Buying used vehicle - checklist

[JB_AOL]

Ken,

In my experience, there's always something. Doesn't matter how good you check it over, there is something you missed.

My advice, have some contingency $ built in. Oh, and bring someone that doesn't have a vested interest in the car. A second set of eyes that aren't biased can be huge.

[Suzukisam]

Just spend the 150 have it inspected and if the guy won't let you or him take it in just walk away. And do not accept any inspection he already has they were working for him you need someone working for you. That's why your wife and you don't use the same divorce lawyer

[big zeke]

The body can be as problematic as the driveline esp if you are not planning to keep the car forever. Make sure the panels align and there is no variation in paint color or sheen panel to panel. Check for orange peel (also called FLA) in hard to reach places like the back of a truck cab or inside a trunk lid, signs of overspray. I won't buy a vehicle with poor body repairs as they always seem to show up years later and can be very expensive to fix. The neighbors Sequoia was rear-ended when new and repaired in a reputable shop; now, 5 years later the bondo is cracking out and panels rusting, looks terrible and would require a big job to redo.

I noticed an earlier post about something called a brake slam...replacing pads without touching the rotors. Not sure what is wrong with this if the rotors are above min and flat. Minor grooving does not bother me as the pads will wear in quickly. I've done dozens of my own brake jobs and rarely had to touch rotors, not sure why this would be an issue.

In the end, equipping yourself with a checklist is a good way to go just so stuff doesn't get missed. Finding a trustworthy mechanic is hard, getting a seller to go along with a shop inspection (esp if the car is older or on the cheap side) might be hard. Google the vehicle for known problems, with the internet it is easy to see what design flaws are commonly encountered.

Zeke

[Sooner]

Good tips so far. I would add:

Take a flash light and a tarp. Get down and look up. If the frames is rusty crusty and all the cross members are full of mud/gravel mix, it's a gravel queen. Looking up shows you drive line leaks, rusty rockers etc.

I looked at a immaculate 2000 f150 CC. Ya, great detail job. Except for the mud in the cross members, rusty cab floor and box floor and huge holes in the underside rockers where the under coating missed covering up stuff you would only see if you knelt down.

Listen to the engine, I bought a older f350 V10, it had a noise I was not familiar with. Believed the owner it was something else. No time to get it inspected. I rolled the dice and almost lost but I used it for the summer before I sold it. Bad bearing. Sold it to a Farmer(full disclosure on the engine issue) for 800 bucks less than I paid for it, he needed a 4x4 for farm work. Still going last time we chatted. I couldn't use it and trust it to pull my RV.

Now that I know what that light knocking sound means I walked away from another truck recently as it had a similar noise.

[Ken07AOVette]

Originally Posted by JB_AOL

Ken,

In my experience, there's always something. Doesn't matter how good you check it over, there is something you missed.

My advice, have some contingency $ built in. Oh, and bring someone that doesn't have a vested interest in the car. A second set of eyes that aren't biased can be huge.

Very true. After well over 100 vehicles I have a fairly good eye ear and touch, but it seems the sellers are getting trickier all the time.