Buying Used: Three Tips For the Used Car of Your Choice

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ROCKVILLE, MD – OCTOBER 7: Technicians at an auto body shop work to repair cars that have been in accidents, on October 7, 2015 in Rockville, Maryland. Adrian Gutierrez polishes and details a car that has been repaired at 1st Choice Collision. He has a wife and three kids, rents an apartment and owns two cars. They used to own a house, but lost it during the mortgage crisis. His dream is to one day own a home again. He is originally from El Salvador and is optimistic about his future. (Photo by Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images) /

3. Carfax and Autocheck aren’t always the most reliable sources for accident data.

Perfect. You’ve decided on a different brand of car. You know the options you want. Now it’s time to find out the condition of the car in person. Is the Carfax clean? Are there any reports on Autocheck? I’ve come across documents where one car showed one accident at completely different time frames between the Carfax and the Autocheck. But, how do you really know?

One way, is to find paintwork on a car. The easiest way is to ask the dealership or previous owner. Hire an automotive inspector. Chances are, you may want to find out for yourself. A quick search on YouTube won’t lead to a direct answer. Perhaps you know a car person in the family, or someone at a home improvement store can tell you the difference in texture in paint. Consider this situation. You find a car with very low mileage. It looks and drives the part. Chances are, everything is great. On the other hand, you see a car with low mileage. From afar, you noticed the slightest difference in color between a door and a fender. Somehow, the car is white, but a panel is off-white. You feel the edges of the panel, and they don’t feel the same. Ask the question, “Why would this be repainted?” Sometimes it’s a light fender bender. Sometimes, the previous owner’s car got keyed and repainting the panel was necessary. Either way, there’s no 100% guarantee those incidents show up on Carfax or Autocheck.

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