We ended up getting a car from a "car fair" where private people drove their cars into a carpark and sold them. Its a nice mazda wagon, great for touring the country.

I still thinks auctions are the first place to look. Bidding is easy, stock range is amazing, each auction (and there are about 2-3 a week selling cars under $6K) has about 50-70 cars in it.

If you have the time to wait for the exact vehicle you want, I think its the best system. Especially after talking to a guy who works there who said how the car dealers buy them and then just add their profit on the top. You can easily pick out the junkers from the quality imports.