Tips for buying a used car from a dealership?

Viper007Bond said:
Okay, so now that I'm likely buying a Mustang instead of a Viper (for now), I assume all of these suggestions still apply?

For example this car: http://dealrship.com/stock/10185 Is it normal to request it be taken to a mechanic for inspection? I'll work on talking them down in price some.


EDIT: Google reveals that dealership is utter crap, so maybe not a good idea to buy there...
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All these dealers are utter crap, I doubt you'll find one with great reviews. I highly suggest buying from an owner. Either way it is appropriate to ask for the car to be inspected by a third party mechanic.
 
argatoga said:
I highly suggest buying from an owner. Either way it is appropriate to ask for the car to be inspected by a third party mechanic.
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THIS. Anything under 10 to 15 grand private party is the way to go, both price-wise and not-being-ripped-off wise.
 
Buying privately (in Ukania at least) has a whole different set of rules - see wheeler dealers on the FTPs - Mike Brewer is an expert and he buys his cars at the beginning of the episode. I think that most of the things he does would be applicable.

Some are obvious - always visit the vendor in his property, (My fav is the wife asks to go to the lavatory - checks it is probably his house) never go alone, do not take large amounts of cash with you, phone first - never trust an ad where only the mobile (Cell) number is offered - could be anyone.

Take a test drive (here I'd phone my insurance company and get the vehicle added as a temporary vehicle to my policy - what you guys can do I am not sure), do simple mechanical checks on the drive (All lights and switches work?, Seat moves, no bits of trim falling off, no dampness in the footwells, or mould smell in the carpet).

Check to see if the car is hot and when you start up - bad sign he has warmed it up. ...

Look at the smoke coming from the exhaust - colour (Blue/black or very sooty?), look at the radiator for leaks, take the cap off - when cold and check to see if it has got white gunk around the cap, check the papers thoroughly and the Vin/Reg numbers match up - he should keep any and all bills in my opinion.

Check the tyres, they will cost to replace if worn down, yadda, yadda. ?. That is what I would do if buying privately here.

I am sure that there are web sites in the States with this sort of advice better tailored to US deals on.
 
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argatoga said:
[...]Either way it is appropriate to ask for the car to be inspected by a third party mechanic.
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+1. And if they decline ... run. Seriously, stand up and leave that instand, no long "but why"-talk, just say good bye and get out of there.

With sales-people generally that work on provision, I can also only advise everyone to ditch all politeness. They won?t respect you at all if you come over all polite (with private owners this is the other way around of course) and try to be friendly. Be serious about your intentions and be as direct as possible. There needn?t be any small-talk. If there is nothing to say during the test-drive, just be silent. After 30 minutes of silence and no small talk, the sticker price will have dropped quite a bit out of sheer panic. (my experience - yours might vary)
 
Be polite but business like (as I am sure you are anyway) - and I agree if spending serious wonga on a 'motah' an inspection is essential - the vendor should not object, and as has been said leave immediately if he does - something dodgy.

Over here the AA (like your AAA) the RAC (the other motoring organisation) or a number local garages will offer the services like the dealers of the car maker or an independent garage. Not too expensive I think it runs at about 100GBP - 150GBP for peace of mind.
 
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I just negotiated a big chunk off a car from a private party thanks to an inspection I had my mechanic do... although I've decided not to buy the car since it turned up too much.
 
As for checking a Car's history, this TIL on reddit helped me avoid a potential money trap. I was looking at a 06 Saturn Ion Redline and it had a clean carfax. I was all set to buy it until that TIL told me about vincheck. I'm buying my first car (first car that's actually mine. I've had 2 of my parents cars before) so i didn't know about vincheck. Turns out, even though the carfax was clean, the car was in a flood 2 years ago.
 
