AI makes buying a used car so much easier.
Having a personal research tool and guide makes a significant difference in every step of the buying process.
I used Gemini because of Googles search capabilities and found it pretty helpful but I think any LLM would work.
The research:
I used to use a combination of tools like Consumer Reports, CarFax, CarGurus and years ago TrueCar, but it was time consuming especially searching for Chevrolet Suburbans that turn over quickly.
Now I can use prompts to query across multiple sources checking for car history (CarFax, Edmunds, etc) and also searching multiple car inventory websites and dealerships.
Using prompts that include search for year ranges 2018-2025 but not years 2021, 2022 or 2023 (because of recalls or known troublesome year) with specifics - remote start, rear view camera and 4 wheel drive and blind spot monitor - things my wife and I needed. Most websites can do most of this but searching across all inventory sources made this easier.
Where I noticed additional AI benefit was with CARFAX history - I can reference the URL of the CARFAX and or copy and paste it and ask Gemini to Analyze the car fax looking for strong oil change maintenance records and transmission service - also important maintenance at key intervals. The brilliant part is Gemini must have already scanned the owner a logs and service blogs because it was able to not only distinguish when maintenance was supposed to happen but I could also ask it beyond manufacturer recommended what are real world best practice recommendations.
This all made the research part much easier and faster and it’s really only scratching the surface.
Beyond this I am starting to use Gemini and AI to walk me through the negotiation process with a dealer that is 2 hours away and ensure I am not wasting money or time. I will expand upon that in a later post.
Prompt example for image using Nano banana:
”Create image of 2018 white chevrolet suburban premier at a dealership for sale on one side of the image and on the other side a brown haired glasses wearing male in his mid 40s year old on a computer researching cars excited because he is saving money buying the suburban “
