I've been on the hunt for a used car for about a month and I stumbled upon a car that I was very interested in. Low miles, clear title and a car I thought I would like to own. I went to check it out, searched high and low for anything wrong with the car cosmetically and found nothing. Took it for a test drive and loved it. Tested the transmission and I was all smooth sailing. Nothing leaking, no weird noises.
I was very tempted to make an offer right then and there (asking for $2,000) but I held out and asked if I could get it inspected by my mechanic. The seller agreed that it was okay and the car was in my mechanic's shop a few days later for a pre-purchase inspection (PPI). He charges $100 for a PPI which I was fine with spending if it meant peace of mind when buying a used car.
About 45 minutes into the inspection, my mechanic came into the office and said he was going to cut it short and only charge me $50 because he had already found enough wrong with the car mechanically to suggest against me purchasing the car. He said the cost of the repairs alone would've been about the same price of what I would've paid for the car.
Had I bought the car, I would've paid around $2,000 and then paid around $1,400 to $2,000 shortly down the road for a total of about $3,400-4,000. In the end though, I only paid $50 and learned a valuable lesson when buying used cars.
Long story short, pay a little extra money for a pre-purchase inspection when buying a used car.
Submitted November 29, 2018 at 01:12PM by Corr521 https://ift.tt/2KHucgf
