No Lemons Need Apply: Five Tips For Buying A Good Used Car
For most folks, buying a used car will be a significant financial decision
. This article will explore some of the key factors that you should consider as you seek to avoid acquiring a lemon.
Tip 1: Survey Market Data
A good first step is to gain market information from reliable sources. Consumer Reports provides a particularly useful service which shows the wholesale and retail price spreads on a variety of popular pre-owned vehicles. Supplement that information by assessing local market conditions.
Talk to individuals such as mechanics who be generally familiar with the buy and sell prices for actual transactions in your community. This process of communication will help you validate the market intelligence you have secured.
Tip 2: Check Out the Car's Pedigree
Once you have identified a vehicle, you'll likely want to study its pedigree carefully. Don't just look at the receipts from car repair services. Consider actually calling the company that serviced the car and try to speak with the mechanic who actually serviced the vehicle.
Some services will allow you to dig deeper into the past history of a vehicle. Your focus here is whether the car has been in an accident or been involved in some other situation that might decrease its market value.
If you are buying the vehicle from a certified pre-owned dealer who was offering a warranty, these considerations may be less salient. However, these factors may still give you significant negotiating leverage. Remember that knowledge is power.
Tip 3: Price is Everything But Not Everything!
Obviously, price is a key factor behind buying a used vehicle. Having said that, you won't necessarily be serving your own interests by zeroing in on just cost alone.
A prudent buyer focuses on the cost-benefit analysis of a multi-year period. In other words, what is likely to be the total cost of ownership?
Focusing on likely maintenance and repair costs as well as likely resale value will give you a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of cost. Cost is not just the price you pay initially but it is the total financial investment you will make over the life of the vehicle as long as you own it.
Tip 4: Choosing The Right Car
Buying a car is a lot more complicated than buying cereal - although the incredible plethora of options in both cases may raise some interesting similarities. Before you can choose which options you are interested in, you need to have a coherent way of identifying your true requirements.
Elements such as audio, safety features, air-conditioning, anti-lock brakes, power drive can only be evaluated against a criteria of useful versus necessary. Developing that criteria will require you to be a well-informed buyer. Before you can prioritize which features you need you need to have a reasonable understanding of which features you want.
Tip 5: It Takes a Village to Buy a Car
Buying a car is not a solitary experience. For one thing, you will have one or possibly more advisers who are assisting you in the process.
Consider holding a conference call with your advisers (e.g. spouse, mechanic, brother-in law) to discuss the pros and cons of the options you are evaluating. These days, there are a variety of free conference calling services that can variety you with a phone conference bridge. Just have your advisers dial in to the conference line at the same time so that you can have a joint discussion.
The same concept of conferencing can be applied during the car evaluation stage. In an ideal world you could get all the parties together. This is frequently not possible.
Consider holding a conference call with the seller, the seller's mechanic and your mechanic to discuss the evaluation of the vehicle. You'd be surprised how much more candid many people are in the context of a conference call compared to a physical meeting.
The suggestions outlined above will not cost too much. In fact several of these tips such as how you can use conference calling are free. However, these suggestions could potentially save you significant time and money and improve your chances of avoiding a lemon.
by: Andy Court
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