Kevin's Watch

I was sending a private message to Kaydene when it occurred to me that there might be others on the watch who need automotive advice. I am more than happy to answer any questions to the best of my abilities and have access to an amazing span of resources in all things automotive. I also love helping out my fellow watchers and can provide references if you want....
If you need questions answered from "Did I get ripped off?" to "What is the best approach for shopping for a used car?" I am here for you all. Post it in this thread or feel free to pm me if you prefer.

Sooo, let us get started with a bit of used car shopping advice....

My best advice when you start that process is DO NOT let yourself be rushed or pressured into any purchase. Feel free to say, I need to think about this or I need to make a phone call and walk away. It's YOUR money and it's a BIG purchase and salesmen can be really intimidating at times. My philosophy about salesmen is that when they push so hard they are trying to move the merchandise for a reason, bad quality, previous problems, etc and they are usually not being entirely honest in those situations. Also, if you have found a good shop by then I recommend having them do a used vehicle inspection. Most independent shops do that for a very reasonable price and it is MONEY WELL SPENT. If they charge say, 90 bucks or so you will still know any current issues the vehicle has and you will end up with leverage to lower any asking price on vehicles you want to make an offer on. I saved many of my customers a lot of headache and money and even stepped in and bartered some good deals that were very fair to both buyer and seller by helping my customers through that process after the inspection. We used to charge 90 for the first UVI and 65 for each additional if the cars did not pass the "Jenn" test.

List of used car questions and appropriate responses:

1) Do you have the maintenance records for the car? (applies to dealerships/used car lots/private sales)

answer: yes
response: "Can I see them?" Then when you have them in hand, look for frequency of oil changes, Look at the mileage and see if the timing belt/waterpump/tensioners were replaced at the proper mileage interval. Look for the most recent brake service and look for alignments.

answer: no
response: Walk away.

2) Does the car have a clean title? (applies to all sellers)

answer: yes
response: skip to question three

answer: no
response: depends on asking price and you will need to consult me for model dependent responses

3) Has the car been in ANY accidents? (applies to all sellers)

answer: yes
response: Do you have the body shop repair paperwork? If it was minor bumper repair it's not a big deal but make sure you look at the alignment spec sheet and if anything is out of range on the printout which is state mandated to accompany the body shop paperwork walk away, if not it's no biggie.

answer: no
response: move to question 4

4) Why are you selling the car? (private party sales only)

response to answers: This is your chance to gauge the motivation/integrity of the seller. This will be all your own perception but it's important to ask. This question usually throws the shady people off and it's obvious when you hit them with it. The honest people will have an honest and reasonable answer without hesitation. A common honest answer is "My wife is pregnant and we are looking to get a wagon or small SUV instead of a coupe/sedan." or "We bought a new car and the dealership was jacking us on the trade in value so we decided to sell it ourselves."

How do you find a good car repair shop? Do you just have to test the water or is there a more surefire method? What chain stores or dealerships should I avoid?

Cool, Jenn! Great, great thread idea! Thanks!

yeah. she's click AND clack huh!

I am a used car salesman myself and I want to clear up a couple things.

Most of the cars that pass through here do not have maintainance records with them. Between the detail shops and the other dealerships taking these cars to auction those get lost easy. That does not in any way mean that a car is bad. Many times those records are on Carfax if the car was taken to shops that update to Carfax.

As to what mechanic to take a car to I have noticed the best luck with independant shops. It seems like the chain shops look really hard for work and will often claim things are worse than they are.

I wasn't going to get involved with that, but you're right- it is extremely rare to find maintenance records on a used car even buying from an individual. You would be doing a lot of walking away.

CarFax sucks. It will not report all wrecks. For instance, anytime a dealer says something is a "program car" that means it was bought at an auction. That is not necessarily a bad thing. If the car is a year or two old and has less than 36,000 miles on it was owned by a rental company. Not necessarily a bad thing. But rental companies, such as Enterprise, are self insured, and their wrecks do not show up on CarFax.

