Hey guys, so lately I've been looking at several used cars, and have been asking some of our members for advice/recommendations (thanks guys), but I had one main general question.

How do you guys go about the pre purchase inspection on a used car, and the mechanic you'd like to take it to is too far away? Would you guys just take it to any mechanic that's close by, take it to the official dealership or what?

Tomorrow I'll be looking at a car that seems decent and is priced fairly, but it's in an area where I'm not too familiar with, and if everything checks out (I like it enough to buy it) I would like to have it inspected, but the mechanics that have been recommended are too far away. What would you guys do?

Lastly, if any of you guys know of a mechanic in the Rosemead / San Gabriel area, please let me know as that's where I'll be checking out the car tomorrow.

I'd appreciate any help/advice from you guys. Thanks in advance

 

I'd just take it to a close by shop and inspect it myself/with mechanic. Most importantly to get it in the air and give it a good once over from underneath, but if your not mechanically inclined then the mech really has no reason to mislead you.

 

Take it to a local shop.

 

Get it on a lift and hope you don't see any weld marks on the frame

What kind of car is it?

I know of some guys in South El Monte... they are popular guys with the Accord crowd as they've done lots of swaps, not sure if you know about them or if its too far? Right off the 60.

 

My regular mechanic is far from me too, so I take stuff like that to a local shop that is ok. They'll usually walk around the car with you. Ask them if they have a paint thickness gauge too; it's a great way to check for re-sprays/possible collisions.

 

Just trust the dealership. They look out for your best interest.

 

I agree with others take it to a local shop that has a good reputation. Call before hand and ask if they do pre-purchase inspections, if they sound confused or ask what your talking about go to the next place. Certain dealerships offer this service as well, and they have a very specialized procedure for doing it. It depends on the car, how much your spending and how uptight you are about how far you should go with this.

When I had a shop we did a fair amount of pre-purchase inspections, we built some what of a reputation about being very picky. It was a service we provided for free to regular customers and charged $59.99 for non-customers. I tend to be very OCD and detail oriented so I did 99% of them myself, over the 13 year I was at the shop I only had a very small handful, say under 6 cars come in and get a 100% clean bill of health and they were all private party transactions, cars from car lots always had something wrong with them. The only way to perform a good pre-purchase inspection is experience.

 

take a magnet to each panel to see if some sections don't hold the magnet.
- look for panels that do not line up. if it is a domestic car, most likely they won't. If it is an import it may have had an accident.

-look at tire wear, if you can see visible differences in the wear pattern, you may need an alignment or suspension work depending on the wear.

-take your hand and run it over the tread of the tire, if it is smooth and the tread of the tire does not catch your hand you are fine.
if the tires are cupped, there may be suspension issues or the struts/shocks need to be repalced.


-check the motor for cleanliness, you can tell the difference between keeping a car clean and just having the engine cleaned.

-check all fluids, antifreeze should be orange or green, any other colors are bad.
check the trans fluid, it shouls be reddish, not brown or black
check the oil, if it was just changed it will almost be clear if not golden.
check the air filter, if it is clogged like hell then that means they prob never did much maint. since that is the easiest to do.

-check under the seats, if there is rust,, that means that the car may have had some water damage

 

these are just some basics that anyone should be able to perform without much help

 

after the test drive, SMELL the tranny fluid, if you detect any kind of BURNT smell walk away.

 

They actually will with things like this - they can run up an entire list of things that need to be done.

 

honda uses blue now.

 

i have a few friends that are very knowledgeable mechanics...i'd just take one of them along for the ride...used car salesmen cringe when you bring a grease monkey with you

 

Yeah but it's up the used car department whether or not they want to get the work done. For instance I'll by pass tranny flushed, filters and other things that arent detrimental and obvious to keep cost down. Service tries to make big money off of other departments just as they do with regular customers.

 

That's what my friend did - I went along, used the dealers lift and spent an hour looking at the car.

 

I know, but that is the point. Same point with my shop - we check absolutely everything in order to write as much shit down as possible on the estimate. The throw away things, tranny flush, oil change, tire rotation, etc. aren't what matter. But if we notice a problem with the belts or cracks in bushings, or even structural shit, it went down on the paper. Our pre-purchase inspection was about 150, and often after the customer bought the car they came back for service.