Buying a Used Car

Buying a used car can be significantly easier than buying a new car because, in many cases, you can deal directly with the owner. The owner is may be trying to trade up to a new model with the sale of his old car or he could be unhappy with the trade in value that an auto dealership offered. His solution is to try and sell the car himself. You are at an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that you do not have to pay for the profit that the dealer will be making on whatever he paid for the car but, at the same time, the owner may have an unreasonable view of what the car is really worth. A good rule of thumb is to start off by offering 10 to 15 percent less than the owner is asking.

The process becomes more complex when you are dealing with a used car dealer. If the dealer accepted the car as a trade-in, he wants to make a profit on it. The same holds for if he bought the car at an auction. The wild card here is the condition of the car.

You need to have the car inspected. Chances are that you know someone who is very familiar with cars. Have them check the car over, inside and out, before purchasing. AAA may also offer this service.

One of the main things that anyone can check for, familiar with cars or not, is the mileage on the car. Normally a car has a useful life of 120,000 miles. If you are buying a car with 80,000 miles on it already, two-thirds of the car's useful life has been spent.

You can also do a quick test to look for signs that something is not as it should be. First, check the overall condition of the car. Does it appear that the car is put together properly? Second, look at the doors. Do they open and close with ease? If they do not, this could be a sign that the car has been in an accident before and had major work done to it.

Next, examine the paint job on the car. If there are bumps in the paint, the car could have been repaired for rust holes or some other type of occurrence happened. Open the hood as well. Look to see if there are overlapping colors. When this is shown under the hood, the car was another color at some point. Check also the appearance of the engine. Does it appear to be newer than the rest of the car? If so, this could be a different engine than the one put in at the time the car was manufactured.

As we showed with the purchases of new cars, you need to do your research. Find advertisements in the classified section of your newspaper or swap sheets for the particular car that you are looking at. This will give you a ballpark figure of how much the car would be worth.

There are major differences from buying a used car from a new car dealership and buying one from a used car dealership. Prices are usually lower at a used car dealership but the reliability of the cars on those lots are also more suspect. FTC law requires all used car lots, to post a Buyer's Guide sticker on the car. Check for it. On this sticker, a list of the warranties is posted. This can be a bonus for you but be careful. In most cases, used car lots do not have service departments. If they do not handle the repairs, then who does? Check with the Better Business Bureau if you are unsure about the reliability of their claims in regards to this or any other matter.

Learn how to tell a car's model year. Each car carries a unique Vehicle Identification Number (VIN). It is against the law to remove or change it. There are usually three places to look for this number: the dashboard, the firewall under the hood, and on the frame. If you do not see it, ask the salesman about it and where you can find it.

Use the 10th letter of the code to tell you how old the car is.

The decoding chart for that letter is listed below:

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