The Philadelphia tri-state market knows that there are a lot of cheap cars offered for sale by literally, thousands of dealerships. But how do you find a good used car and not overpay for it or get stuck with a load of surprises? There are a few major steps that you need to take into consideration when buying a used vehicle.
- First, is that every used car is a used car and you should get your expectations just for that. There will be no plastic covered seats and untouched steering wheel. If you are planning to spend less than 30%, in some cases, of the original value of the vehicle, be prepared for some wear.
- Second, every used cheap car offered for sale has a history, and your goal is to make sure that the previous owner indeed took good care of the vehicle. There are a few ways to do it. One is by checking the vehicle history through CarFax or AutoCheck. There, you should look for two things: accident reports and maintenance data. Not all accidents are equal. If the report says that minor damage reported, there is probably, nothing to worry about, and most likely is reported, because the owner filed for insurance reimbursement. You also want to check how many records and where were they recorded. If you see that they were all done at one dealership, most likely this used car will be in good mechanical condition.