CarStory Blog
  • Post Categories
  • Find a Used Car or Truck
Select Page

Three Used Car Secrets You NEED to Know

by Rick Carlton | Apr 21, 2016 | Used Cars | 0 comments

Three Used Car Secrets You NEED to Know

For anyone who has looked at new car prices these days the used market offers a lot of value.  Sometimes it’s just price, since even a vanilla, mid-sized car can end up costing $30,000 or more once cutting-edge accessories and finance charges are applied to the bottom line.

Used vehicles can offer deep cost discounts since the typical rule-of-thumb for pricing usually hovers somewhere around 20% once a car rolls off the lot even during a car’s current model year. Once that period expires further discounts exist thereafter, so a couple of years down the road, the pocketbook impact can be really startling.

Don’t believe us? Check out our February Market Deal Alert – the discounts are shocking. Or you can just check out the marketplace, the numbers speak for themselves.

Here are a few tips when purchasing a pre-owned car:

WALK AROUND 

A buyer can tell a lot about a car’s quality by doing a simple stroll around the vehicle. Other than considering overall qualities of fit and finish, you should also be looking at the car’s stance.

In other words, is the car level on its suspension front-to-back, and side-to-side or does it look like it’s tired, and wants to go to bed? In the latter case, there’s something amiss with the car’s struts, a-arms, springs or shocks, and any of these elements will not only cost money, but in serious cases, can threaten life and limb.

BODY POSITIONING

While you’re doing a circular stroll, also take a look at the how the car’s body rests on its underpinnings. In this case, is the body centered up on its suspension, or is it skewed one way or the other along the suspension’s long axis? If it doesn’t look right, here, that “bad thing” feeling may be just around the corner.

SPRING BACK

If you’ve figured out that the car looks right, push down on each corner, to see how the vehicle’s shocks behave. In this event, what you’re looking for are two central things:

If the shocks are okay, each corner of the car should “spring back” equally and with a degree of force. However, if one corner or the other doesn’t meet those conditions, it’s likely that the first thing you’ll have to do is replace the car’s entire damping system.

Again this is just the beginning of a complete work-up, but the point is to look deeper than just what you can “see”, and get into “how” the car behaves before you test drive.

Related Posts

  • The Toyota Corporation Presents…New York Fashion Week: A Story of Cars and FashionThe Toyota Corporation Presents…New York Fashion Week: A Story of Cars and Fashion
  • 10 Cars Donald Trump Would Drive If He Made $70k/year10 Cars Donald Trump Would Drive If He Made $70k/year
  • Find Balance with the Nissan MaximaFind Balance with the Nissan Maxima
  • These Automotive Features Of The Future Will Scare Your Pants OffThese Automotive Features Of The Future Will Scare Your Pants Off

Related

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search Our Blog

Subscribe to our blog

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts.

Social

  • View DriveHappilyEverAfter’s profile on Facebook
  • View carstory’s profile on Twitter
  • View drivehappilyeverafter’s profile on Instagram

About CarStory

CarStory is a service that matches used car shoppers with the right car. Using patented technology and an industry-leading dataset, CarStory facilitates an efficient, effective discovery process resulting in a confident purchase decision. Discover your new used car and drive happily ever after at: www.carstory.com.

Tags

Audi autonomous vehicles BMW Buick Cadillac Cadillac Escalade car recs Chevrolet chevrolet corvette Chevrolet Impala connected cars corvette dodge electric cars Elon Musk finance ford Ford Mustang Homepage Honda how to jaguar jeep Jeep Wrangler Lexus Listicle Longform mazda mercedes Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz E-Class Movie nissan resource Safety Shortform subaru tbt Tesla Throwback Thursday Toyota Toyota Camry Uber volvo Written

Top Posts

The 7 Emotional Stages of Selling the Car You Loved
5 Cars That Come in Pink To Fulfill Your Barbie Dream House Fantasies
How To Get That Pesky McDonald's Smell Out of Your Car
10 Innovative Ways to Camp In Your Pickup Truck
Mustang Versus Charger: Steve McQueen in Bullitt
#ThrowbackThursday: Red Barchetta
#TBT: An Auto Cocoon in My Front Lawn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS
Copyright © 2020 CarStory