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The Auto Mechanic's Guide to Purchasing a Used Car

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From tracy pospeshil , Featured Contributor
Posted on September 29, 2008

Questions to ask and tips for making a smart decision from a mechanic.

It’s time to shop for your new-to-you car. After carefully selecting the make and model you want, you’re ready to go find your baby and bring it home. Now comes the fun part: selecting your car or truck from among the sea of fish out there.

Let’s assume you are looking for a daily driven car, not a specialty car like a classic muscle car. Where will you look? One of the first decisions you will make is whether to go to a dealer, or buy from a private owner. Both have their pros and cons.

Dealership:

At the dealer, the cars are very clean, you usually get a short warranty free of charge, and you can shop a number of cars at the same location. The downsides are that the cars are very clean, and dealers are less likely to budge on the price.

At a dealership, the car has been cleaned, and this can hide problems under the hood. The dealerships are less likely to move on the price unless the car has been there for 90 days. Ask the salesperson to show you when they got the car in (threaten to walk if they won’t). Once a car sits on a dealer lot, the used-car sales manager will be getting serious heat from management to move those cars. But beware, why is that car still on the lot?

Private Seller:

Private sellers are more likely to budge on the price, plus you can talk directly to the owner about the car. You can take the car for a real test drive, and they don’t have as much time to wear you out and get you to pay more, like a dealer does. The downsides are that you won’t get a warranty, you have to do more legwork, and there’s more risk.

Start with a Phone Call

The first thing to do with any purchase is to make some calls. This isn’t as useful at the dealer, since they won’t have much more info than what's in the 35 word ad. However, it’s important to call a private owner. What to ask? In no particular order:

• 1. How much is the car?

  Yeah, I know it’s there in the ad, but they may state a lower number. I’ve had this happen. If the answer to this question is ‘how much does it say in the ad?’ then you can assume they have had to change the price because they been unable to sell it and are hoping you have an ad that’s from before they dropped $3,000 off the price. You answer should be ‘I seem to have misplaced the price. I just got it from (name of source). So, how much was it again?’

• 2. How long have you had the car?

  If the seller has had it a short time you have to wonder why they are selling. Has it been a money pit that they are just trying to get out from under? If they've owned it for years you’ll be better able to ascertain the maintenance history.

• 3. What condition is the car in?

  At this point you can ask about certain issues that may concern you. Here in Michigan I always ask if there is any rust. Maybe you are looking at a car that is known to have a problem with the transmission. Whatever it is, ask about it specifically.

That’s really about it for the phone interrogation. There are more questions, but I like to ask these in person.

General HInts for Going to See a Car in Person

Here are a few rules for when you go to the seller's house to see the car in person:

• 1. Never go alone.

  Bring someone with you who at least seems like they know about cars. Plus, it’s just safer.

• 2. Never go at night.

  Don’t go at night because you cannot see the details of the car.

• 3. Never go in the rain.

  If you live in Seattle, then I guess you only have 12 days a year you can shop for a car but I cannot change that. Rain makes the car look great because it’s all nice and shiny. Rain makes you not want to get on your hands and knees to look under the car, and rain makes you less likely to stay for the long haul to inspect the car.

When you arrive at the seller’s house, don’t go running up to the door and ask for the owner. In fact, if at all possible, don’t even go right up to the car. Take a casual walk around the other cars on the property. Are they clean? Any dings and dents? If the Lincoln in the driveway has dirty diapers on the floor and bald tires do really you think they took care of the Focus you are looking at? It may be profiling, but if they take care of one car, they take care of them all.

Now look at the subject car, but also take a look at the house and yard. I’m sure I’ll get hate mail from this, but again, you can get an idea of how these people take care of stuff and this will be reflected in the car you are looking at.

Take a Walk Around the Car:

Start with a walk around, looking at everything but not the car as a whole, not yet.

