I'm sort of looking for a minivan for the wife. Something a couple to a few years old, mileage that is a good value. I've tried some websites and searches just to see what comes back and I do find some leads or sales here and there. I'm more lower risk than I used to be, so I am a bit wary of dealing with a private sale unless I would have some relationship or familiarity with the seller. A dealer trade-in sale might be ok. Just curious if there is a preferred process for doing a search like this.

I've even looked at new a bit, but it will be a work van and I don't want to waste depreciation dollars on its "new years" when it will get used pretty hard. I'd rather buy after the biggest depreciation years but before most of them are also likely to start having big maintenance kick in.

AutoTempest

You can search and sort by a number of variables. It's what I use.

I use all the popular search engines, look for within 300 miles, and compare all and take my time. Autotrader (more individuals), CarFax (tells more information), Autolist, Car Gurus, Carmax, etc.

They all don't list the same cars. I've found better deals this way.

We bought my used Yukon XL from Hertz and it was painless. It was a year old with 44k miles and we got a fantastic deal right before Covid made prices crazy. We barely drove it the first 4 years anyways so the mileage is still fairly low for a basically 6 yo car.

Look at carfax.com for used cars like that. Plenty of data and history, and a better network of dealers that are selling. Only drawback is often the car you like has already been sold.

I think the first step is to do some rentals or test drives to try to narrow it down to a make / model that you like, or don't like.

Example, I'd never buy a Dodge Ram with the rotary shift knob. I know this because I've rented a few.

Then, after you've decided on a make / model, you can start searching for the other factors that you'll want like - trim packages, options, mileage, etc.

I like that AutoTempest site for aggregating searches but I also like searching dealer / manufacturer web sites, just kind of depends on what you're looking for. If there's some certain feature that is a must have, or a certain feature to avoid, that can kind of point you in the direction where you should search.

It went surprisingly fast after I did some searching online. We put a hold deposit on a used Odyssey Elite after test driving our first candidate. It's got some miles but the carfax is pristine. 1 owner no accidents older driver (vietnam vet sticker on window) that religiously got it serviced at the same shop. The dealer must have just got it in and is processing it through their cleaning and inspection checklist since it will be covered by a short warranty period. Has a few superficial blemishes but so far so good. It basically sold itself from my point of view. Look is like it will be easy to maintain.

I mostly just did a term search and then hit the cars.com returns or the car guru, or whatever links it suggested for the category, and used the sites filters themselves to narrow the search.

I found my last 2 used vehicles on cargurus.com. Their search function is good and it's pretty easy to weed out all the shady looking deals, vehicles with accident or rental history, etc. The vehicles I got were a 2017 GX (from a Sewell Cadillac) and a 2020 CX-5 (from a Toyota dealership). Both had less than 10k miles and clear history reports. I never would have found them by just looking on dealer websites.