Don't Buy a Used Car from These States - The Readers Have Ruled

Buying a used car is always a gamble. Sometimes you score something barely driven and certified. Other times you end up with absolute garbage. The trick is stacking the odds in your favor, and one easy way to do that is being picky about where you buy. So readers were asked which states they'd never buy a used car from.

The answers came flooding in. Mostly weather-related stuff. Winter storms in the Northeast, hurricanes and floods along the Southern coast, tornadoes in the Midwest. Between everyone's picks, almost the entire country got covered. If you're car shopping, read through this list and then buy from one of the few states nobody mentioned.

New York

One buyer grabbed an '03 Chevy S10 from a body shop in Pennsylvania that bought it at auction. Truck originally came from New York. Someone spent a lot of time covering rusty parts underneath with black duct tape. Didn't notice until after 30 days when trying to get it inspected. Too late by then.

Florida

Florida gets flagged for easy title washing and general shadiness. One person noted that any state that gets heavy snow and uses salt is also a no-go. Southern states other than Florida are mostly fine though.

Alaska

Florida does have some low-mileage retiree cars that can be decent deals, but you need to watch for flood damage, sun damage, and salt air corrosion. Alaska though? Everything up there has had a hard life on gravel roads, and shipping a car home costs more than the car's worth.

Great Lakes States

Any state touching a Great Lake is trouble. Cold air blowing across the lakes dumps tons of snow. Underneath those lakes are massive salt deposits that get mined and sold cheap to state transportation departments. They use it liberally on the roads. One person's daily driver is 22 years old, spent 21 of those years in inland Florida and the Deep South, and has zero rust. A car from Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, or Erie would likely have holes in the floorboards by then.

The recommendation? Fly Southwest to somewhere like Birmingham if you're in Chicago. Rent a car and hotel Friday night, test drive Saturday, pick a good one, and drive the 600 miles home. A 15-year-old car from down there won't have a spot of rust.

The Midwest

Living in the Midwest means dealing with tons of road salt and no safety inspections. Cars just rot until the wheels literally fall off. Buying a car from the Midwest means it either has to be brand new or cheap enough to ignore the rust. The East Coast has the same rust problem but now it's 900 miles away.

Cleanest cars come from California, Alabama, Texas, Florida away from the coasts, or Japan. Japan's a weird pick since some exported cars from there are rusty as hell, but apparently some people know how to find the good ones.

Ohio

Ohio is where Pennsylvania cars go to die. Both states use rock salt so cars are rough. Pennsylvania at least has safety and emissions inspections. Ohio doesn't even do that.

Rhode Island

Terrible pothole-riddled roads and winter salt. Even cars that look well-kept have hidden damage inside and out. One person's cousin somehow managed to find a few early '60s VW Beetles in original condition there over the years, but that's definitely not normal.

Anywhere Outside the Southwest

One Californian is scared of anywhere that gets regular snow. Won't buy any car that isn't from the Southwest like California, Nevada, Arizona, or New Mexico. Too spoiled by the weather.

Illinois, Indiana, Lower Michigan

Basically anywhere with long winters and heavy salt use.

State of Disrepair

One person just said "Disrepair." Fair enough.