Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Dos and don’ts of buying a used car

A fixation on a particular type of car, or a particular color, or particular registration will be the beginning of your downfall, especially if the salesman is on to you. Such details matter only to those spending telephone numbers on brand new hardware, where optioning your car according to your taste is an exercisable right. At the other end of the scale, where “pre-owned” or “previously cherished” ramshackle rust buckets are changing hands for the price of a large plasma TV set, choosiness is not on the menu. Optioning is a privilege. You buy a car according to the money you have, not spend money according to the car you desire. Fixations lower your negotiating tenacity, and with a hard-headed salesman, desperation will begin to show. If he detects you are head-over-heels about a particular car in his collection, he will not budge, even when you walk off: he knows you will be coming back.

Do: Tell the salesman you are interested in something in a particular niche, say a small sedan; then ask him for quotes against several models he might be having, e.g Corolla NZE vs. Lancer Cedia vs. Nissan N16. Or X-Trail vs. iO vs. RAV4. Also ask him (or me) which is best and in what ways.

Don’t: Ask for a black Toyota Mark II new shape, KBG or KBH with alloy rims and tinted windows. If he does get you such a car, it will either be knackered, falsely registered or stolen. In case he has just such a vehicle (legally acquired) in stock, he will not lower his price.

Open Your Eyes

For God’s sake, don’t be blind. Some people are blinded by the glare of the recent registration (wow! KBM!), or the glare of the badge on the bonnet (oooh, a Bimmer!) and fail to see the collapsing trim, the pustules under the paint, the absence of luster on chrome bits, or worse yet, the tell-tale pool of oil just below the car. This might sound unlikely, but I have seen it happen.

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