I wouldn't buy from a used car dealer. I learned from a young age how the car sales industry works. My dad has been a manager of a dealership for over 30 years. They only sell low mileage clean cars because they don't want them to come back. They wholesale the junk to local used car dealers. They go to auctions and get cars that are not exactly ideal for one reason or another. A lot of old rental cars. I can tell you tons of horror stories from buyers too. All my family and friends come to me when they have car issues. I do not trust used car only dealers. I would keep looking.

 

Well that's discouraging. If I can only mentally get past the emotional attachment to the car - (its the color I want, its in my price range, it has low mileage and the features I want) - I can tear myself away from still wanting to purchase it!

 

Haha. Famous last words.

I'll give you an example. My mom, without my advice, bought a car from a used dealer because it was shiny, low miles, and the price seemed good. A couple weeks later a ton of electrical problems came out. She bought the warranty but the dealer pocketed the money. She thought whe could trust him because he was an ex-cop. When I got a look at it the crank pulley was bent. Turns out it was in a bad wreck. The electrical issue was never sorted out they finally just replaced the fuse with a circuit breaker. On top of that it had a fuel leak and fuel pooled on the intake manifold.

 

Yeah.... I know.... I got horror stories myself. A Honda that after 8 months of owning needed a new transmission; a Toyota that overheated in the fast lane (with no shoulder) in rush hour traffic at the busiest major highway intersection in Houston... and the list goes on.

If I take it to my mechanic and get the Carfax report, there has to be some kind of certainty I could rely on, wouldn't you think? And private sellers might not be any better: most people just want to get rid of their car and very well could withhold info like a used car dealer. I suppose there is a risk in purchasing a new car no matter what. My only other option is to buy from the dealer auction - but that poses its own risks too.

 

You can learn a lot about a car by meeting the owner. If you pull up and it's a well kept home and all the other vehicles are well taken care of you can assume they take really good care. If you pull up in a trashy neighborhood and the owner has a bunch of crap cars on the property you should probably move on. What it boils down to is does it look like the owner rallied it? Does it look like the owner can afford to take care of it? and are they honest? You can see if they're honest by preparing a few questions like where was the maintenance performed? If you have the VIN and their name you can call the dealership and check the history. When voicing concerns and they try to downplay all of them they are trying to sell it at all costs. You are sure to find more wrong. Even if the damage/problem doesn't bother you ask about it to see what they say. The number one thing a seller will lie about is why they are selling. Try to catch them in a lie.

 

When looking for any car but especially something that is a daily driver you can ask for the vin number some private owners list them in the ad.

You can then take that to your local dealer who will give you the recall service history on the car and tell you if there are things that were not corrected yet, maybe cause the owner didn't know about it.

Long story short i recently inherited my 96 grand carvan es from my late father.

I had to replace the alternator which was a bit of a bear due to the lack of space to move the tensioner.

The body control module is shot and doesn't operate the wipers this will cost 700-800 just for the part not counting labor at the dealer plus cost to flash it if needed.

I had bought a rebuilt one from a company in jacksonville florida for 400 5year warranty, it did no work, sent it back, they sent me the same one with 50,000 more miles than my van has, they never corrected this.

Customer service was horrible and they refused to give me a refund, they lied to me telling me they processed the refund after i sent the unit back and after 3 months they never gave me my money back.

My credit card company is now fighting this and i still don't have my refund.

So i'm forced to take it to the dealer to get this fixed.

That's one horror story for you.

The next is that the a/c evaporator core needs replacement and will cost about 1300 from an indy shop to replace.

Granted these are issues you notice right away when shopping for a car but sometimes they don't show up until you purchase it and it's not the prior owners fault since these things do just happen, murphy's law.

So basiclly the moral is that each vehicle from any vendor will have specific issues that are common to the make, just do your homework and be preapared that no used car is perfect and you will always have to invest some money because even with an extended warranty sometimes there are things that go wrong that are not covered.

I do love this van, has great power the mpg is not that bad, tons of cargo space and nice styling and great utility being able to carry 7 passengers comes in handy.

Look at consumer reports and it will tell you what issues each car has and definetly ask owners of these cars even if they are strangers on the street what problems they have had with their cars.

I never buy from a used car dealer i always buy private, because you can tell right away how well they cared for the car. It's not a guarantee that things won't go wrong but it's easier to tell.

Late model cars with high miles scares me, even if it's highway miles it just means the car has been beat a lot sooner.

Lower miles always makes more sense no matter the year simply because in that time what ever was going to happen did happen and was corrected, in a newer model it could just be that everything that will need work will happen all at once due to the lack of attention the owner may have neglected to give the car.

Hope this helps.

 

Definitely a good reference point!

I don't prefer used car dealers either, but they sometimes have what I am looking for (just not at the price I am willing to pay)

That's what I was thinking also...

 

Believe it or not buying from a used car dealer you MAY actually get a good deal if you know what the car is worth AND if the dealer is desperate to make their quota for that month.

