Buying a Used Car? These are the Things you Should Always Look for.

What you’ll always avoid when going used.

Photo by Anthony Shkraba from Pexels

Looking for the right car at the right price for the right reasons is an atypical prospect. The qualifiers for good or bad are hardly objective in an industry that has price points across the entire board.

Here are the things to look for in avoiding when going for a used car.

1. Most cars out of a used dealer lot. They’re either overpriced in comparison to a private party or not well taken care of. Their end goal is to transact for a profit, not help you get into a decent vehicle. Lemon law applies to new(er) cars, not old ones (2013 and up in California as of writing).
2. Salvaged vehicles you know nothing about repairing.
3. If the owner’s name according to his driver’s license does not match the registered owner’s name on the title. A number of things could be happening at this point, maybe fraudulent identification, maybe stolen car.
4. The first year of any generation of a vehicle. For example, the 2004 Prius is infamous for head gasket issues, 2005–2009 are fine. 2010 Prius is infamous for problems with the coolant pump. The 2011–2015 are fine. 2016 Prius had issues with the axle on one side (usually driver side). All other models are fine.