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Page Sections -
Save money financing your used car
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Shop auto insurance costs for your used car
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What a vehicle title search gives you
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Common problems with used cars
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All about Kelley Blue Book
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Home With Your New Car | Driving Records
6 Steps To Used Car Buying
Success
Step 1- Search online used car
classifieds and your local newspaper
Try sites such as
cars.com, or
CarsDirect.com
to find used cars in your area, and look up used car prices.
Step 2-
Get a 30 day unlimited Vehicle History Report From
CARFAX
As you shop
different used cars, get the VIN#, and run it to see if it's for
totaled, flooded, odometer rolled back, stolen, recalled, etc.
Step 3- If
buying privately, get a person-to-person used car loan
Using
Capital One Auto Finance buyer
and seller can complete the paperwork. Buyer can drive away with the
car.
Step 4-Negotiate
tough with the seller or used car dealer
We have all the
tips you need on this page for negotiating with the toughest of
sellers, and saving the most amount of money.
Step 5- Use our free Bill Of
Sale Form
Step 6- Complete the sale and
get an extended warranty for your used car
Read our section
Tips for Extended Car Warranties
and learn about what to look for and scams to
avoid.
Save
money financing
your used car
You can save money when you buy a used
car by using
Capital One Auto Finance instead of paying a higher rate
from the dealer. The process is simple, apply online, approval takes
minutes and they mail you a check to take to the dealer. If you got
railroaded into a high APR car loan from a dealer, you can refinance
after 3 months with
Capital One Auto Finance. Lower your current car payments
with their
Auto Refinancing Loans. They have a low APR, it's fast, easy and awesome.
How do I
finance if a buy a used car from a private person?
Use the
Capital One Auto Finance person-to-person loan for used
cars. Apply online, approval takes minutes, they mail you a Blank
CheckŪ so you can buy any used car from a private party without
paperwork hassles.
Get
An Extended Warranty for your used Car
Get an extended
warranty for your used car. The best car warranty sites we have
researched so far who are known to pay claims are
1SourceAutoWarranty and
Warranty Direct.
Read our section
Tips for Extended Car Warranties or
you'll be out several hundred dollars. If you buy a 3 or 4 year old
used car, that's when the manufacturer's warranty expires and all
hell breaks loose. Unless you have an extended warranty, you are
exposed to potentially large losses.
Shop auto
insurance costs for your used car
Before you shop
for a used car, get auto insurance quotes to find out how much it
will cost to insure it. Auto insurance sites
Comparison Market and
Progressive Auto Insurance give you free online auto
insurance quotes, so be sure to get pricing from them too.
Buying used cars from car rental
agencies
A rental car is just like any used car, but probably maintained
better than privately owned cars, as they are kept in constant care
and maintenance during use. When you rent a car from the top
companies, they are clean, and we have never had a rental car break
down. The companies tend to take them out of service by one to two
years of age, so you are getting a decent car which the rental
company has already absorbed the largest portion of the
depreciation. If you want full coverage, read our
section
Tips for Extended Car Warranties
How can I
sell my used car to a private party if I don't have title?
If your bank or other lien holder has the title, ask them how to
transfer the title to the person who buys your car. Typically the
lien holder sends the title to you or to the buyer 2 weeks after the
lien has been satisfied. You can also pay off your car loan, and
get the title to make the process go smoother.
Disaster
Damaged Cars
Cars damaged in disasters will be salvaged, rebuilt, sold at car
auctions and have their titles rebuilt, most likely out of state.
Even if you live in another state , run a
CARFAX Record Check on every used car before you
buy. Major vehicle disasters:
- 4 Hurricanes,
Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne battered the Southeast in 2004
- WTC attack on September 11, 2001
- Tropical Storm Allison Flooded
20,000 Houston homes and cars in 2001
-
In 1999 Hurricane Floyd flooded or
totaled 15,000 cars in the Carolinas
- In 1999 Hurricane Irene flooded
hundreds of cars in South Florida
What a
vehicle title search gives you
A vehicle title history on a used car can be your only friend to
prevent you from getting ripped off on a used car. A car title
history reveals a lot more about that used car than the seller is
willing to tell you. Here's the dirt you can dig up when you when
you run a car title search:
- Odometer actual mileage check,
alerts if the odometer was rolled back
- If the used car was in an
accident, it may show up in the auto title search
- If the used car was flooded,
totaled by insurance, whether it was sold at an auction, if it has a
salvage title
- Number of owners, dates when each
owner bought the used car,
if it was leased, a
rental car, or a fleet car, or government vehicle
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Any auctions such as salvage or normal
off lease wholesale auctions it may have been sold at
- When the dealer took delivery.