I highly recommend Auto Check by Experian. It's cheap and it will show things that CarFax won't. For instance on a minivan I was looking at that CarFax said was perfect, the Auto Check had a notation that the auctioneer at an auction (in DE no less- I was looking at vans in AR) had announced that it had frame damage. Needless to say I didn't bother looking at it. For less than 30 bucks I looked up dozens and dozens of vehicles and was able to buy a minivan (ugh) for 55% of NADA retail value. It had light hail damage and one of the power doors didn't work- cost me about $600.00 to fix both. I'll drive the van for two years and sell it for what I paid.

BTW, always go by NADA not Kelley or Edmunds. Your Bank uses NADA and so does the car dealer. Unless they are appraising your trade, then they use the Black Book- and you can't get one unless you're buddies with the owner of a car lot.

A good rule of thumb is that the dealer has less than NADA loan value invested in any used car.

Harbinger, Good tip about the car reports available. I was going to post about some of those resources tonight but you beat me to it. I wouldn't completely discount Kelley Blue Book because it never hurts to have a second opinion and give yourself a range of value for the car. Also KBB is free.

Sheol, we can compromise on the walk away then. I have found quite a few used cars with great maintenance records and the last car I purchased from a dealership it had records as well. The car was a turned in lease that went back to the dealership it came from and all the work had been done at the dealership so it was all on file. Lets say ask for the records and if they have them so much the better. If the car doesn't have records and it's past it's mileage interval for the timing belt, check on the timing cover for a tag that is usually provided by most timing belt manufacturers that provides the tech with a place to record the date and mileage of the most recent replacement. Also, getting a used vehicle inspection does make the records less important.

Cagbro, the best advice I can give you on how to find a reputable shop is to go to your local Napa Auto Parts store and ask the WHOLESALE counter guys who they would recommend. They have a unique insight to the local shops and will know who is good for sure AND the good shops are usually good customers and good to the wholesale guys so the wholesale people will have NO problem sending the good shops new customers. When anyone would ask me when I worked for Napa I would recommend two or three that the customer could call and I often would give them a bit of insight into the personalities of the various service writers.

I love the idea of this thread, but would prefer a snappier title, like "Against All Scams Automotive".

Yeah, good info here, Jenn -- thanks for starting this!

So. . . I was in a fender bender with my 2003 Chevy Malibu, and I busted out my driver's side tail light. Of course, my deductible is $500 I'm footing the bill. What I want to know is this: after I get the part (I've got a few salvage yards in mind) can I install this myself? Or will this require equipment I don't have?

Got any advice on backseats? Enquiring minds wanna know.

Wyldewode wrote:So. . . I was in a fender bender with my 2003 Chevy Malibu, and I busted out my driver's side tail light. Of course, my deductible is $500 I'm footing the bill. What I want to know is this: after I get the part (I've got a few salvage yards in mind) can I install this myself? Or will this require equipment I don't have?

I've owned several older GMs ('70's and '80's models), and all of them had big plastic wingnuts holding in the taillight assembly. They are easily accessible and located inside the trunk.

Dromond, the passenger front seat is the place to be. Slide it back and lay the back down. The floorboard gives excellent traction. Back seats suck.

Wylde, it's probably held in by plastic fasteners as dAN said and at the most you may need a ten millimeter socket and wrench for some. Look at the outside first though. Some are held in by one screw and two plastic snap aligners and those can be tricky. If that is the case for yours, wiggle it in gently so you don't break the plastic retainers. During the nineties the domestic car companies used a specialized tool called a torx bit for lots of light fixtures which was annoying but they got away from that in the late nineties. You should be fine and actually usually the domestic cars are good about easy install tail lights. The headlight lenses on the other hand can be a nightmare.

Backseats.... been a long time since I've been in one of those for nefarious purposes... oh no... wait, last summer I discovered that Landrover Discovery backseats are quite roomy and easily maneuverable as are 66 Dodge Dart Swinger backseats...

