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Is it common practice to take a used car to a mechanic before purchase?

B

baydude

Senior member
Do you do this before purchasing a used car even if a car fax is provided? What do you ask the mechanic? How much does this usually cost?
 
I do. The last time I did it (two months ago), they charged me $20. i was surprised it was that low at that shop, but I guess they figure I'll bring repairs to them if they help me buy a car.
 
Carfax means almost nothing, so yes, if you aren't mechanically knowledgeable yourself, you should take a prospective purchase to a mechanic. Should cost $50-150, depending on location, type of car, etc.

You should still do a walkaround, test drive, and ask questions about service history/accident history/problems yourself.
 
Most shops will know what to look for if you tell them what you want.

For myself, any vehicle with over 20K miles and 3 years gets a checkout.
 
If you aren't mechanically inclined its a great idea. I'd also argue its worth the money (if they charge for it) to have them check the alignment as well if you're pretty serious about buying.

Toe being out is no big deal, what you're really looking for is issues with camber and caster- that will show you any potential issues with suspension, subframe or even the body/frame itself. From what I've seen most cars don't have every issue fixed when they are in a collision; they replace the obvious and spend all the effort on making the paint look pretty. Pretty shocking how many low mile $30k-80k cars/suvs look immaculate inside/outside and under the hood, but have serious issues when you see alignment numbers.
 
jagec said:
Carfax means almost nothing, so yes, if you aren't mechanically knowledgeable yourself, you should take a prospective purchase to a mechanic. Should cost $50-150, depending on location, type of car, etc.

You should still do a walkaround, test drive, and ask questions about service history/accident history/problems yourself.
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I wouldn't dismiss carfax, for mechanical issues yes carfax wont do much good agarage you trust for sure is best bet, but for background its nice (what is it nowadays $14?). I have had a car with low miles listed and car fax showed it had much higher miles (2x i have seen it actually) but I do buy a lot of toys.
 
Depends on the car. If it didn't have complete service history and I planned on keeping it for a long time I probably would.
 
jagec said:
Carfax means almost nothing, so yes, if you aren't mechanically knowledgeable yourself, you should take a prospective purchase to a mechanic. Should cost $50-150, depending on location, type of car, etc.

You should still do a walkaround, test drive, and ask questions about service history/accident history/problems yourself.
Click to expand...

CarFax is/was intended for accident repairs and/or major repairs at a dealership.

If a vehicle is serviced at a local garage, Sears Automotive and/or a tire sore/service center, it more than likely will not show on a CarFax.

Use it as one tool for evaluation/filter but it should not be used as the only Yes/No for a purchased
 
You ask the mechanic to look at everything they would look at if they were thinking about buying the car.
 
zardthebuilder said:
who drives the car to the mechanic? the seller? the seller with you? if just you, why would the seller trust you with the unpaid car?
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Depends on the arrangement you make with the seller. I bought a car 1,000 miles away and found an independent shop to look at it. I made the appointment and told the seller to drop off the car and I'd call him when it was ready.

The shop called me with the result, I paid up, and the seller picked up the car.

In my case, it was $300 well spent. I knew exactly what I was getting when I flew down there.
 
really starting to wonder what all gets checked if much of substance at all for $150. For example, are they checking the timing belt, doing a compression test, alignment wheels & frame, making sure the airbags are still in the vehicle, emissions, i.e. the really expensive items to actually fix?
 
Depends. I have had someone meet me at the shop I trust to look it over (and subsequently did not buy the vehicle), but I also bought one that I didn't do that with since I now know enough of what to look for and what to expect so I can inspect most of it myself.
 
This depends on the car. I'm also capable of doing an inspection myself. However, generally, no. I don't take the car to a mechanic. I look at a few items, check the history, get a feeling for the car by driving it and testing stuff, and talk to the person owning the car. Most major issues will be obvious from simple testing.

In the end, a used car is a lottery. Also, paying to have a car inspected can be costly and the person selling the car might not give a shit about selling it to you if they find any problems.

Let me give you a likely scenario:

Person is selling a used car. You go to them and look it over. Drive it and it all seems relatively okay. You ask to have it inspected and will pay the fee. The owner says okay. This is where the hypothetical splits:

1) The mechanic finds issues. Maybe they're major, maybe they're minor. You want to lower the price of the car because of that. The owner refuses and you refuse to buy the car for the price they're asking. If you hadn't done the inspection, you might have bought the car.

2) The mechanic finds no issues. Now you have to buy the car for the price they were asking. In fact, the owner may even ask more now because they just found out their car is in great shape from a mechanic!

I don't really pay to do inspections beyond myself. It's generally not worth the cost and anything that I find I'll handle myself. :/ A $100-150 inspection per car is a lot of dough. I can fix some issues with that money. :/

How many cars am I going to pay to have inspections done on? The cars I like to buy are very in demand cars with the seller frequently having no issue selling them unless they're totally POS. (In which case, you can spot them from a mile away)

Again, it really depends on the price and type of cars but for the cars I am frequently looking at... nah.
 
I usually like to have them looked at by a shop specializing in that brand. Different car makes have different common issues that they are familiar with and know how to spot - especially foreign higher end cars it seems
 
I was going to buy an older Cutlass, brought it to a mechanic, he put it up on the rack and listened to the bottom-end via a stethoscope, "don't buy it", he could hear the bearings have slop in them that were not audible from above, best $50 I ever spent.
 
I know what to look for. I even smell the oil, exhaust, observe color of tranny fluid, check bushings, shocks, look for rust, brake lines, cracks in tires, hoses,belts corrosion in battery cables, listen for chatter or any unusual noises..etc.

After all that passes then I use something similar to this that hooks to my laptop to be sure.

ads-1s-04.jpg
 
it really depends on the car and how much I'm spending. if i'm spending less than $5000 or if it's a car I don't really care about (like a winter beater) I wouldn't bother just look it over and make sure nothings leaking and it isn't rusted out.

then again I don't really buy anything less than 10 years old, seems like a waste of money to me.
 
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