10 Used Cars to Avoid
Here is a Yahoo article that makes some good points on how not to choose the wrong used car, however I do take exception to a couple of things they say.
Any Car without a Service History
In this age of computerized record keeping, a car without a comprehensive service history is simply a car that hasn’t been serviced. It doesn’t matter if the guy selling it swears he always changed the oil himself; you have to assume that what’s currently in the crankcase has been coagulating in there since the early Pleistocene.
OK, I think this is a bit much. I don’t know too many people who keep comprehensive service records on their cars. Do you? Also, most used cars are sold by dealers. They are not likely to have the service records unless the previous owner provided them, or they were doing the maintenance themselves. If you find a car where the owner has kept good records, so much the better. If you don’t, a good pre purchase inspection will get to the bottom of whether it was well maintained or not.
Any Car with a Salvage Title
Insurance companies aren’t in the business of losing money. So it’s a good bet that if a car has been written off as a total loss, it’s because it really was a total loss. If it had been worth fixing, the insurance company would have fixed it.
While it is true that most “Salvage” branded cars are as they describe here, it is not always the case. A car can also get branded as ”Salvaged” if it was stolen and the insurance company payed off the claim before it was recovered. If you find a Salvage car that you like, get a pre purchase inspection to determine if it was salvaged due to a wreck or for some other reason. Sometimes you can get a great deal on a stolen/recovered car that has been branded “Salvage”.
Check the rest of the article here: Yahoo Autos