Buying a used car

[Matt Allen]

Eric – thank you very much for the four part used car videos! They were fantastic. I also found another site that recommended checking for the common eleven places for VIN numbers, which included both front fenders, all door jambs, hood, and trunk above the bumper or possibly behind the rear license plate. Also another individual showed how to identify a flood car. You stated to stay away from those but I don’t recall you stating what to look out for. Lastly, I own an ELM327 OBDII Bluetooth reader and a phone app called Torque which I used to pull codes for a car I was researching. I also went online to the government website and researched in advance all the recalls for the make/model car I was looking to purchase. Also, for $54.95 you can buy a 60 day subscription for unlimited car lockups by plate (only 5 by VIN) to CarFax and use it right on your smart phone when you’re looking at cars. Anyway, I hope you don’t mind my suggestions but I thought those were valuable additions to your already very comprehensive list.

I wanted to share an anecdote with you. Your information about the sunroof corners, being unrepairable in most cases at body shops was very valuable for me today, actually so were some other tips. My wife and I looked today at a Honda Accord posted on Craig’s list. The seller only owned it for two months and immediately he told us it had been in an accident but it wasn’t listed on CarFax, nor was it listed in the original CL posting, which made me suspicious. Regardless, I pulled out my four page list of items to check (which I created while watching your videos and have attached here for others to use). First thing I looked at were the corners of the sun roof and sure enough, there were creases on 3 of the four corners. Additionally the two front quarter panels and the hood were missing the VIN numbers but I was ok with that knowing it was repaired/replaced/repainted. However, what also bothered me was when I started running my fingers along all the body seams. the one by the passenger front door at the front quarter panel was NOT straight which to me was a red flag. It’s not a big deal but it shows poor workmanship and makes you wonder about the rest of the work done for the accident recovery. Another red flag was the fact that the rear tires were nearly void of tread and the front tires were brand new but when I turned out the wheels, I could feel, I could NOT see, but I could feel, that the inside treads on both front tires was already starting to wear faster than the rest of the tread. That might have been an issue to be resolved by an alignment but given everything else I saw I thanked the guy for his time and didn’t even test drive it. It had 141,000 miles and was a 2001. Again, not a big deal by itself but he had owned the vehicle only two months, had no service records for himself or the previous owner and seemed like he was trying to pull a fast one. What really made me confident in my decision to walk away was his crappy handshake, like grabbing a wet fish. 😉

Thanks again for your extremely valuable service. I want you to go to bed tonight with the comfort that you’ve have helped someone become more educated in the ways of purchasing and servicing their cars.

Stay dirty my friend….

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[EricTheCarGuy]

Probably my favorite thing is to hear how my work helps people. Thanks for sharing your experience with this post. I’m glad to hear that those videos helped you dodge a bullet.

It’s not always a question of poor workmanship when it comes to auto body repair. Mostly it’s the insurance companies and what they’ll pay to do a repair. Most times the estimate isn’t done correctly and there isn’t enough money to repair a vehicle properly. Still, vehicles that have been in collisions should be avoided.

As for flood cars. Normally you can tell by the smell. Also if you look up under the dash you can sometimes see the water line.

Thanks again.

[Author]

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