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I used Mdecoder a lot during my search. It was the only way to actually figure out what options were truly on the cars I was looking at, so much inconsistency in the listings on various websites. I found a PDF document that was a sales order form used by the dealers, it's what they use to figure out options and pricing when building an order, you can use that to figure out what comes in specific packages.
I had a set of criteria of "must haves" and "wants". some of these options were rare combinations so I had to search for a long time. I spent 1-2 hours a day for probably 2 months before I had a system down. I used this system daily to keep track of market conditions and find trends. I used Cars.com, autotrader, and edmunds for my primary searches, and when bored or no new inventory, I'd dig in kbb and carfax. I often found stuff on kbb and carfax that the others didn't list, so it was useful.
My criteria, must be :
Under 30K miles
Under $100K
Exterior :black, or individual. White/silver was an acceptable possibility.
Interior : black. Cashmere was an acceptable possibility.
Drive assist
luxury rear seating
B&W sound
rear seat entertainment
Sky lounge
working rear seat tablet (many are missing theirs)
remote park with all 3 keys (many are missing one or more key-fobs)
Like to have :
merino leather
Night vision
CPO
shall not have:
executive lounge
satin paint finish
I created a spreadsheet to track cars with their options and features with prices, etc. That make it way easier to do an objective review of the facts/data.
I was able to find a few that fit all these (nationwide search), and one that was exactly what I wanted after waiting for their prices to drop. This was a 4 month process start to finnish.
Things I learned from this process:
Some dealers don't know what they have (options not described/listed) and they will undervalue their cars. Many salesmen know absolutely nothing about these cars or their options.
almost every car I tracked sold for 10% less than their initial listing, most I'd say sold at 15-18% off. I don't think a single one sold for KBB fair market value.
most cars sat on the lot for 4 or more months, some up to a year. Carfax can be used to figure out how long they have had it, and several were traded dealer, to dealer, to dealer, or sold at auctions with no real owner for more than a year.
If you find what you want and they just got it and are asking KBB market price, it's unlikely to sell quickly, you can probably wait for their price to drop. This can be tracked on edmunds (prior price drops). I did this with the one I bought, saved about $11,000, but I had to wait 3 months for them to want to liquidate it.
I ended up with all my must haves and all my wants, <20K miles, CPO, and $184K MSRP, for $92K
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