How do I buy a used car?

By

Kentucky-lass

I bought my daughter's first car (she paid me back ;-)) from an individual. It was an excellent car, and I wish I had one like it now. It was a Chrysler Le Baron. and a one-owner car. I learned about the car from a newspaper ad. The car was exactly as described in the ad. I t hink it is rare to see someone describe a car in "excellent condition" when it is not.
The lady we bought the car from had an "emotiional attachment" to the car, which I understand, perfectly. She asked Kelli--my daughter--if she would take good care of the car, and of course we assured her that we would.
I think-- most of the time--you can judge, quite accurately, if a person is being honest with you about the condition of the car, and of course, we checked out everything.
As far as getting a decent car for $1,000? I would say if you are very lucky, you may. I would definitely take someone with me who knows about cars.
Good luck!!

I'll give you the same advice I gave my own daughter. She didn't listen and is having all kinds of problems now. Don't buy the first car you look at and don't buy with your emotions. Just because a car looks sharp, doesn't mean it will run as good as it looks. She even checked it out on carfax, but all that told her was the car had never been in an accident and had never been in a flood. Look for oil leaks, listen to the engine, does it knock or ping, whine or whistle? If so let it go. Try everything including the heater, air conditioner, radio. Check lights, horn etc. If the mileage is over 100,000 mi. Forget it. Make sure there's enough tread on the tires, so you won't have to make a major investment on tires right away. If possible try to buy a one-owner. Alot of small car dealers get their cars from auctions, that means some dealer couldn't sell them because of their condition. TAKE YOUR TIME!

By Margaret (Guest Post)

Check with the Automobile Association. Here in Canada it`s CAA.I find them to be very helpful

By syd (Guest Post)

Someone else sent in the following info ...

Carfax.com has a service to check a cars history. It appears to cost 14.99 per report. Or you can order unlimited reports for 19.99. http://www.carfax.com/

Has anyone used this?
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We bought a truck and a car from dealers and if you request a Carfax they do it for free! They don't volunteer this information! We would not buy a car without it!

By Tawnda (Guest Post)

You can look for the car you want in your price range and request that you be able to take it to a mechanic of your choice for a general inspection.

Not all, but some places will do an inspection for free or for a minimal cost. This isn't always a guarantee you won't have ANY problems, but they can check the obvious areas you may encounter problems with and let you know what it may cost you to fix.

By

ThriftyFun

Cars.com has some useful information...
http://www.cars.com/carsapp/national/?srv=parser&act=display&tf=/advice/shopping/howtobuy/howtobuyindex.tmpl

By

ThriftyFun

Carfax.com has a service to check a cars history. It appears to cost 14.99 per report. Or you can order unlimited reports for 19.99. http://www.carfax.com/

Has anyone used this?

By

ThriftyFun

http://www.samarins.com/history/

By

ThriftyFun

Samarins.com has a checklist you can take with you when you search for a used car...
http://www.samarins.com/check/checklist.html

By

ThriftyFun

Here's on older request on a similar topic.
Can I get a decent car for $1,000?
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf000513.tip.html