I would say the best front seat it in the 1997-2003 (also 2004 Heritage Edition) Ford F-150. The dash on the passenger side slants away towards the front of the truck providing comfort and reliability that a young man like myself is looking for. I honestly believe that is what Ford had in mind when they designed the thing because the dome light is also strategically aimed to illuminate said activities.

I was going to ask, "Why does it seem like everything around here turns into a discussion about...?" and then I remembered who started the thread.

dANdeLION wrote:
I've owned several older GMs ('70's and '80's models), and all of them had big plastic wingnuts holding in the taillight assembly. They are easily accessible and located inside the trunk.

Thanks, dAN, and Jenn! I'm going to round up a light with my tax return and install it myself. I'll let you know how it goes.

So Jenn...do you have any idea what the definition of "within the driver's line of sight" would be in terms of a cracked windshield? I have to get my car inspected this week. There's a crack in my windshield -- starts at about the middle of the passenger's side and goes all the way across to the lower corner of the driver's side. So it crosses the driver's field of vision, but it's low enough that I look over it easily to see the road. Wondering about the odds that I'll have to get the windshield replaced in order for the car to pass inspection.... Ah well, I suppose I'll just take the car in and see what they say. If it flunks, I'll just take it to a glass place and have a new window installed, I guess.

You will have to get it replaced at least by California standards, not sure for your particular state regulations. I would get it replaced anyway and sooner rather than later because an already cracked windshield has a much higher chance of shattering out from future rock chips or road debris hitting it while you are driving and isn't the safest thing. Don't just do it because the state tells you to. Do it because I love you and want you to be as safe as possible on the road. While we are on the subject of safety, EVERYONE who reads this thread:

Get a friend/partner/kid/someone to help you and make sure that all your lights are working on your vehicle. Headlights, taillights, turn signals, brakelights, driving lights. Then turn your wheels all the way to the left and look at your front tires for tread wear, then turn the wheels all the way to the right and do the same so you can see the inner edges. All tires have banded lines that run perpendicular to the tread across the tire. If the "wear bars" are even with the tread it's time for new tires. If you are not sure which bars I am talking about, pick the shortest spot of tread on the tire and stick a penny in with the top of Lincoln's head directed at the tire. If his head is even with or not covered by tread then it 's time for new tires. If the wear is uneven across the width of the tire, ie. thinner on the inside than the outside it's time for an alignment. If your alignment is off your car actually has to work harder for it to roll straight down the road and can cost you in premature tire wear and also in gas efficiency as well as wearing out wheel bearings and driveaxles having to perform at out of specification angles.

So my beautiful Mercedes is gone. She served me well. Called her The Alien Car because all of the buttons on the inside had pictures instead of words....I went 4 years without knowing wth was happening inside of it. Many people had said to me that it felt homey inside that Merc. I first heard the song at age 16 that would later change my life on her radio when my aunt owned it, before she later sold it to me when I was 22 or 23. Good times.

She's a 1986 Mercedes 190E. Had a touchy fuel injector...would sometimes flood and I'd have to wait ten minutes for it to clear out and then start it again. The driver's side window motor failed almost two years ago while it was rolled down about 3 inches. I stuffed a towel in it when it rained. The driver's side lock didn't work so I had to unlock the car by unlocking the trunk. I replaced the front ball bearings three weeks apart. Two years ago, it began overheating when I was idling. I waited almost a month to take it in and have it looked at. The guy replaced the thermostat and told me that there was a lot of coolant around the head gasket, that I needed to watch it in case it was slightly cracked. A year later, the head gasket no longer held pressure and one morning last October, it wouldn't start. About 210k miles on her. /sigh. Because of all of the issues it had and the money I lacked, I learned a ton about cars just by owning it and trying to find thrifty ways to patch it up and learn about its ailments. I sold it to pick-and-pull for $173 and the cost of my soul. Best goddamn car I'll ever own. There's my tribute.