At the end of Part I, I made the statement that when you’re searching for a used car or truck, your job is not to approve vehicles, it’s to eliminate them.
Why? Because most used cars come with little or no warranty. So before buying one, you need to have it inspected by a competent mechanic. Such a check won’t guarantee a car that’s perfect, but it could reveal problems that you, as a layman, might not catch. But such inspections can cost $50-$150. You need to weed out any obvious “lemons” long before you reach that point or you'll quickly go broke paying inspection fees.
So….where do you find used vehicles and how do you eliminate the lemons?
One thing you need is a source of prospects that’s local. It used to be that your town newspaper was the main place to go, but although you’ll still find ads there, the number has dropped considerably. So take a look at the internet.
Start with Craigslist.com. Since you can specify the locale you want to search, you can hunt for vehicles within a reasonably driving range. You can also specify the make, model and year you’re interested in, plus a price range.
First, though, check Craigslist’s information on avoiding scams. Believe me, a lot of scammers are out there.
When I first started looking for “Mike” I ran into quite a few. There was, for example, the person who needed to sell their truck immediately--at a very cheap price--because they were being shipped out to Iraq. Interestingly, I found an ad for the exact same make, model and year of truck that had been posted a day earlier, featuring the exact same language, except this time the owner was going to Dubai. In both cases, the owner offered to “ship the vehicle from Dallas to the buyer’s location.” Since I was searching the Dallas/Fort Worth Craigslist, I couldn’t help but wonder why the vehicle needed to be “shipped" at all.
Of course, chances are that there is no such vehicle and this ad is being run on Craigslist all over the country, to lure buyers into sending money to the scammer. This is why Craigslist specifies that all offers to ship cars are fraudulent.
In fact, you should never buy a used car you haven’t seen and driven. I don’t care how pretty the picture is, I don’t care how cheap the price is, I don’t care what kind of a “Must sell!” sob story the seller pitches you. Never buy a car you haven’t seen and driven. And had checked by your mechanic.
Another good source for ads is Autotrader.com. There, you specify make, model, a range of model years and a price range. You can also specify the maximum distance to the car or the zip code you want Autotrader to search.
Edmonds.com will let you specify a make and model, then tell you how many cars it has listed, broken down by model year.
So….you look, you see the kind of car you want, within your price range and close enough so that it won’t take a major road trip to reach it. Now it’s time to go check it out, right?
Wrong. First, run a report on the VIN.
VIN stands for Vehicle Identification Number. Each vehicle has its own individual VIN. You can find it near the lower part of the windshield on the driver’s side, either on a metal plate on the dashboard or etched into the windshield itself.
Why check the VIN? Because it’s the second way to recognize a lemon, without spending the time or gas money to actually go see the car.
Take the VIN and run it on AutoCheck. AutoCheck and CARFAX both sell reports that provide a lot—but not all—information about a vehicle’s history. How many owners has it had? How many repairs? Has it been in a wreck? Was it a fleet or lease vehicle? Has any problem been reported with the title?
Why do I recommend AutoCheck over CARFAX? In a word, price. AutoCheck will give you a month’s worth of unlimited vehicle reports for about $45. For the same price, CARFAX only gives you five reports. I found that I often wanted to check more than five VINS in a single hour’s worth of online searching. (BTW, if an ad doesn’t list the VIN, email or call the seller and ask for it. If they won’t provide it, cross that vehicle off your list.)
You do need to actually read these reports. Sometimes a dealer will provide one --“Look! Free VIN report with every car!”--and you’ll be tempted to just glance at it or not bother reading it at all. After all, if they’re willing to let you see it, it must be fine, right?
Wrong. Read the report. Carefully. I was given one report by a used car dealer that showed a lot of parts replaced in the first few years of the vehicle’s life. A lot of parts. The dealer tried to convince me this was good, that “all those parts are now new.” But what kind of car needs a dozen major components replaced within the first 20,000 miles? In a word, a lemon. A vehicle either badly built or badly maintained. It’s entirely possible to ruin a new car or truck quite quickly. Run it too hard or too hot. Never replace the coolant, transmission fluid or the oil. Make it tow weights or carry loads it wasn’t designed to handle. Result? A mechanic’s dream...and a buyer’s nightmare
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For that reason, AutoCheck is again, only a tool to eliminate vehicles from your search, not guarantee that they’re okay. So if the Autocheck report looks good, it’s on to the next step….go look at the vehicle. We’ll talk about that in Part III.
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