Questions To Ask When Buying A Used Car - Part 3

We are back with part three of the series, Questionswith confusing, incomplete, or just downright incorrect
to Ask When Buying a Used Car. In part two, wedata.
covered the questions about the drive train, serviceI like to take a blank sheet of paper and begin each
history, and accident history. In this part we are gettingentry with the year, make, model, price, and phone
right down into the finer details of what questions tonumber from the ad while I am dialing. That means I
ask when you are interviewing used car sellers overam writing about that vehicle before I even have the
the phone before you travel out to see their car forperson on the line. From there I just add the details and
sale.then make a line across and call another one. After
It's worthwhile to ask the seller how much rust their carseveral calls have been made, it's easy to look back
has. Let's talk about rust. Even a car that is only a fewand see which ones look the best. Take your notes
years old can have a little rusty spot or two. An olderwith you on your actual visit and compare what the
automobile that is for example 10 or 15 years old canseller has told you with your sheet to see if they were
potentially have anywhere between no rust at all andbeing straight with you over the phone.
a serious cancer condition. No one likes a rusty car, butAsk the sellers if there are any problems that they are
it's obvious that the less there is the better.aware of with their car? Again make notes on their
It is always interesting to ask about rust over theanswers. It's okay to spend a little time on this one.
phone with a used car because everyone has aYou can subtly remind them that it's important to be
different perception about how much rust their car has.truthful here by telling them what you want the car for
It is difficult to quantify, and it's all relative. Some peopleand why you are concerned about its future reliability.
have told me that their car is very rusty, and when IAsk them if this car needs anything in order to be safe
went to see it I found that it had almost no rust at allto drive right now, in the near future, and in the distant
by my standards! The opposite scenario is morefuture.
typical.You should always ask them what they have done in
The answers to the rust question are often misleading,terms of maintenance or repairs to the car lately, and
but ask anyway and write down their responses. Ifif they have the receipts to prove the work. If they
you do go out to look at the car later, you can learnhave no receipts, then be very skeptical of the
more about the seller by referring to your notes.maintenance history. No service records usually mean
Speaking of notes, it's a really good idea to takeincomplete maintenance which spells trouble for any
careful notes when car shopping over the phone. It isused vehicle later in life.
possible to gather so much information in a relativelyThat wraps up part three. In part four, I'll cover some
short period of time, that if you don't record whatmore specifics including expensive-to-replace
you've learned in a systematic way, you will end upcritical-car-components! Thanks for reading.