Best Places To Buy A Used Car In Virginia

ARLINGTON, VA — This is one of the busiest times of year for savvy car shoppers to try to capitalize on the best deals. According to an online service that helps compare car prices, shoppers in Virginia looking to get behind the wheel of a used car may want to head to Annandale, Alexandria or McLean.

The best city to buy a car in Virginia is actually Annandale, and the best county is Arlington County. Shoppers who buy a used car in Annandale pay $1,209 less for a car. Buyers in Arlington County save an average of $1,978 on the car.

Autolist says Virginia ranked No. 11 in the country last month for vehicle affordability, while nearby Maryland ranked No. 7. A pre-owned car in Maryland typically costs $401 less than the national average; in Virginia it costs $148 less.

Here are the top 10 cities to buy a used car in Virginia:
1. Annandale, average savings: $1,209

2. Alexandria, average savings: $1,152

3. McLean, average savings: $1,116

4. Arlington, average savigs: $1,110

5. Ashburn, average savings: $1,033

6. Burke, average savings: $1,027

7. Reston, average savings: $1,014

8. Centreville, average savings: $962

9. Leesburg, average savings: $949

10. Lake Ridge, average savings: $777

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Here are the top 10 counties to buy a used car in Virginia:

1. Arlington, price difference, -$1,978
2. Fairfax, price difference, -$1,147
3. Loudoun, price difference, -$956
4. Stafford, price difference, -$750
5. Shenandoah, price difference, -$705
6. King George, price difference, -$645
7. Rockbridge, price difference, -$621
8. Alexandria, price difference, -$556
9. Prince William, price difference, -$468
10. Orange, price difference, -$382

The prices of used cars can vary significantly in counties in the same general geographic area, Chase Disher, product manager for growth and analytics at the company, tells Patch. Knowing that information can empower shoppers.

"The buyer knows that they can actually go 20 minutes west or east or something, and potentially find a better deal on a car," he says.

Those looking for the best deals might consider heading to an urban area, where there's often more competition. That usually leads to lower prices.

"There tend to be more dealers, a lot more inventory and therefore more competition, so that tends to drive prices down," he says.

But if you can, buy that sweet ride in Florida or California.

"Without a doubt, Florida tends to be the cheapest state consistently," Disher says. "Often when I'm going to look at some of the top data I need to scroll past a bunch of Florida cities because that's just single-handedly the best place to buy a car."

The company aims to provide consumers and the automotive industry data to better understand local trends.
Every month, Autolist refreshes its entire car-buying database and crunches the numbers for each city and county where it has statistically significant data. The firm compares the cities and the average price across them for different vehicles.

If you want see information for a specific city or county and see how it stacks up to others, head over to the Autolist website and type in the name of a city.

Autolist, based in the San Francisco area, is a metasearch automotive marketing platform. The company aims to provide the best search experience for finding a new, used or certified pre-owned vehicle.

The company has between 5 million and 8 million listings at any given time.

Disher notes the company's data is based on listing prices and doesn't include any taxes or other fees.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.
Photo credit: Shutterstock.