Use this to haggle a lower price if the used car has been sitting on
the lot for months
We
ran the title check on a 4 year old used Honda Accord and discovered
it had 3 owners in 3 years. That should send up a big red
flag. Why would 3 different people buy the same used car and
dump it a year later? Could be hidden problems that you don't
want.
Buying A
Used Car In New York?
When buying a used car from a private party in New
York State, along with the Bill of Sale, be sure to have the seller
sign the
DTF-802 tax affidavit. Otherwise, the DMV will charge you
sales tax based on the 'average wholesale value of your car. Get the
tax form here:
http://www.tax.state.ny.us/Forms/sales_cur_forms.htm
Texas
cars have too many miles
Looking for a used Toyota Camry and Honda Accord in
Houston, we noticed many used cars in Texas have high mileage. The
standard is 12,000 miles per year. If you go over that, it reduces
the used car's value. High mileage reduces the used car value by
thousands, no just a few hundred. Avoid high mileage used cars,
unless you get a good price.
Every
single person that told us they signed an AS IS paper got ripped
off!
If you sign an "As Is" paper at a used car dealership, the state
attorney won't even want to talk to you, and legally there is
nothing you can do. Try a news station, every market has some
consumer reporter at a TV station who eats this stuff up. A TV
station is more powerful than the state because negative publicity
hits a dealer's bottom line.
Common
problems with used cars
You should be wary of prior car
accidents with any used car, but don't just focus on that or you'll
get blind sided by problems that your mechanic might not spot on
commonly overlooked items, such as odometer rollback, missing
airbags (you can't tell without removing the airbag covers), flooded
cars, mismatched VINs, auto salvage yard auction sales,
Gross Polluter,
or stolen cars. Your mechanic does not run a vehicle title history,
you must do it. Car dealers run a vehicle title history report when
you trade in your car to make sure you're not ripping them off, and
so should you so you don't get ripped off.
In
Miami summer thundershowers flood the streets of Miami, stranding
motorists, and flooding hundreds of cars. This happens in all big
cities like Houston, where drainage is a problem. You see these
floods on the 6 o'clock news and think nothing of it, but these
flooded cars will be up for sale soon.
Used Car
Dealer Myth: "I bought my used car from a big dealer, it's got to be
ok!"
You must always perform due diligence no
matter who you buy from. Unless you're buying a certified
Lexus, BMW, or Mercedes, there is nothing certified about it. Most
dealers don't do a lot to recondition a used car but they claim 300
point NASA checklists. There could be intermittent problems. If the
dealer did not run a
CARFAX Report, they may have taken in that trade
not knowing of previously floods, wrecks, or title issues.
Myth
about odometer rollback
Many people think digital
odometers cannot be rolled back. With digital odometers, the
current mileage reading is stored in a flash chip or an EEPROM.
It's easy to remove the EEPROM and reprogram it with a lower
mileage, leaving no signs of tampering, so you must perform a title
check. When a car is inspected the mileage is recorded, and
whenever the title changes hands or it is traded in at car dealers,
or turned in after a lease. On your vehicle history report, if a
mileage event shows less than the last recorded mileage event, you
know that odometer fraud has taken place.
Run A
Vehicle History Report Before You Buy That Used Car
Think of a
CARFAX Vehicle History Report
as a credit report for used cars. You MUST run this vehicle title
search if you buy a used car so you don't get scammed. There are
many dishonest people who will not tell you where that used car came
from or that that it was salvaged.
- Extended
Warranty companies will not cover a salvaged car with a rebuilt
title.
- Even the
manufacturer's warranty is voided on a rebuilt or salvaged title.
- Banks will
not finance a salvaged car with a rebuilt title.
Most
states have no used car lemon law!
Lemon laws apply mostly to new
cars sold to private people. Many fools think there is a used car
lemon law, but in most states there is none, except for states like
New York. Check with your state attorney general for information on
lemon laws. Used car lemon laws only cover non leased cars bought
from dealers. Help yourself proactively by determining if that car
was ever wrecked, or flooded, salvaged, or totaled.
