Amy’s Garage

by Amy Mattinat

Do You Want To Know A Secret?

I personally think it’s a bit foolish to ever purchase a brand new car. Why not save thousands of dollars and buy at least a two year old vehicle with at least 15,000 miles on it.

Today I purchased a 2004 Toyota Corolla LE with 98,000 miles on it for my husband. It was a one owner vehicle and was very well maintained. We should be able to get 5 yrs out of it, and hey…. we don’t need a monthly car payment.

We always put a bit of money aside every week in a special account to purchase our next vehicle. We sold the old Corolla for $4000, so we only paid $4000 for this beautiful 04 Corolla.

A lot of folks are afraid to purchase a used vehicle, especially if it has over 50,000 miles on it, and rightly so. You need to have help to purchase a good used car.

1. You need to know what your wants, needs and budget is before you even think about looking in the paper and on the streets for a used car.
2. Then once you know what you are looking for you need a good walk about checklist & a good test drive checklist so you can “Pre-Qualify” a used vehicle.
3. But you mostly need a trained automotive technician who knows the make and model you want to purchase, and who can do a Thorough Used Car Inspection to determine if this vehicle is worthy to buy.

You want to know the real shape the vehicle is in. I don’t care if the dealer says it is “Used Car Certified”, you still need to have a trained automotive technician do a thorough used car inspection. I want you to remember: Almost All Used Cars Need Something! And, when I say thorough I’m talking about the technician taking 2 to 2 1/2 hours. You want them to take the vehicle on a test drive and do an inspection that includes going up on a lift and taking the tires off the vehicle.

“But what are the Secret Words”? Hang on, I’m getting there…

If the technician feels that this is a solid vehicle and worth buying, have them take pictures with your digital camera of any repairs the vehicle needs: a picture says a thousand words! Have the shop work up an estimate for all repairs and maintenance service the vehicle needs to be safe and reliable.

Pictures and a real estimate are the tools you need in hand to negotiate a good deal on a used car. You are going to use these facts about the car to turn the tables on the sale and become a salesperson.

Give them the information you have in hand and then say The Magic Words: “What Can You Do For Me?” Then “shutupa you mouth”!

Private owners and Independent Used Car Dealers without a service department are more likely to lower their price. BONUS: You were going to buy the car anyways, so any amount they take off the sales price you can use to repair and/or service your new rig.

Dealers or Independent Used Car Dealers that have a service department are more likely to offer to do the repairs and maybe even some of the service work. It is cheaper for them to do the work in-house then to lower the price and have you to take the work elsewhere. BONUS: you would of had to have the work done anyways and now you won’t have to spend the time or money.

Do You Have Any Additional Secrets To Negotiating A Used Car Purchase?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am and is filed under Buying Used Cars, Driving Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.