Whether you are looking for a used car in Sacramento or somewhere else, there are a lot of people that will try to rip you off. Sometimes it is an outright scam and other times it is just being less than truthful about the condition of the car. If you follow these steps and use common sense you can virtually eliminate any possibility of being scammed.
1. Get a Car Fax History Report, trust me. Their reports will tell you:
- If the car has been in any accidents and the extent of the damage if any
- The Vehicles past and current Title status
- How many owners the vehicles has had and at what point ownership changed.
- Reported Service and Maintenance Visits
Don’t expect a seller to want to tell you everything that is wrong with a car, but he should be upfront if you ask. So ask, and then use the Car Fax Report to make sure he can’t bullshit you.
You can get a subscription for unlimited reports during a set period of time. 40 dollars gets you a full month of reports.
2. Have a mechanic you trust inspect the car prior to purchase.
Car Fax reports are great and I highly recommend getting a subscription while looking for a Sacramento used car, but it is no substitute for actually having a mechanic that you trust inspect the car before you buy it.
An inspection will turn up any mechanical problems that need to be taken care of. If there are major problems you could end up spending more money fixing the car then you did buying it. Obviously if this is the case you may decide not to buy the car so the 100 dollars or so you spend on the inspection is well worth it.
If there are only minor problems that come up you can often request the seller to reduce the price based on the new information.
Obviously at around 100 dollars a pop you probably don’t want to do this for every car you look at, which is why it is good to weed out most of the bad ones using the Car Fax reports, etc. and reserve an inspection for only the cars you are seriously considering buying.
3. Avoid dealers who request strange or unusual payment terms.
If they will only deal with you if you pay by cashiers check or money gram, WALK AWAY. These are scammers who want to take your money and give you nothing. If they offer to ship you the car after receiving payment, don’t bother.
If it sounds too good to be true it probably isn’t.
4. Only Deal With Sellers In Sacramento, or at least near enough for you to meet up with and inspect the car.
This is probably the most important thing you can do to reduce your risk. There are three major reasons for this.
- If you don’t physically inspect the car there is no way to verify that the vin number provided for your report matches the car.
- If you can’t test drive the car or get it inspected by your own mechanic then there is no way to verify that the car is indeed in good condition.
- If you can’t meet the seller to exchange payment for the vehicles and change of title paperwork, then there is no guarantee that you will ever receive it.
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