Transcription
When it comes to buying used cars, buying from a private seller can actually be one of the best ways to save some money when buying a used car. However, the biggest problem when buying a used car from a private seller is all the risk and trouble that it may cause. By buying a used car, you don't know if this person treated the car very well or if they're trying to sell the car because they had some kind of big issue with the car. It's kind of a risk-reward type situation because on the one hand, you can save a great deal of money, but on the other hand, you could also possibly be stranded because you bought a bad car.
I'm going to give my tips and advice on buying a used car. And not only are these tips that I've used myself, but a good portion of my family is involved in the auto industry, as far as being a technician, ranging all the way to vehicle inspector. So, a lot of these tips come with a great deal of credibility from them. And a lot of these tips may seem basic at first, but I'm going to go into a lot of detail as far as each individual tip that actually may cover some things that may be a little bit uncommon. Because when it comes to buying a used car, those finer details are really what makes a big difference.
But before I go any further, I did want to share this interesting fact for the day related to the auto industry, which is that out of all car sales, 75% of it is used cars. If you found that fact interesting, please hit that like button. And now, let's get into the advice on buying a used car.
The first major tip is to get a VIN check on any car you bought to buy. You see, every car out there has what's known as a VIN number, which is unique to that car and helps identify that car. Using that VIN number, you can actually run a report that tells you the ownership of the car, if it's been in any major accidents, and it basically tells you a history of that vehicle. Usually, this is referred to as what's known as a Carfax. These reports can range from $30 to $50, depending on how many you get, but it's well worth it. And I'll give some reasons why.
If you run this report and find out that the ownership of the car has changed hands quite a few times, then the owner you're talking to right now may not actually know the full history of the vehicle they're talking about. He could have maintained the car very well and actually known that there's no known accidents as far as his ownership, but he doesn't necessarily account for all the previous ownerships as well. Now, the general advice I usually give to people, especially people that aren't too familiar with cars, is that when you're buying a used car, to make sure that it only has one owner, which is the owner you're actually talking to.
Now, the other key point that a Carfax will tell you is whether or not the car you're looking at has been in any major accident. You see, a car can have what's known as a clean title, but it could also have something known as a rebuild title, or salvage title, or there's actually plenty of other different types of categories. You can Google the different definitions if you're curious, but at the end of the day, to play it safe, you're going to want a clean title. Sure, sometimes you can find a pretty good deal on a car that's been rebuilt and that has been in a major accident, but unless you're really familiar with cars and repairing cars, it's just a really good idea to just have a clean title, especially when you consider that there's plenty of other options or plenty of cars that people are trying to sell out there.
Now, super important disclaimer as far as the VIN number and using any Carfax, it won't tell you every single accident it may have been in. For example, if I run my car into a curb and have to replace a major part in that car, I can replace it myself without even reporting it, or I can just not even replace that part at all, which means that major problem or accident that was unreported becomes your problem.
This brings me to my next major tip, which is to ask a lot of questions. I'll have a list summarized as far as different questions you should be asking as far as when you're buying a used car in the description of this video, but I'm going to summarize a couple of key ones right now. You'd be surprised by how much someone's willing to tell you as far as their used car, especially if they're even trying to hide issues about their car that you can find out simply just by asking them.
Personally, I like to phrase questions in a way that entices people to be more honest and basically gain sympathy from the previous owner, instead of just saying something as simple as, "Hey, is there anything wrong with this car?" where the previous owner can simply just say no. Maybe try something a little bit different. Try it this way: "Hey, is there anything wrong with this car, even minor issues? The last car I bought, the previous owner didn't tell me about a lot of major issues, and unfortunately, that cost me a lot of money, and right now I'm pretty short on cash."
Or, if you don't necessarily want to go for the sympathy, try to at least phrase a question in a way that doesn't allow the person to simply say no. Ask, "What kind of minor issues does a car have over the past five years, especially if they've owned that car for the past five years?" From the seller's perspective, it's a lot more difficult to say no, there's been no minor issues, especially because you didn't phrase it in a way that simply allowed them to say no. And on top of that, you're kind of phrasing it in this way that makes it absurd for the person to say that there's never been any minor issues in the past five years. So they may be willing to divulge a little bit more information and may indicate that they had minor issues as far as the tires, in which case you should really thoroughly look into those tires and make sure that there aren't any major issues.
Another good question to ask is, "Ask why they're selling the car and what they use the car for." If they say they use the car typically to get to work and they no longer need it, you could probably press that question a little bit further. If they were using that car to get to work every day, but they're not necessarily buying a new car, are they moving out of state? Did they get a new job, or they're working from home? Don't press too much, because some people can get pretty angry when you're asking too personal questions. But the point is, is sometimes things don't add up in people's stories, which is actually a huge red flag that they're trying to sell the car for some other reason. If they're being a little bit dishonest as far as why they're selling the car, then there's a good chance they're being a little bit dishonest as far as the maintenance and how well the car was cared for.
