This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Autos, Trucks and More, buy used car, car research, purchase car. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 22, 2009
Most car owners have mixed experiences when it comes to buying cheap used cars. Below I have listed 3 tips on how you can contibute to make your car purchase experience as pleasant as possible.
1. Start With Asking the Basic Question: What is My Budget?
Most people in the used car market tend to consider the cost of the car only. However, many car purchasers often forget additional expenses that follows, such as
* gas expenses
* insurance expenses
* road taxes
* maintenance and repair expenses
Depending on which model you purchase these additional costs can be pretty high. To figure out an estimates of such costs, mechanics or dealers what typical repairs you can expect plus a cost estimate on these. If you do a little research you can compare cost estimates from several sources as well. It’s smart to do a little legwork upfront. As soon as you have figured out the maximum amount you can afford to spend on your car purchase you have to stick with this limit and never override it.
2. Check out if the vehicle have had an accident repair
How can you know whether the car you consider to purchase have had an accident? Did you know 20 percent of the cars on the roads have been repaired for accidents? So, it you are searching for cheap used cars there’s a probability that it will have had an accident.
The best way to get the truth about this is letting an independant car inspections company check the vehicle before you purchase it. If the inspection company concludes that there have been a major accident damage you got two options;
- get the vehicle properly fixed at the seller’s cost
- look for another car
3. Test Drive the Vehicle
You should be able to test drive the car. It’s important to drive it on a range of roads and it should encompass a drive of at least 15-20 miles. You also have to check out a few things;
- does the vehicle have a valid tax disc (license)?
- does it have a MOT certificate?
- do you find a written statement saying that you are covered under the seller’s or your own policy before you start to drive? Be aware that it’s always the driver
who is responsible for that the vehicle is capable of being used on the road.
It’s smart to take a friend with you on the test drive and hear his or her opinion. You should both
- look for unusual things like uncommonly much smoke or blue smoke when starting up
- listen very carefully for banging and other unusual noises.
- check if the steering feels normal
- check for pulling and wandering when using the brakes
Doing a little legwork can make buying cheap used cars a great experience.
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