On this week’s Grease the Wheels, we are talking some used car horror stories so this is a good one. Why do people buy cars online without looking at them first? As mechanics we understand the level of carnage that can be going on with a seemingly normal looking car, but a lot of people don’t. Even worse is when they call you for a used car pre-purchase inspection that is in-fact a post-purchase inspection. We get into detail with this scenario in the case of a person who bought a hybrid version of a problematic platform and could not be dissuaded from thinking that he got a good deal. The repair bills eventually changed his mind when they neared the purchase price of this particularly epic turd.
Some of the most incredibly stupid things we have ever seen have gone on with used cars, and we bet your experience is probably similar. We also talk about the lengths we go to check out our most coveted used cars, classic car prices, and driving away in cars that their former owners thought had catastrophic problems (so satisfying). We also give a fairly market specific example of confirmation bias in purchasing used cars by reading the reviews of that make and model. It really is a good thing that these online car buying places have awesome warranties, because it really wouldn’t work if they didn’t. As the most specifically trained portion of the used car buying market, mechanic’s know a lot more about the products than any other part of the process- so just ask them to take a look for you BEFORE YOU BUY!
Also Uncle Jimmy asks rhetorically “how could it be a good sign when your new car is dropped off on a flatbed”?
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