• Does each panel on the car match the one next to it perfectly in color? They should.
• Are the panel gaps even? They should be.
• Are the tires in good shape? Put a penny upside-down in the groove between tread blocks. If all of Abe’s head is visible the tires need to be replaced. Deduct this from the asking price.
• Are all the tires the same make and model? They should be.
• Are the front wheels darker or rust colored? This indicates two things. The front brakes could be very worn, and they don’t wash the car often enough since brake pad material will discolor the wheels.
• Put your finger 1-2 inches inside the tail pipe and do a little swipe. In a modern car that is running well you should have very little soot.
• Now take a step back and look at the car. Is it sitting level front to back and side to side?
• Open the hood. The engine should NOT be running at this time, in fact ask the seller to have the engine cold when you get there. Check all the fluids (have a friend show you how/where beforehand). Know how clean transmission fluid should smell and look, same for engine oil.
• Take a look-see around the engine compartment. There should be no oil on the engine or any surrounding components.

Starting the Car:

Now it’s time to start the engine. Have a friend start it while you stand behind the car and look at the exhaust. There should be no blue or white smoke. Understand that blue smoke is blue smoke and it’s bad news. Time to price an engine re-build.

If it’s white smoke make sure it’s not just condensation that happens on cool days. If there is thick white smoke that smells sweet, there are serious mechanical issues. Now stop sniffing that exhaust. It’s not good for you!

Now get in the car. I know, at this point most guys will stare at the running engine waiting for it to communicate with them on some ‘guy level’ or something. Don’t bother. Take a few minutes to press every button, hit every switch and knob in this car.

• Make sure every window goes up and down smooth and quiet (radio off)
• All the locks should operate the same way.
• Hit the wiper/washers to make sure they work and to see if the wiper blades are new. If not, what else has been neglected?
• Does the HVAC system work?

It’ll take you a few minutes to do this and the engine should be warming up. Ok, I know you’ve been dying to, go ahead and look at the engine. Again, a good knowledgeable friend is a huge benefit here by knowing what to look and listen for.

Test Driving the Car

Now it’s time to drive the car. If it’s a manual transmission, start the car in 2nd gear to see how healthy the clutch is. I would tell the owner beforehand that you’re going to do this, so they don’t freak out. Go ahead and drive it with the radio off and windows down on a side street. A neat little trick is to drive by parked cars and listen for any odd noises that will bounce off the parked cars and in the open widows.

Close the windows and drive around. Listen for any odd clunks or noises at all road speeds. On the test drive you should drive this car like you intend, and like it was intended, but with respect for the current owner in mind. If you are driving a Corvette, don’t be afraid to get on it a little, but again, ask the owner first. Don’t abuse it, but you do want to hear/feel anything that may indicate problems with the car. If it’s a 4X4 Jeep or truck try out the 4WD system including neutral and low range. But do this on a loose surface. If you were driving my Jeep and drove it around on pavement in 4WD I’d be pretty hot under the collar.

Take the car on the highway. At a steady speed does the car track straight down the road with no corrections at the steering wheel? Are there any vibrations? When you head back, ask the seller to drive. How does he drive it? If he is a little rough on it now, imagine how he is when he’s alone or after his wife got on him for leaving the toilet seat up!

Negotiating

Ah, the negotiation. Something I should have mentioned before is to show up with 3 or 4 printed internet ads for this same make and model car and casually let them be seen. Now the seller knows he has competition.

If you found no issues with the car at all, deduct 5 or 10% from the price because it is expected. If there are issues that kinda bug you but you know you’ll never fix (like parking lot dings) deduct another 5 or 10% or so. If there are any other issues you should mention EVERY one of them to the seller, then inform him/her that you have to find out how much it will cost to remedy these things. You have just let him know you are serious but also recognize these faults.

Now ask the seller why he’s selling. Watch his body language and keep eye contact with him/her just like you did when you asked your kids which one of them spread marshmallow fluff on the dog. Look for squirming and a general state of unease. Then ask if he’s flexible. After you just mentioned 5 dings, worn tires and dim headlights (you did check those, right?) he’d be a fool to tell you he’s firm on his price. Once you tally these things up (don’t use the cheapest estimates for this) ad 10% and ask him to deduct this from the price.

Let the negotiations begin!

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tracy pospeshil is a featured contributor for vLane.