Used Cars Tips – How To Protect Yourself Against Sellers Who Lie
In a perfect world, all car sellers would be 100% honest, but this isn?t a perfect world. After all, do you really expect car sellers to be all ?what you are looking at is a piece of junk and in addition to my $5,000 price tag you need to spend a few thousand dollars on repairs?? This isn?t going to happen. For that reason, protect yourself from sellers who outright lie or slightly stretch the truth. How can you do this?
Remember That People Lie: You don?t need to outright accuse all vehicle sellers of lying because some might have a great quality vehicle that needs no repairs or has had no issues in prior years. With that said, it doesn?t matter how ?nice? someone seems because if they have a car that they can?t sell without stretching the truth a bit, they are going to stretch. While you don?t want to be over-the-top paranoid, it is important to know that this practice does take place.
Gather Information About the Car Beforehand: If you do your research online and do a search on a vehicle site or use a desktop car finder, you will get a lot of good information ahead of time. You should see some detailed pictures; get the vehicle?s make, model, year, and mileage. This information can and should be used for a small amount of research.
Test Drive the Vehicle: Unless you know the risks of buying a long distance car, you are encouraged to set your sights on local vehicles. This is because you can test drive and inspect the car. Test driving can alert you to any problems with that specific car, such as the need for a new headlight, new tires, or new brakes.
Research the Car in Question: Before you go and test drive a vehicle, do research on the vehicle itself. Testing driving is important for specific vehicle issues, but what about any know problems that may be plaguing entire models? Look at a customer reviews and see what current or former owners have to say. Then, look at recall information. If you find a car that had been recalled due to a part malfunction, ask the seller if that issue was fixed.
As stated above, there are benefits to searching for cars online first because you can gather information and do this research ahead of time. If you ever find yourself at a dealership lot on impulse, never agree to buy a car right away. Gather information on the vehicle make, model, and year and then return home to do a check online for recall information, customer reviews, and so forth.
Know You Have a Choice: So lets say that you agree to meet a vehicle seller to test drive their car. You get there and are basically looking at a car that isn?t nearly as good as it was made to sound online. What should you do? You have a choice. In fact, you have many choices. First, you can walk away. Second, you can buy the car at the price the seller is asking. Third, you can negotiate and get a lower price because the vehicle wasn?t so great after all.
Check Estimated Values: As stated above, you can negotiate a better price (if you want) if you ever catch the vehicle seller in a lie. But what type of price should you go down to? Instead of just pulling a figure out of midair, do your homework first. Visit the Kelley Blue Book website and plug in the make, model, year, and mileage. What you want to do though is three separate value checks on one car ? all the different conditions. So say you are faced with a poor car instead of an excellent car, you have a good value to toss back at the seller who lied.
Now that you know how to handle sellers who misrepresent their cars are you ready to start buying?