People ofted forget that dealers have a number of cars to look at as well, so although you pay more for the car you want, you will probably end up spending less time trying to find it.
Also, if you find a dealer in hard times they will want to keep stock moving and will try to cut a good deal to keep their stock turning over, whereas most private sellers are living in cloud cookoo land - taking asking price guidance from Parkers and the like!
I've only bought 2nd hand from a dealer a couple of times.
The most recent time was my first van, although he was trading from his house. He made no secret of the fact he was dealing, but it was the best deal out there. Private sellers were having a lot of trouble realising how little their van was actually worth, whereas he had done his research and pitched it just right. I went and negotiated a much lower price - not the one advertised - well chuffed.
In about 1992 I was looking for a car for my mum. She had a budget of £4k and I made it my business to find her the best low mileage deal I could for that money. I bought a dealer trade in off the forecourt but played dealers off against one another, until I ended up with a 2 and a half year old 25,000 mile Escort Mk4. 1989 reg. It was a bad time for the car trade - we were just coming out of recession and this particular car had already been in their stock for nearly 3 months. Most franchise dealers have a policy towards turning over their stock regularly to protect its value.
I had been to loads of main dealers and looked. Again, private sellers were a pain in the rear, they had over inflated ideas of what their cars were worth, and were trying to sell their cars for near dealership money.
I eventually closed the deal on this car. Mum paid less for this car than she would have privately from pretty much anywhere else. In addition we got 3 months warranty, a full service and it's first MOT, although it was only 2 and a half years old. She kept it for 10 years.
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Private V Dealer new