to read a used car listing
One specimen listing, fourteen numbered callouts, and the question each phrase deserves.
New vs used, three years in
Thirty-six months of cash, side by side, with every assumption stated and one number left blank on purpose.
Questions for a private seller
Twelve questions, the exact words to say, and the answer that should end the conversation.
Replacing a car after a total loss
Two clocks run at once. One belongs to the claim and one belongs to a decision you'll live with for years.
Shopping by price, not payment
Two buyers, one car. The payment path and the price path, followed side by side to their different endings.
The first phone call
A specimen call about a used car, transcribed, with margin notes on what every line is doing.
What we get wrong
Six real failures, what they cost the person on the other side, and the two we still haven't fixed.
When high mileage is fine
Five mileage bands, and the one thing that governs whether the number matters inside each one.
Where you buy changes what you pay
Franchise, independent, private party, online. The same car, four different deals - compared row by row.
Why small lots still exist
What scale genuinely does better, and the five things it structurally can't.