Sevs753 said:
As for checking a Car's history, this TIL on reddit helped me avoid a potential money trap. I was looking at a 06 Saturn Ion Redline and it had a clean carfax. I was all set to buy it until that TIL told me about vincheck. I'm buying my first car (first car that's actually mine. I've had 2 of my parents cars before) so i didn't know about vincheck. Turns out, even though the carfax was clean, the car was in a flood 2 years ago.
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None of the major car stat outfits are actually 100% correct - even dealers can get caught out sometimes though they use VINcheck, CarFax, AutoCheck, etc., etc. One of my dealer clients bought a car at auction that turned out to have been salvaged then reconditioned - man, was he pissed off about that when he found out.
 
Spectre said:
None of the major car stat outfits are actually 100% correct - even dealers can get caught out sometimes though they use VINcheck, CarFax, AutoCheck, etc., etc. One of my dealer clients bought a car at auction that turned out to have been salvaged then reconditioned - man, was he pissed off about that when he found out.
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Good point. I did some more reasearch and turns out all of the cars i was looking at were wrecked in one way or another before....
 
Went and took a look at http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?listingId=70327845 today for like 5 minutes. Didn't test drive it or anything, more just wanted to scope the car out.

Sales guy was totally bullshitting me the entire time. I could see he was just reading badges, etc. to tell me about the car and kept telling me how I'd pick up chicks in the car or if I wanted to trade in my POS. For fuck's sake...
 
Private sellers are the way to go. Dealers are a bad second.
 
I still can't wrap my head around the idea that it's normal to walk into a Ford dealership and ask for one of their non-certified used cars to be taken to a normal mechanic for an inspection. I guess I just have too much trust that they would have inspected the car and wouldn't be selling a lemon.

Anyway, I might go test drive that Mustang I linked 2 posts up in a few days. I will make sure to tell the sales guy to STFU and that he can save us both the trouble by not trying to convince me to get the car as I already have my mind made up on what type of car to get.
 
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for me it comes down to the fact that I would never trust a dealer outright to sell me a good used car...

this is especially true if you're buying a used car from a dealer that doesn't normally sell those cars. Their mechanics are only trained in newer cars that they sell.. and very rarely know enough about their used cars to find anything that might hurt you later on. A good shop down the road that works on older Fords (in your case) all the time will know exactly what to look for and will give you a better idea what to expect.
 
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Viper007Bond said:
kept telling me how I'd pick up chicks in the car or if I wanted to trade in my POS. For fuck's sake...
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Funny thing, if you get the Viper, the dealer will ask you the same question about the Mustang :) (and besides that, the Ad is not really descriptive, not sure I would trust that.)
 
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D-Fence said:
Funny thing, if you get the Viper, the dealer will ask you the same question about the Mustang :) (and besides that, the Ad is not really descriptive, not sure I would trust that.)
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take a look at more car ads around the US.. that one is pretty typical, especially coming from a dealer
 
rootrider said:
this is especially true if you're buying a used car from a dealer that doesn't normally sell those cars. Their mechanics are only trained in newer cars that they sell.. and very rarely know enough about their used cars to find anything that might hurt you later on. A good shop down the road that works on older Fords (in your case) all the time will know exactly what to look for and will give you a better idea what to expect.
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The one I'm looking at is at a well known Ford dealership that's been around for a long time, but I still would want to take it to a third party I guess.
 
Well I'm from SA, and what I did with my cousin was to look through a website like surf4cars where they list a variety of cars for sale. On the site we looked for the car we wanted which was a 2008 Polo Gti with similar specs (mileage etc.) and saw the best deal available. This was a reference.
We also went to an auction with his father and saw what the same (or similar) car could go for. With this info we went to the dealerships and tried to get a better deal by showing him this info. We preferred using the dealer to buy the car rather than a private seller or an auction because there were good financing options and little chance that there would be something wrong with the car.
We got a pretty good deal in the end thanks to the research we did beforehand.
hope this helps.
 
It's a risk reward calculation. Expensive car, expensive fix for stuff going wrong perhaps.

Buying from the dealer - especially with good feedback it may be that you take a risk and do not go for the inspection. If the dealer offers a warranty then they may be OK but a decision to be made.
 
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