I know what everyone is thinking, “But I already have a Maxima”. Well, there are people who search online, and maybe this post will attract people to our community then they are looking for a quality automobile. But, as everyone can tell you, there are good ones, and there are bad ones. Although these guidelines cannot possible tell you everything wrong about a car, they should be able to catch a lot of major problems arising from negligence and abuse. So, without further ado, this is my take on how to find a quality used vehicle.
First and foremost,

1. Does the price seem to good to be true?
In my experience, there are some good deals out there, but fantastic ones are few and far between. Just like those Carfax commercials, it’s better to err on the side of caution, especially when it comes to buying a new vehicle.

2. How much of the vehicles history does the dealer/seller know?
You can tell a lot about how the vehicle was maintained by the body language (believe it or not) of the person selling the car. This more applies to private sellers, because a lot of sales people don’t know the history of a vehicle, except by Carfax. If the person looks you in the eye, is willing to show you anything you want to see, then maybe it is worth a closer look. You don’t want to know how many times I’ve went with people to check out cars, and the owners were sketchy, didn’t know much about the car, and generally didn’t seem like they were interested in anything but taking your money and getting rid of that piece of junk sitting in their driveway. As a rule of thumb, with dealers, I always ask for a Carfax first thing, and they had better give me one. With private sellers, I ask for one, mostly to gauge their reaction, you’d be surprised at what that little question will bring out. If they say anything but “sure, if you want” or “here’s the VIN” or something to that effect, I would almost walk away. If they didn’t list any damage, or tell you when you first looked at the car with them, then that to me is shady and is not worth dealing with. Remember, you have to live with the car; there is no lemon law with private sellers.

3. Now, for the cosmetics
OK, everything seems to be in order, the seller seems fine, and you have a good feeling about the car. A Carfax is not the end-all be-all of the history of a vehicle, a lot of times people hit things and don’t claim it on insurance, for various reasons, I’m sure you can think of at least 10. Therefore, the Carfax’s are inherently flawed because there is no for sure way of knowing if it is complete. How does the finish look? About appropriate for the age of the vehicle? If they say it was painted, ask why. Look for the famous areas of Maxima rust, rear wheel wells and under the side-skirt. I saw some on my 2002, but it was superficial, and will come off when I paint the car. Is the gloss uniform throughout the car? How is the fit of all the body panels? Is the hood lined up where it is supposed to be, does the trunk line up. Most times that a car has been hit or hit something, the plastic ABS bumpers never line up like the original one did. Lots of times, the repair facility will not put 100% of all the clips back on, or not fit it 100% correctly. Push on the bumper; do you hear any squeaking, or worse, movement? If there is, I’d look in the wheel-well, but we will get to that in a second. Now, open the door. Look at the inside door jambs. Is it crud covered, grease spilling out of the hinge? If it is, this may be a sign that the car was only recently washed and waxed to sell the car. That’s another thing to think about. It’s not something you notice all the time, but the ones on my 02 were spic-and-span, and I noticed it, and liked it a lot. Are all the door moldings where it should be, not cracked or faded?
Inside the car, how does it feel? It’ll probably smell clean in there; after all, the person is trying to sell it. He cant very well sell the car with a fresh coffee stain or last weeks chicken nugget on the floor. Open the cup holder, and pull out the insert (the one where you can fit the big drinks in 5th and 5.5 genners) Chances are, unless the person was **** about his car, or used that very often, it’s grimy as hell. That’s OK, that’s a spot missed often. How is everything inside? Is the fabric still bright, does the dash still have leather on it (or vinyl) and isn’t faded and cracked. These things aren’t a reason to walk away from a potential car, but it is bargaining ammo. OK, now get out and look at the trunk. The carpet is all there, not many stains; it still has a spare, right? How does the tire on the spare look? If it looks used excessively, you have to ask yourself if this person could drive. How often does a spare get used for >25 miles? Not often at all. Again, just a thing to chew over when making an over-all decision.

