i always had good experiences with import cars with reliability and good gas mileage. u know FORD stands for right? Found On Road Dead! LOL
I resent that remark! My Mustang was Found On Road Dead only once, after the motor blew at 306,817 miles and 24 yrs of faithful service!
The last 4 used cars I've bought at new car dealers and have not had a single problem with them, except things covered by the 3/36 B2B warranty. I got pretty good deals on all of them, and bought them from all different dealers as far away as Conroe, Corsicana, and Fort Worth. The deals were well worth the drives.
Have you decided on what kind of car you want? I've always made that decision and then looked on Cars.com or autotrader.com for dealers selling the vehicles I wanted, and then called, emailed and finally went to test drive them. And getting pre-approved at a credit union is the best way to finance a used car. The dealer will generally make a good percentage of profit from the loan, so at least you have a base line interest rate for them to beat with their financing.
And you ONLY pay 6.25% sales tax on a vehicle no matter where you buy it. The city does not charge sales tax on vehicle sales, but I'm sure that the taxes Diesel is referring to is the taxes the dealer pays on their business, so they can in turn sell for less. Also make sure you get the sales tax included on your insurance payout. On a $5000 payout, that is an additional $312 you should get due to the accident to make you whole. No sense paying out of your pocket for sales tax since you are being forced to buy a new car.
And Carfax is not a sure thing. It really just eliminates potential bad cars. There is so much damage that is not reported to Carfax, it is best to have a trusted mechanic or friend to do a thorough inspection once you've pretty much made up your mind on a particular car. I've always done my own inspections for body damage and such, since 3 of the 4 were still under the full new car warranty and were covered for that. Plus many new cars have a 5 yr/100K mile powertrain warranty.
Good luck on it!