Here’s a couple resources I dug up while researching what to look for when buying 2nd hand. (BTW, to those who know what I was test driving yesterday…mmm hm.)
Rule #1: Don’t buy it unless you have had your own mechanic take a look at it.
…your mechanic will tell you what things need to be done to the car, and how much you should expect to pay to have them done. You will be able to use that in dickering; that knowledge alone can pay back the $75 you paid the mechanic.
This was the best tip of everything I found. Two reasons: one, the inspection took about an hour, so I had an hour to hang with the seller, and found that I basically trusted him; two, the mechanic listed every last thing that would need doing on the car, once we returned. This was fantastic in terms of bargaining power (I knocked 1/8th off the asking price), and also gave me a realistic picture of the car’s state.
This following site offers a very comprehensive checklist of stuff you can look for. Even if you know next to nothing about cars, you should still be able to do everything they mention.
Always inspect a used car thoroughly before taking it to a qualified mechanic for a final inspection. There is a great deal you can learn about a used car by systematically and patiently looking it over. If you can find some of the problems yourself, you can save a great deal of time. If you find some areas of concern on this used car, point them out to your qualified mechanic during the final inspection. It is much less expensive to discover problems now than on some rainy night in a place you would really like to leave. You don’t have to be a car expert to save yourself money and aggravation….
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