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August 1, 2020
Today I’m gonna review AutoTempest, the used car search website. AutoTempest is similar to other websites that allow you to search used car listings, but with one big difference: You enter your search criteria once and AutoTempest gives you results from all the other guys. It’s a search engine for used cars.
In this review, I’ll share the pros and cons of AutoTempest, answer some FAQ’s, and share my best used car buying tips.
Table of Contents
AutoTempest is a used car search engine that enables you to search used car inventory from multiple used car sites all at once.
AutoTempest pulls used car listings from Craigslist, eBay Motors, AutoTrader, Cars.com, CarSoup, Carvana, oodle, and CarsDirect. The search results are the same you would get searching each of these sites individually. You just save the time spent entering your search details over and over on each site.
AutoTempest was originally created in 2007 by Nathan Stretch, a Canadian entrepreneur and engineer, as a way to search Craigslist used car listings.
Nathan was the creator of SearchTempest, a 3rd party search engine used for Craigslist.com. He realized that Craigslist had a great selection of used cars, but there was no easy way to search through them effectively. Craigslist didn’t have any car related search features and you couldn’t search multiple cities in a single search.
So Nathan created AutoTempest, a spin-off of SearchTempest, that focused on search features relevant to used cars. AutoTempest started with Craiglist but after some success, Nathan decided to expand his search engine to include other used car websites and the rest is history.
Also Read: My review of Carvana and my review of Vroom.
The main feature to look for in a used car website is inventory and how many used car listings show up when you search. Frankly, there’s not many other differences between websites.
Recommended: Read my review of Swapalease
Since used car sites are basically referral websites that ultimately send you to a seller, you want a site connected with lots of sellers and listings. And there’s no need to limit your search to just one website, try them all and AutoTempest is a good way to do that.
Used cars are each unique with different mileage and severity of wear and tear. This is unlike new cars which are commodities (identical in every way except for price). Because of this, you'll have a hard time making car dealers compete through a Bidding War like you should do when buying a new car.
The key to buying a quality used car at a good price is to take the right steps BEFORE you make an offer. You want to find a good deal and feel comfortable that the car does not have any maintenance issues or a troubled past.
To buy a used car without having to worry if you're getting ripped off, follow the steps in my used car buying guide.
AutoTempest works in both the US and Canada. Search results support Canadian postal codes for all used car classifieds, even those that only have US listings. It even returns some search results from border areas in Mexico.
AutoTempest is a portal into all the biggest, most popular vehicle classifieds sites in America. If you're looking to buy a used car, check them out.
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Posted in Car Buying Tips |
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