The Quick Used Car Checklist
I thought I would share some other useful tidbits from my used car buying experience from a dealer. If you have the time you might want to do more than just this but if you were a somewhat motivated buyer as I was this could serve you well to cover most issues.
1. Check the dealer’s Better Business Bureau rating. A- or better should inspire confidence, anything less and you might want to consider going elsewhere. This can be done quickly online before going to the dealership.
2. Do they offer, at minimum, a 30-day drive train warranty? If not, they clearly don’t have any confidence in their vehicles so why should you?
3. Check the paint. Is it dull just because it needs a wash and wax? Have there been little touch-ups that might be concealing hidden rust or damage?
4. Check for body damage. Would a hammer fix it? Is it cosmetic?
5. Check for Rust. Check the edges of the hood, doors, and trunk.
6. Let the engine idle for a few minutes; listen for clatter or unusual noises. Listen from both the inside and the outside – have the salesperson do it if you’re on your own and sit in the passenger side for a few moments and stand outside for a few minutes.
7. Put the car back and forth between drive, neutral and reverse; motion or clanking is bad. Some engine movement if you’re looking under the hood while someone is doing this is okay depending on the model.
8. After the test drive run your finger inside the exhaust; oil is bad, water is okay, and nothing is obviously okay.
9. Inspection, inspection, inspection! No, don’t do it 3 times, I just repeated myself for emphasis.
10. Watch out for a paperwork filing or vehicle history research fee. Anything much higher than $50 is suspicious. Make sure they give you the accident history of the vehicle but don’t be surprised if some details might be missing – this usually indicates that the damage was so minor or inexpensive the accident was reported but the person decided not to file a claim.
These 10 steps plus a 30-day drive train warranty should cover pretty much all of the most expensive or likely problems.
There are other checklists out there with 15 to 30 or more steps but if you’re buying from a dealership and you follow the 10 steps above then the longer checklists probably have a lot of time consuming redundancy in them.