And like I said, I have a whole list of questions as far as in the description. And I know people can feel a little bit uncomfortable asking these different questions to people, but think about it this way: if you were buying a used car from a dealer, you would have no problem asking any questions, or even a lot of questions, to this dealer. And chances are, you're spending thousands of dollars of your hard-earned money as far as buying a used car. So, if someone gets upset as far as you asking them questions, just be polite and, you know, back out of the deal and recognize that there's plenty of other used cars to buy from other different sellers.
Now, the next major tip I highly recommend is to really thoroughly test drive the car. Now, this may seem inherently obvious when buying a used car, but the problem I see with a lot of people is that they don't dedicate enough time to test driving the used car. And not even just that, but people don't test drive a car in a variety of settings. Typically, I see people test drive a car just around a parking lot, or they go around a neighborhood just for about five minutes and say that's good enough.
But see, the problem with that is that sometimes problems with cars, especially used cars, they don't necessarily have signals right away. So, for example, if you're driving a car in a neighborhood at low speeds, it may not necessarily actually have a problem at that point. But when you take a car to a highway and drive at fast speeds, and then take it back down to low speeds and drive around the neighborhood, it actually may start to stall or show some signs of problems. The same can be said as far as the steering wheel. For example, some people test drive the car in the neighborhood and they turn left, they turn right, but they're not necessarily turning the steering wheel all the way to the right or all the way to the left because it's not necessarily needed to.
So, what I recommend is to go in a parking lot and turn the steering wheel all the way left, drive a little bit, and then turn it all the way right and drive a little bit. And then you can begin to see if there's any signs or problems that only happen on these extreme ends as far as turning left and right. The whole point, though, is that when it comes to cars, especially used cars, sometimes these problems only happen on extreme conditions and not necessarily on easy driving conditions.
And kind of as a bonus tip is to think about the time you're spending inspecting and test driving the car in terms of the actual money you're about to spend. And what I mean by this is, if you think about the time it takes to save the money for a car, let's just say you're buying a car for $5,000, it probably took you at least a few months to save that amount. And then, if you think about you're only test driving a car for 10, 15 minutes, then you're only spending 15 minutes on a $5,000 purchase that may not necessarily be in your best interest. And it may actually be in your best interest to spend a little bit more time, especially if you're going to have a huge investment of $5,000 into a used car.
And all of this kind of brings me to my next major tip, which is to thoroughly inspect the car. Now, as far as inspecting the car, you can either do this yourself or find somebody who is mechanically inclined as far as cars. For example, if you don't know a lot about cars, perhaps you know a friend or have an acquaintance that does know a lot about cars, and you can pay them $100 or so to come out to the used car and inspect the vehicle for you. It's kind of a win-win situation because on their end, they have a relatively low amount of effort they have to put in for $100, and on your end, you're saving a couple hundred dollars that you would have had to spend on an actual professional mechanic.
But at the end of the day, if you don't know anybody that's mechanically inclined and knows how to deal with used cars, then you may actually have to hire a professional mechanic or a technician, and somebody that actually is aware of how cars operate, and pay them a couple hundred dollars as far as inspecting that vehicle. Now, it may seem actually kind of crazy to spend a couple hundred dollars on a car that you may not actually even buy, but think about it this way: if I spend $500 on a professional mechanic to inspect my car, and they find a problem that would have cost me a couple thousand dollars on a major car repair, that actually ends up being a pretty good benefit as far as, you know, I paid $500 and I ended up saving a couple thousand dollars I would have had to spend.
But I'm going to give some tips as well as far as how you can inspect a car visually. And even these tips can be applied even if you do choose to go with a professional mechanic, because sometimes even professional mechanics can still miss some of these mistakes. The first thing I'd recommend is do a visual detailed inspection as far as the color of the car. For example, if I see that a car door is slightly different colored, you know, it's a silver, but it's not necessarily the same silver as the rest of the body of the car, then it's a good sign that that car door has been replaced or at least has been repainted. A really good place to look for this is on the bumper of a car, because people have fender benders or little minor scrapes on the front of their car, and they just end up repainting it with cheap paint or something like that. And so then it's a really good idea to look at the bumper and see if it's the same color as the rest of the body. And if it is, you just end up asking a question and see if they have a reasonable explanation on why the bumper was repainted.
