Best of 2001: Best Place To Buy/Sell Your Car

Third and Fourth Streets, Coronado

It's probably no coincidence that in the afternoons along Fourth Street in Coronado, you see cars parked along the right side with "For Sale" signs and large phone numbers in their back windows. The road, along with Third Street, is the busiest in the county. Every morning 12,000 to 15,000 cars crawl in to North Island Naval Air Station. Every afternoon they're heading back out, bumper-to-bumper. Great market! Best time to buy one of these "For Sale" cars is just before a WestPac -- the six-month deployment of carriers across the Pacific. Guys need to sell, fast. Best time to sell yours: just after a WestPac, when the fleet's back, loaded with pay, and needing wheels. And Coronado police confirm it's strictly legal. You can park on most of Third or Fourth up to 72 hours. For best results, park on Third in the (early!) morning for incoming traffic and on Fourth in the afternoon between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. to catch the homeward bound. But hurry, this offer can't last. They're fixing to build a $122 million tunnel to divert the military traffic.