Finding cheap cars can be very stressful. Dealing with salespeople, negotiating with sellers, and trying to work within your budget can all compound the stress. What if there was a better way to find a cheap car? There is, if you read on!

Everyone will define "cheap cars" a little differently. For some it may mean that it only costs a couple hundred bucks, for others it may be a good deal on a Porsche. For this reason, we will take a look at a broad spectrum of methods to finding the car that suits you and your budget. There are thousands of places to buy cars for cheap from. Some cheap cars are online, in parking lots in your neighborhood, or traditional dealerships. If you know which ones to focus on, your car search will be much, much easier.

Let your friends and family know that you are looking to buy a really cheap car. If you have a large network around you, odds are that someone will have a car for sale. Get the message out. Lots of people have cheap cars that they do nothing with and could use the extra cash. Many families are also scaling down the amount of cars that they have due to the hard economic times. It could be that your grandpa has an old jeep sitting in his backyard that runs great but he just doesn't use it.

A word of caution though, if the car fails to live up to your expectations, a strain may be put on your relationship with the person you bought the car from. It is much easier to be angry with someone that you don't know than it is a family member or friend. Know what you're buying before paying for it. A friend that is a mechanic or great with cars might be good to bring along during the buying process.

If asking your friends and family doesn't work out, car auctions are a great source of cheap cars. They may seem intimidating and shady to the average person, but they are a legitimate method for finding cheap cars.

Auctions get cars that were repossessed or seized by banks when the original owner failed to make their payments. Storing the cars costs banks more than selling them, so a ridiculously cheap price can be payed. This equates to newer cheap cars being sold at very low prices. Keep in mind that you still have to pay the normal amount for title and registration that you would buying from a dealer, but the savings can still be incredible. There are stories of people buying Porsche's and Ferrari's for only a few hundred dollars because they were the only ones who showed up for the auction!

Government cars can also be purchased this way. Contracts that the government has with the car manufacturers causes them to turn over entire fleets of cars every few years. These cars may have very high mileage, but can be purchased cheap.

Here is a website for finding auctions in your area. Be sure to narrow your search results to cars, or it returns all types of auctions.

Most neighborhoods have an area where there are used cars for sale by the owner. On the surface this may not seem like a way to find cheap cars, but with some negotiation skills great prices can be found.

The trick is to call lots of people and inquire about their car. When you find a great price, don't jump on it right away. You can use that price to leverage better prices on other cars. For example, if there are two similar cars, Car A and Car B, and the owner of A wants $5000 for his car and B wants $4000 for his car use what you know about them to get a better price on Car A. If B is in worse shape or has more miles than A is, the owner of A probably doesn't know that. Use that to your advantage. Tell the owner of A that B is a better price and watch him open up to negotiation quickly.

This may seem like a shady negotiating technique, but it works well and you're here to find cheap cars!

Finding cheap cars isn't easy, but the return can be huge if you're willing to work for it. Learning some basic negotiation skills, checking out auctions, and asking your network are all great ways to find your next ride.