Another good thing to do is to open up the hood of the car and see if anything visually stands out. For example, if I'm looking underneath the hood of a car and I see something majorly leaking, then that's obviously a really bad sign. But another good example of this would be if I'm looking under the hood of the car and I see something that stands out that clearly is new and actually is a lot cleaner than the rest of the pipes in the car, then there's a good chance that that pipe has been replaced. So, once again, this is probably a good question to ask the owner and ask them if they replaced themselves and if there's a reason why they replace that pipe. You should also look at the seams of the car, as well as welding spots, because that can also be a good indicator if anything's been newly replaced.
And this may seem a little bit extreme, and may not necessarily always be an option, but it's a good idea to find the exact same model and make of the car and find it somewhere else and kind of visually inspect that car and then compare it to the used car you're looking to buy. That way, you can kind of compare the two cars and see if there's anything visually different about the car you're about to buy, and then that may actually raise some questions. None of the things I'm saying have to be a hard pass as far as buying the used car. You can still buy that used car, but it's a good idea to ask a question. And even if they divulge and say something like, "You know, I did have to replace a hose on the car," then that may be a reason you can use it as leverage as negotiation. Right before you give them their final offer, you can actually bring up these few issues that they had to replace, and that's reason for concern for you, and that's the reason you're giving them a little bit of a lower offer.
Now, last thing as far as visually inspecting underneath the hood is to look at the fluid levels. For example, if I notice that the washer fluid level or that the oil level is a little bit low, or perhaps completely empty, that's a pretty good indication that the person that owns a car isn't necessarily too interested in maintaining their car that well.
Now, the next thing when it comes to inspecting the car is you should have a diagnostic tool, which is known as an OBD reader. Now, don't necessarily be too afraid, because these devices aren't necessarily too expensive, and they're pretty easy to use as well. Basically, you just plug in this device underneath the car as far as underneath the steering wheel, and it basically gives you a reading as far as if there's any mechanical issues with the engine. For example, if the check engine light is on, then it will tell you on the OBD reader as far as what the actual issue is. And if you don't necessarily want to buy a diagnostic tool yourself, you can actually take it to an AutoZone or O'Reilly's, and they will do it for you. And in my experience, it's always been free, and they never charge you.
And the other little neat thing this diagnostic tool will tell you is if the diagnostic is actually ready or not. And what I mean by this is, if I had the check engine light on, somebody could actually disconnect the battery and reconnect it, and the car would still turn on, but the check engine light wouldn't be on at that very moment. Or, in a more extreme case, they could actually take the light bulb out as far as the indicator light for the check engine light, so then there would be no way of knowing if the check engine light is actually on or not. But this diagnostic tool would tell you all those different things.
Now, last important part as far as visual inspection or inspecting the car is to visually inspect the interior of the car, because that can also be a good sign as far as how well the person cared for their car. For example, if there's a lot of scratches and stains in the interior of the car, then that may be a sign that they didn't necessarily care too much for the car visually, which also may be a sign that they don't necessarily care for the car mechanically. Another good part as far as visually inspecting the interior of the car is look at the floor of the car and see if there's any water line marks in the car. You see, if a car has been flooded and actually went through a big flood, then there's a good sign that you'll see a water stain line in the interior of the car. And if the car has been flooded at any point of its life, then I would highly recommend to stay away from that car.
Now, the fifth major tip I want to give is a little bit shorter of a tip, but that's to take your time as far as the car buying process. You see, when it comes to buying anything, the quicker you end up buying something, the more likely you are to make a costly mistake. This is why salesmen always push you to buy something as quick as possible. So, it's a good idea if you have a car right now to kind of plan ahead as far as when you may actually need another used car.
The other thing too to consider as far as buying a used car is recognize that there's plenty of used cars out there, and they may not necessarily be the perfect one out there right now, but perhaps in a couple of months, there will be the perfect used car for you. So, if something's not necessarily lining up quite right, perhaps the owner seems to be a little bit shady, or perhaps the price isn't just right, then just be patient and recognize that there's always going to be a new opportunity down the road, especially when you consider that you're going to be having this used car typically for the next five to seven years. So then it's a good idea to make sure that you're really solid as far as buying the used car, because it's not necessarily something you want to be reminded of as far as a regret for the next five to seven years.
Now, I understand buying a used car, especially a used car from a private seller, can end up being a little bit of a scary process, but I hope some of these tips actually make that process a little bit smoother for you. And if you have any further questions as far as buying a used car, feel free to comment down below. Like I said, I'm not necessarily a car expert myself, but I have come from a family background that is very automotive-based. And if you have any of your stories as far as buying a used car and what that experience was like, feel free to comment down below. And especially some of those more horror type stories as far as buying a used car, because those can end up being insightful as well as a little bit entertaining.
That's it for this video. If you found this video useful at all, please give it a big like. I'd appreciate it a lot. And if you're the type of person that likes personal finance, business, or economics, you're going to want to hit that subscribe button to stay tuned for more.