IMPORTANT: Start Here
All Cars Are Not Created Equal
Throughout the blueprint you will find tables of possible faults. At the right there are three columns labelled “Deal Breaker” A, B, and C. These columns correspond to the three cars below:
CAR A: 10-year-old Small Family Car, e.g. Toyota Corolla
CAR B: 6-year-old Mid-Size Family Car, e.g. Audi A6
CAR C: 2-year-old 4×4 SUV x, e.g. Honda CRV
For example: a minor paint repair on a 10-year-old Toyota Corolla would not be a deal breaker, assuming the price is adjusted accordingly; however, the same fault on a 2-year-old Honda CRV would be. If you decided to sell the Corolla after a year or two, the minor damage should not affect the price too much. However, the same isn’t true for the 3- or 4-year-old Honda CRV with body damage – the minor damage will have a substantial effect on the buying decision.
Part 1: Before Viewing The Vehicle
Before going to view the car, it’s always a good idea to seek out owners of the same model car to ask for their opinion of it. This is an important step when preparing to view the car because this information paints an accurate picture of potential day-to-day issues which could greatly influence your decision to buy, such as reliability, running costs, maintenance, fuel economy, driveability, etc. A quick web search of “owner car reviews” will yield numerous tales of past owners’ years of bliss or heartache with any particular car.
Also keep in mind that people are much more motivated to spread bad news if they’re dissatisfied than they are to spread good news if they’re satisfied. If someone has owned a car that gave constant heartache, they’ll be itching to tell their story to warn the public of the potential trouble they face, or to vent their anger at the manufacturer or useless agent. Ultimately, we are usually less likely to leave a review of a car that performed well and met our expectations when we bought it.
Arrival
Avoid arriving late in the afternoon. Sunlight later in the day is much kinder to bodywork than sunlight earlier in the day. If you can, arrive when the sun is high in the sky & any scratches or imperfections in the paint will be most visible. Give yourself plenty of time to view the car too – allow yourself at least an hour. You want to arrive relaxed and under no pressure to make an ill-informed decision.
Be sure to inspect the car when the paint-work is clean and dry. In an attempt cover an less than perfect body, the seller may chose a wet or frosty day to show the car. They can also leave the car to get dusty or dirty so as to conceal scratches or bodywork damage beneath.
Mental Preparation
Be friendly right from the word “go.” Being sociable has important implications further along, should you end up trying to buy the car. Being friendly sets the tone and lets the vendor relax a little. Whether it’s a private or dealer sale, you are more likely to get to the hidden truth – if there is any – if you are friendly with the seller. Smile, be courteous – engage in small talk. Building a bond with the seller will make it easier for him or her to explain the good, the bad, and the sometimes ugly aspects of the car with ease.
Be Prepared To Walk
While you want to be
friendly to the owner, it’s also important to maintain a comfortable distance. Should you see or hear something you don’t like in the car, you should be in a position to easily extract yourself from the buying process. This means your goal is to start the viewing process with the intention that if the car is not what you had hoped for, you can politely thank the seller for showing the car and gently withdraw from the sale.
We all hope that the car we are about to view is the one that has been garaged from new, serviced from new by the Main Agent, and lovingly pampered every Saturday morning by a fussy owner. The reality is that cars in anything close to this condition account for only 20% of cars on the road at best.
So with the remaining 80% of cars on the road in varying states of disrepair, we need to approach viewing any car with our eyes wide open. Our senses need to be on red alert to any cover-ups and shenanigans.
Advice from an old hand….
One of the best pieces of advice I received over the years is perhaps also the most ambiguous – it goes something like this:
Often I will be checking over a car, asking questions, and I just can’t put my finger on why I’m feeling uneasy about the car. It’s only after leaving the scene that I realise what exactly was giving me the “something’s not adding up here” feeling. If you do get this feeling, just make sure you leave before putting your hand in your pocket!
Relax, it’s all ahead of you!
Don’t fret though – follow the steps outlined in The Auto Buyer Secrets Blueprint and you can be confident that you have carried out a thorough inspection which will uncover any serious gremlins, should there be any.
Right, let’s get to it!
Next:
Part 2 : Vehicle History Check
