The used car seller

Take care picking used car seller

When it comes to buying a used car, the main things consumers have to keep in mind is “beware.”

Despite all the commercials telling you there are services out there that will give you the damage history of a vehicle you’re considering buying, there are no guarantees. Most of those services depend on information reaching them from several sources and if there is a natural time lag from the time damage happens and the information gets to the vehicle history service.

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We have not yet perfected the ability to instantaneously post a damage report on line because so much depends on evaluation – a crash occurs; the vehicle is transported to an inspection agency (dealership or other service station/repair shop); the repairer does an evaluation and reports back to the owner; the owner contacts an insurance agency who may or may not perform its own evaluation or ask for others; other evaluations are performed; the owner chooses his repairer or decides to walk away; the car is repaired or scrapped; the claim is resolved; the information is added to the insurer’s and/or service department’s database; and finally, at some time; it’s forwarded to a vehicle-history collection service (if applicable, according to the supplier of that information – the forwarding of information is membership/voluntary service to which that company may not belong).

So, as you can see, the adding of information to the vehicle-history aggregator takes some time (and not necessarily according to a “set” timeline), if it gets there at all.

So it’s up to buyers to protect themselves as best they can and that involves a series of steps, starting with considering the purchase from a reputable dealer within the community – look for chamber of commerce and/or better business bureau (BBB) certificates hanging prominently on the walls of the dealership.

Another blatant giveaway, if you’re scanning the cars-for-sale classifieds, are multiple ads featuring the same contact information. These vehicles are sold by curbsiders – people who buy cars (often in bad shape) and sell them for a bit of a profit without much improvement (or vehicles that require a lot of work purchased as they are, and that then end up with only minimal work performed in order to pass a pre-sale certification).

Curbsiders and private sellers don’t offer guarantees because they live off the money they make. Reputable dealers do offer guarantees because they live off their reputations.

This is not to say you’re going to get a more satisfying purchase from a dealership than from a corner log (which sometimes feature signs with bad spelling) or from a private sale, but you’re chances are better of not getting ripped off. And, you probably have better recourses after the purchase should things go terribly wrong.

For most people, vehicles are the second biggest purchase they’ll make in their lifetimes; make sure it isn’t the second biggest financial mistake of your lifetime.

And oh, about that 1996 Volkswagen Golf with different coloured body panels. It’s not indicative of lazy workmanship from salvaged panels – it was actually produced that