re: Anyone used a private auto broker to buy a used car?

The search tools of the website are just like eBay on steroids, you can search for cars from every type of seller. He recommended cars sold by the manufacturer's finance company only, i.e. lease returns, but there's other wholesale dealers selling cars too on a "buy it now" basis too.

Every car is graded pretty meticulously, with high res photos of the whole car and any notable damage. I saw one photo of a car hood with bird droppings in the clear coat. There was a ruler next to the bird shite to confirm it measured less than 1" across.

The dealer said every car has arrived just as described and you have 21 days to return the car if there's a material difference. He has never returned a car in 30+ years.

We watched an auction online in Ohio somewhere. Each auction is over in about a minute and you compete with people in the building physically and online. Before the internet, he would actually put people on a plane to go to the Tuesday Toyota auction in Orlando and the Thursday Mercedes auction in Atlanta, with a list of his customers' vehicle specs. Now you can do the same thing with a laptop and clicking on the screen.

I will keep you updated, and hope to have a 2015 Lexus ES 350 with less than 20,000 miles for between $25,000 and 26,000 next week.