One of the riskiest purchases you can make is to buy a second hand car. However, it is far more financially pragmatic to buy a used car. They are often just as good in the short term as brand new cars, while costing far less. Most people find that their only option is to buy a used car, as they are so much cheaper and they still need to get loans to buy them.
What, then, do you do in order to make sure you avoid the risks involved? The key to avoiding buying lemons is to do a lot of research. Part of this research is to look at the history of the vehicle you are buying. It will show up any hidden dark secrets that the vehicle in question may be hiding.
This includes such details as the vehicle’s identification number, the make and model, how old it is, the amount of Km’s it has travelled, the engine type, and the country it was manufactured in.
You will be able to ascertain whether the vehicle has been in any accidents by seeing if it has: insurance company records, law enforcement records, collision repair company records, and so forth.
This will help in finding out whether the vehicle in question has ever been caught up in criminal activities, or has been the victim of theft.
This will show you whether the vehicle is a junk car, a salvage automobile, or a rebuilt vehicle.
This is important for knowing exactly how many owners the vehicle in question has had.
This will be able to show you this particular piece of information: where the sale of the vehicle has taken place each time it was sold, right from the first moment it was sold brand new.
If the car you are looking at still has money owing on its loan that the current owner took out to buy it with, you need to know. Otherwise if you buy it, the car won’t actually belong to you. It doesn’t matter if you are buying or selling a car that has an outstanding loan balance, it must be declared in the first place.
You cannot find this info in a vehicle history check.
If you can ascertain that it was in an accident, you won’t be able to learn the finer details of what caused the accident and what damage the car took on.
If there are any problems that the car has right now that the seller is unscrupulously hiding from you, the history report won’t illuminate this information. After doing a full history check, don’t think that you are now safe to buy the car. You also have to have a full mechanical check done on it. A history check will, however, be handy for the mechanic to know about so they can have an idea of what possible problems to look for.
These factors can easy to be ignored, however, they might affect the price of your car negatively.
Valuable information. Thanks Kate for sharing.