4. OK, Mechanics and Electronics
This is the part where everyone seems to think that they are doing a good enough job. You check the oil for fluid color, but come on, if the person knew they were having a problem, chances are they would change the oil before they sold it. Ideally, you’ll see the normal color of slightly used oil (color dependant on the type of oil). Remember the fit of the bumpers? Now take a gander under the wheel wells. Are all the plastic clips still there? Does any of it look real new, or wiped down? If not, good. How does the shock appear to look? Is the boot dry and cracked, and does the piston look good? Are the tires fairly new, matching, and not beginning to dry rot? It’s hard to do with the wheel straight, but look for uneven tire wear, or cupping. Do that until you are satisfied, and now, here is the part we have all been waiting for.
Now, I can’t stress this enough, make sure when you first drive the car, the ENGINE IS COLD. There are too many problems that can be covered up by warming up the engine. I won’t test-drive a warm engine. You get in the car, adjust your seats, all ways. Adjust the mirrors, and crack the windows. Crack the sunroof if applicable, mostly to see if they work like they should. Now, I know, everyone wants to check out the radio, but you’ll have plenty of time to listen to it if you buy it. If it’s on when you turn the car on, turn it off. Be wary of a seller who “casually” turns the radio on, even low. Tell them you’d prefer to leave it off. Why? To listen to the car. Hurting cars do sing songs, and you can hear it if you listen. As you back out, (or pull out) look at the spot where the car was parked. Do you see any fluids? We’ll come back to that later. Don’t hammer on the accelerator pedal right away; try to drive as smooth as silk. That way, you can feel the transmission when it is cold. Ok, the car is starting to warm up now, time to get a feel for the over-all condition of the suspension. If possible, try to go over some speed bumps, one side at a time, slowly. If you hear a groan or a low squeak, or a loud “squish”, you might need new shocks/struts. Keep this in mind. If the other person is ok with it, try to do a tight little “S” with car, see if there is excessive body-roll, or clunking noises. The roll can mean worn springs, and the clunk can mean worn control-arm bushings.
Now, you can see what she’s made of. Don’t spin the tires, that’s rude. But certainly let the engine know you want some juice. Listen for rattles, shimmies, and generally any noise that you don’t associate with normal motor function. *If in a manual tranny, try to punch it up to 5k or so (no need to go to redline), and leave it in gear and take your foot off the pedal, listen to the tranny. Does it whine like a little child? Then you may want to reconsider the car.
*Again, ask if you can do things like this, if you don’t it may **** people off, especially if you don’t buy the car. You don’t have to do this, but I like to get a feel for the integrity of the tranny. You can also do this at a lower RPM.

Now, you are returning back to the driveway of the seller. Try to park not in the same spot, but do you remember where it was to begin with? Don’t turn the car off, ask the seller to do you a favor. Pop the hood. Ask him to rev the engine when you are staring at it. Now, you can hear a lot better all the noises that are coming from the engine. When he revs, look for a noticeable shift in engine position. Not a “flex” or a slight twist, that what engines are designed to do to a certain extent. What you want to look for is a “shift”, like from position A at no throttle to position B when throttle is applied. That is a bad motor mount(s). Expensive fix. Listen for belt squeaking. Get behind the car, and rev again. If he really gets on it, a minor amount of blue smoke may come out, but if it looks like the car is being seafoamed, then walk away, because it’s engine rebuild time. Rings are not easy to replace this day in age. Ok, you are satisfied, you can turn the car off. Now, be careful, but take the oil cap off. It’s going to be hot, and may require a lot of force to take off. Take a look inside the valve cover. If it looks black, walk away, I don’t car how many miles it has on it. That’s a bad sign of improper oil change intervals. There is no way, if you change your oil like you should, that the inside of that cover should look like anything other than a light-to deep golden yellow (from the oil), and you should still be able to see the gunmetal color of the rocker arms. Put the cap back on, and get on your knees. No, get your mind out of the gutter; you haven’t started to negotiate prices yet J. Look at the bottom of the engine, it is black? Does it have black spots? Is there any part of it that looks wet, or anything other that dust/dirt? If so, ask yourself what that part is, and what kind of fluid could be leaking from it. Look for grease splatter, because you may have a ripped axle boot. Now, take a glace under the side of the car, and just make sure that the exhaust looks decent, and the undercarriage doesn’t look like they’ve taken it rock crawling. That’s another sign of a poor driver, one who cant get out of the objects in the roads’ way. Normal scrapes here and there are ok, we’ve all hit things that make us feel like idiots some times, but there is a limit.

5. The negotiation

By this point, you should have a fair understanding of the vehicle you are looking to buy. Take the price, and condition it’s in, and offer less that what you’d really pay. Obviously good haggling skills come into play here. Think of all those little cosmetic blemishes you’ve seen, and things you felt in the car when driving it. Now, load your weapon with that ammo, and fire off an offer. Don’t lowball, that’s insulting, and will lessen the other persons willingness to bargain. Trust me, people love hearing “cash in hand”, instead of I have to wait for the bank check. I would venture off to say that you could probably get away with $500 less by paying in cash, that’s after haggling. But this day in age, when you buy a fairly new or expensive car, that may not be practical. I didn’t pay my 11.5k in cash. BTW, don’t ever, ever pay more than 10k in cash to a dealer. That has to be reported to the IRS, and they will investigate you. That is a safeguard so drug dealers, pimps etc. don’t go out and buy 90k cars in cash, like we all know they could. They have to explain all that money somehow, and somehow I don’t think the benefit package at wal-mart is that good.
OK, that about wraps it up, but if I left anything important out, please feel free to add it. I realize that this is long, but in actuality, you can do all this in ˝ hour. Also, you don’t have to make it completely obvious that you are doing all of these things, you can casually do a lot of this, and kind of “meander” around the car like you don’t really, know what you are looking for if you are self-conscious like that. Remember, you have to drive this car for a long time, and you don’t want to get screwed in the end . GL, and happy car buying!!!



Brian