Yes it is rare but if you do your homework and shop around PATIENTLY and not buy on impulse or because of a dire need for a vehicle then you can get a good deal on a used car through a dealership.

Preferably a certified used car not one from a independant shop that you have never shopped at before.

The old adage " if it sounds to good to be true " makes sense when shopping for cars.

Me personaly i always stay away from ads for cars that read " overheats " "needs a/c recharged" and other things of this nature. Simply because you have to assume the worst of each of these symptoms.

Overheats means the block could be cracked or the head gasket is failing and will soon warp the head.

A/C needs to be recharged means the evaporator core could be leaking and that will cost big money to fix, so a little common sense comes into play when buying used cars.

Best advice is take it to a mechanic and do a full diagnostic, yes this will cost money but offers peace of mind.

Get a carfax

Run the vin number through the dealer for work performed or recalls not done

Research TSB's and this will let you know if the needed repairs will be expensive.

Go to Repair Pal.com it gives you estimates of parts and labor for almost any needed mechanical work by zip code.

Research consumer reports

Buy the lowest mileage car you can.

Finally don't be cheap about maintence when you do buy it, get quality parts the first time around, most people buy a newer car and throw basic maintence out the window thinking " it's a new car i can go a little longer without changing the oil etc etc"

Double check everything on the vehicle when you get it, there are things that even mechanics tend to miss in their evaluation.

Case in point i just changed the tranny fluid and filter on my 96 grand caravan, 3 of the bolt holes in the block were STRIPPED, 2 out of those were because the prior mechanic ( don't know who did it ) put in the wrong size oil pan bolts.

So guess what i had to do? yeah you guessed it had to drill out retap and helicoil ( timesert inserts are waaaay better but not everybody carries them locally ) the holes in order to get the tranny oil pan back on. Now for a mechanic to correct this problem would have easily cost over 300 in time and labor,

So just be aware that any used car will have some crazy issue directly related to it not being serviced properly and be prepared financially to correct it the right way.

Lastly get something that you are passionate about, otherwise you will lose heart when things go wrong and you will regret buying something that you weren't excited about in the first place!!

Good Luck In your search.

 

I am going on almost 2 months without a car - so patience is definitely a virtue. In the meantime it has given me the opportunity to research into the minivans, and if it wasn't for this extended amount of time without a car, I probably would have never came across or considered the Caravan.

I am trying to stay away from those too... as a matter of fact I just called on a car I saw an ad for - the car certainly looked nice, but I was a little intimidated by the picture: in the background it looked like a dirt field/junkyard. Needless to say I willingly passed up the opportunity to purchase that car...

You are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO right about that. I just came back from looking at a 05 Caravan with 65k miles on it. We met them at my mechanic. I was excited because the car looked nice, had low mileage, and was in a price range I could work with. After having the mechanic look at the car, he told us that the head gasket and transmission pan was leaking. I think that was the best $50 I ever spent. It definitely saved me a headache!

What's a TSB?

Let me tell you that I am a mother of 2 -- a toddler and a newborn. I think this is probably the reason I why I have never cared so much to do so much research before buying a car. Certainly, I am considering the fun things about buying a car: liking the color, the look and its features, but I am also concerned with overall safety, maintenance and reliability so I don't end up on the side of the road. (As a side note safercar.gov has been a great site for referencing its crash and rollover ratings.)


I have passed up some deals on cars as I felt it just wasn't something I was excited about. This is entirely too much money to invest and not feel satisfied with how its spent.

Thanks for the advice.

 

Sounds like you are doing everything right.

A tsb is an abbreviation for what is called a Technical Service Bulletin

These are memos that are sent to dealers alerting them that there are certain failures common to certain models and how to address them.

You may not be able to find the full report but you can at least google the tsb by make model and year and it will give you a brief description of the affected problem and what the TSB number is.

This at least lets you know what the prblem is and then you can go to repairpal.com and get an estimate on repairs.

Ironicly glad to you mentioned the van that needed the head gasket, surprisingly when basic maintenence is not performed right or at all you DO see problems like a blown head gasket on a vehicle with low miles.

So you did the right thing spending 50 and in doing so saved yourself over 2000 in repairs.

I just finished replacing the tranny filter as i mentioned in my other post and it was 2 days of hell correcting the stripped bolts and adding atf 4 fluid which is the correct fluid to add.

If i had taken it to a mechanic it would have easily cost over 300 in labor plus parts.

I. like you was never considering a minivan since i was fine with a small 4cyl station wagon, but the van has sooooo much more cargo room, great style, great power, comfort, utility and features over the small station wagon that it makes up for the work i'm putting into it.

Buying a car is like buying a house, if you find minor things that may cost a little to fix don't pass on a van that you like. Just avoid the major repairs.

And regardless of what the prior owner has said, change all the fluids and filters right away, yes it may look like clean engine oil and bright red tranny oil BUT BIG BUT it may be the wrong viscosity or a cheap brand and you want to start off fresh and correct to avoid problems down the road.