All about
Kelley Blue Book
People ask "What's the
Blue Book value of my trade-in?" The
Blue Book value of your car is the market value listed in the
Kelley Blue Book. Many people spell it wrong as
Kelly Blue Book or
Kelly's Blue Book or
Kellys Blue Book or even NADA Blue Book or
KBB. KBB started from a family owned used car business that
bought trade-ins from auto dealers and used their internally
generated list of used car prices to inform dealers how much the car
was worth. They became trusted industry insiders and appraisers of
car values. This led to Kelley Blue Book, named after the social
register, called a blue book. The rest is history.
KBB supplies used car prices to most car pricing sites.
Dealers
laugh when you tell them you know the Kelley Blue Book Value of your
trade in. I think blue book car prices show trade-in values lower
than other sources, which falsely leads you to accept less for your
car then it is worth. Use other sites in addition to Kelly Blue
Book to price cars. Most car dealers use the
yellow NADA book to price used cars.
All About
Edmunds
Edmunds.com
has new car reviews, holdback listed
by manufacturer, and photos for most new and used cars. Like
Fighting
Chance, it lists current factory to consumer rebates.
Edmunds also has a useful Town Hall feature, where you can post a
car related question and it will be answered by either a moderator
or other car buyers in the Town Hall. Edmunds might not always have
all the info, but hey it's free. You should price out a used car on
Edmunds, and Kelley Blue Book to get a consensus on price. Then
check all the used car classifieds that we mention here, and see how
much sellers are asking for the car you want to buy. No one ever
gets their asking price, so take the selling prices with a grain of
salt.
Auto
Black Book Used Car Values
This is one of the most debated and confusing areas of car
buying and trading in used cars. Black Book is used by car dealers
at the wholesale auto auctions. You'll see dealers walking around
with their "Black Books", a pocket sized subscription based mini car
pricing book updated at least monthly with regional selling prices
from wholesale auto auctions. You can't get a black book; you have
to be a car dealer to get your hands on one. It lists most vehicle
makes, and models, and what they should sell for if the vehicle is
in bad, fair or good condition.
Click Here to read our Tips for Auto Auction Buying
Don't Forget Sales Tax!
Check out the laws and
procedures of transferring title in your state. Next, fill out the
back of the title to register the car in your name with the state.
There is also a box to enter the selling price. People like to write
in a much smaller amount for the car than they actually paid in an
effort to avoid paying a high tax bill. We advise against this, your
state is not stupid. Their computer tells them the blue book value
of the car. If you paid $7000 for a car then claimed you paid only
$2000, the computer flags down the Department of Revenue, and
they'll send you a nasty letter stating that they know the car is
worth $7000, time to pay up!
Drive Home With Your New Car
Before you drive away from the
seller's house, make sure you have the title, a signed copy of the
bill of sale, the maintenance records, and don't forget to ask if
there is a special wheel lug key or you cannot change a flat tire,
and a repair shop cannot replace your tires. Make sure you have all
sets of keys, owners manuals, repair manuals, and spare parts that
the seller may have, like extra lamps, headlights, wiper blades that
they forgot about. Be sure the car has a spare tire and jack. Make
sure all brake lights and other lamps work, and check the fuse box
for blown fuses, replacing any as necessary. You don't want to get
pulled over by the cops for no brake lights on your way home. Ask
the seller if they have a car cover, or if the car has T-Tops, ask
for the storage pouches. If the car does not have jumper cables, go
buy some on the way home, without delay. You never want to be
without jumper cables. Don't skimp on the cost either, go to Sears,
and buy the thickest gauge, costliest cable you can afford. The
decent cables start at $20, the $10 ones are useless and you might
as well not buy them at all. You may want to have a Mobil 1 oil
change done. Ask the seller for receipts for the battery or
alternator. Many auto parts stores have lifetime warranties on
alternators, or will prorate a failed battery ONLY if you have the
original receipt. I keep mine in an index card box, and anytime I
have to replace the alternator or battery I know where they are.
About
30 days after you buy your used car, run another
Vehicle History Report to catch any last minute
title issues that could have pooped up days before you bought the
car. Some states can take over a month to propagate their info to
the
CARFAX databases. The seller could have rebuilt the
title a week before you bought it so it might not show up in a title
check for a month.
Driving Records
Driving Records are
state driver's license reports containing details about a
driver's history including accidents and violations. Each state
maintains records of their registered drivers' activities
occurring only in that state.
Driving records can be
obtained by insurance companies to determine your rates as well
as by companies during their employment screening procedures
when hiring. Some employers may even require that you submit
your driving
record along with your employment application. A single
typo on your
driving record can cost you hundreds of dollars in insurance
rates. It can even cost you a job.
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Finding out what's wrong with that used car before you buy