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5 Commonly Used Car-Buying Scams to Avoid
Just about all of us have heard the sentence “They got a lemon” before. What that reference originates from is someone who purchased a used car and within days (or sometimes even hours) of driving it off the auto dealer, realised that they got a car that was not in the kind of condition that they initially thought that it was in.
If you’re someone who is currently in the market to get a used car, to make sure that you don’t have your own “sour experience”, we wanted to provide you with a list of five of the most common used car buying scams. Hopefully, but avoiding them, you can end up with the kind of used car that you’ve always dreamed of, rather than one that turned out to be a complete nightmare.
Have an on-site mechanic.
When you’re purchasing a house, it’s a good idea to hire a house inspector or your own estate agent to look over the place with you. That way, you know that you have someone who has your best interest at heart. For the same reason, therefore it’s a good idea to bring a mechanic along to check out the car that you want to buy. Although the car dealer may tell you that they have an on-site mechanic, you don’t want to wait until you signed on the dotted line to realise that you need a new timing belt or transmission. Your own mechanic can help you to avoid that kind of drama.
The odometer has less miles than it should.
Although we all look for cars that have as few miles as possible, if the car you’re considering is 10-15 years old, it should be averaging at least 15,000-20,000 miles per year. If the car that you are looking at has something like 8,000 miles on it, that could be an indication that the odometer has been rolled back and that there’s more wear and tear than you might think.
There are unexplainable fees.
It’s always important to thoroughly read any contract before you sign it. A big part of the reason is because if you don’t, the car dealer may try to add on some extra fees. For instance, some car dealers will claim that they need a couple of hundred pounds to process your paperwork, when really all they’re doing is attempting to put more money into their pockets. So, if you see a charge that makes no sense to you, ask them to explain it until it does.
They attempt to offer extended warranties.
Dealers may offer extended warranties. They do this because they can earn more of a profit. However, if they tell you that you need to buy an extended warranty because the one from the actual manufacturer is scheduled to run out before your finance does, don’t believe them. You may not need it.
The financing has increased.
When people have poor credit, they will often look for finance to come directly through the manufacturer. The dealer will have the AML Identity verification processed and sorted for you by businesses like https://www.w2globaldata.com/regulatory-compliance-solutions-and-software/aml-id-checks/. Sometimes what the car dealer will do is tell the customer that they can take the car and they will handle the financing, only to call a few days later to say that it’s going to cost more money than they initially thought. This can best be avoided by having your financing approved before ever stepping foot on a car lot, so please make sure that you do so.
