We Found Our Dream Car On Kijiji!

474,000 km. That’s what our odometer read the moment I told Hubster that I’ve had enough. You see, we’ve always prioritized travel and experiences over owning a new car, but shortly after Little L was born I realized that we had to sell our old Honda Accord and buy another vehicle. Yup, it was time to find something safer, newer and nicer for our fam mobile. And so began our hunt on Kijiji, Canada’s largest auto site…

Our mission: find a high quality car that fits our budget and is family-friendly (but is NOT a minivan). We wanted to maximize value by buying a newer used car, so we immediately began browsing the autos section on Kijiji. OMG — so many options! Fun fact: at a given time, there are more than 400,000 vehicles listed on the site (one posted every 3 seconds or so). At first it was a bit overwhelming, but I quickly started getting recommendations from you guys via social media and we found some great resources on Kijiji Central like these amaze vids by car experts, Yuri and Jakub of The Straight Pipes:

Hubster and I spent our weekends in September and October (some of the busiest months on the Kijiji autos section) searching for “the one.” We occasionally spiraled down the rabbit hole and ended up browsing luxe and classic cars (hello 1929 Mercedes-Benz A-Class), but we mostly stayed on track and built a solid list of vehicles that could work for our family. Once we narrowed it down to five or so models we contacted individual sellers and dealers to arrange test drives. I was so surprised by how quickly everyone responded to our inquiries and how amazing the people we met along the way were. Virtually everyone had a safety certificate on hand, openly shared their vehicle histories and walked us through all of the special features of the cars…

Another thing we were really impressed by was the caliber of cars available — there were so many newer models that fit our search criteria (another fun fact: in the last year alone, more than 2.5 million vehicles that are 2013 models or newer were listed on Kijiji). We found some great deals on low-mileage Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus SUVs that were practically brand new…

Although the high-end cars were really tempting, Hubster and I decided to purchase a more affordable vehicle that provides good value, but still allows us to keep our travel fund well-stocked. Everyone has their priorities! So… what did we end up buying?? A black 2012 Acura RDX with a tech package, backup camera and leather interior…

So many of you guys recommended the Acura RDX as a family-friendly car and after test driving a few, we now understand why. Our new car is roomy, comfortable, safe, has a spacious trunk for our stroller and – most importantly – is Little L approved…

Yup, we took him out on all of our test drives (the owners and dealers patiently waited for us to install the car seat each time) so we could see whether the car was a right fit for our entire family. This was really important for us since we go on so many road trips together (hence why we racked up so many kilometres on our previous car)!

Have you guys ever bought or sold a car on Kijiji? We’ve sold a couple before, but this was our first time buying and I’m super impressed by how smoothly everything went. With so many cars listed we obviously had to do our homework and took advantage of all the resources on Kijiji before getting started (from helpful articles to videos by car experts). We also test drove about a dozen cars and asked the owners/dealers lots of questions. In the end, I’m certain we found the perfect car for our family. And bonus: we juuuust sold our old car on Kijiji too! It will always hold a special place in my heart, but I’m excited to make new memories in our new ride..