I would give serious consideration to the Costco Auto Buying Program. This isn't a paid ad. I didn't know until today that Costco recently amended its Buying Program to include used vehicles. The

My Money Blog has dozens of comments, good and bad, about the Costco purchase experience. See you can tell this isn't a paid ad because I am not linking to Costco.

I looked at Yelp! and saw so many of the car dealerships within walking distance of my house with one-star reviews. But several of the people giving those one-star reviews did not get the cars checked out by independent auto mechanics within the first three days.

I found Car Buying Tips informative too, for used and new vehicles, especially the parts about extended warranties and what to look for at auto auctions.

I have a spreadsheet of vehicles I might want to buy, with their specifications, features, safety-performance-reliability ratings, suggested buy prices, fuel economy, and importantly for us who are all extremities, headroom and legroom measurements. Yesterday a neighbor told me she was shopping for a car similar to what I want: sedan, $14000-$17000, decent mileage; so I gave her print copies of my research. I guess there are many nerdy underemployed research types in my area, because those cars are hard to find at that price range. More like $16K-$18K, before taxes, license fees, documentation fees.