If You See This, DO NOT Buy That Car! (Seriously)

If you're buying a used car, you're one smooth talking seller away from getting scammed or driving home a lemon. So I'm going to show you exactly what to look for step by step using a mechanic's used car checklist. From the research that I do, feeling out the seller, a really good walk around, looking under the hood, the all-important test drive, and then what I like to call the theft check, which you definitely don't want to skip. But don't worry, I'm going to take you through exactly what's involved in each one of these steps so you know exactly what to check in a car to minimize the chance of you making a bad purchase. I'm Josh. I've been working on cars since I was 16, so I didn't have to pay the shop. We started this channel so I could share my experience with you so you could work on your own car and save money too. And I'm going to include this list in the description of this video so that you can actually take it with you when you go shopping for a used car. Now I'm not in the market for a used car right now, but today I do have this Nissan Altima. So I'm going to be using this to go through the checklist with you. So let's go. Okay. So the first thing that I always do is a little bit of research. So I want to show up to look at a car, knowing a few basic facts. One of the first things I want to know, is this particular car been in any major accidents? So I'll ask the seller for some basic information about the car, like the VIN and the license plate that will allow me to get history reports on that specific vehicle. So I can use a car fax or some other service like that. They'll allow me to see if it's been any major accidents. And that's really important to know when you go and look at the car because oftentimes the car has been repaired and a lot of the major damage has been covered up. You want to know what's happened to that car. If anything, usually car history reports cost 20 to 40 bucks depending on the service you're using, but often you can get like a subscription and that will allow you to get multiple reports for a much cheaper price. The other thing that I like to do is go to a site like carcomplaints.com and look up known issues in general with that model or a year of car. So maybe this specific car doesn't have a problem, but that model is prone to have transmission problems or electronics problems. Good to just have a general knowledge before going in. Now, when it comes to looking up prices for cars, I do use Kelley Blue Book. But what I found is that that doesn't always tell you what your local market for that car is going to be. So I just make sure that I check out a couple other cars, the same model and similar years on Facebook and Craigslist as well. Okay. So when it comes to car research, we've done our vehicle history report, known issues or research, and we've done a local market comparison. So when it comes to the big day, going to look at the car, I prefer to see the car at the owner's house, mainly for the reason that I like to look at a cold car. I don't want it to have been warmed up because a lot of problems are hidden by warming the car up. Additionally, when you get to the seller's house, it gives you kind of a good chance to check out how they take care of their lives, right? You can kind of see the shape of their house, just kind of get a vibe for who these people are. And then you can get to start asking the seller questions about why are they selling this car? What kind of things have they done with the car? You know, are they commuting long distances on highway? Are they doing like all in city driving? There's a kind of things that are really good to know about the history of the previous owner. Another thing I'm aware of is if the seller's giving you really vague answers and not directly answering your questions, like if you were to say like, why are you selling this car? And they say, well, I just bought it like a can feel like sellers are hiding stuff. And my all time least favorite thing that sellers will do is when they threw out the whole process, they say, well, it has this little problem, but it's probably really easy to fix. Or I had a friend look at it and it's probably only going to be 50 bucks to fix. That to me is a huge red flag that they don't know what it is, or they do know what it is and don't want to tell you. Because in my mind, if something was easy to fix or cheap to fix, they would have done it already and sold the car for more. Another big seller red flag for me is if the person selling the car isn't the actual owner, if they're selling it for their cousin or their brother or their neighbor or some friend, I don't even want anything to do with it. I won't show up to look at a car if I'm not meeting the owner, because if someone's selling a car for someone else, they don't know the history, the maintenance history. It makes it almost impossible to get the information that you need to make a decision on a car. Okay. Checklist. Meet at the car's location if possible. Ask for a cold startup. Is the seller a conscientious person? Ask them why they're selling. Ask what work has been done. Are they giving you vague answers? And are they the real owner? All right. The next section is the walk around. And before I do that, I will show you a little kit of tools that I bring with me to look at cars, including a code reader, flashlight, and the oh-so-handy fridge magnet. And I'll get into what I use these for as we go. All right. Now we're actually looking at the exterior of the car. What a lot of people don't realize is that the paint of a car and the body of a car is one of the most expensive things to have repaired. And so A, a lot of people don't get it repaired properly or they cheap out on it when it is damaged. And B, if you see damage that you're going to want to repair in the future, just know it's going to be a lot more expensive than you think it is. So as I walk around, I am just looking for signs that this car has been damaged that maybe they're trying to hide. So maybe I'll get a door that's slightly different color. Often with white, you'll get an off-white one. And again, this is something you want to talk to that seller about, like what's going on? Why are these slightly different? Was there damage that got repaired or something trying to be covered up? Same thing you can get with funky wrinkled spots or damaged spots that kind of like they've been painted, but maybe not super well. This is where that handy fridge magnet comes into play because most of the panels of the car are metal. So if you stick it to a spot that looks suspicious and the magnet won't stick, that means that that metal isn't there and it's filled with Bondo or something like that. So I can just be a cheap way to find damaged areas. Now, just keep in mind with the magnet trick, sometimes now modern cars, the hoods are fiberglass or plastic, and obviously the bumpers aren't metal as well. Again, I'm also looking at glass, so the windows, because a lot of states, if you've got chips or cracks in windshields, you'll fail some kind of inspection and have to get that thing replaced. So don't let a seller tell you it's just a small crack, no big deal. These suckers can be $400 to $1,200 to replace depending on the sensors that they have in the glass. Again, side windows, same type of deal. This may be a small damage in this glass, but to replace it and get it reinstalled with all the motors and everything, that could easily be a $600 fix. Another thing that you can check for with potential damaged bodywork is just making sure that the lines between the doors and the different panels, they make sense, right? That they're even lines and that this panel lines up with this panel. Because often if there's been major structural damage, things like doors don't quite line up exactly. I'm not usually as worried about bumpers. These things are always popping out and never really lining up. Not as big a deal as long as it's on nice and sturdy. Another thing I like to do is pop the gas cap and look inside. And if a shady paint job was done on the car, oftentimes you can see a different color inside. They'll forget to paint inside here, and that'll give you a little bit of a look into the past. Next thing I want to check is tires because tires are pretty expensive, especially if they're going to be something low profile like this, or maybe on a truck, something bigger and more tough, extra money for tires. So we're looking at not only the wear, how much tire is actually left, how much gap is still in there. You're just checking if the tire is totally bald or if there's plenty of tread left. One thing on tire checking, I like to turn the wheel out so that I can see the full face of the tire. The reason I turn it out like this is so that you can actually get a better look at the inside corner of the tire. Because oftentimes if a car's alignment or frame is really bent or bad, the outside of the tire can look fine, but the inside can be totally bald with wires sticking out. So be careful when you stick your hand back here. But I'm basically looking if the, if the tread wear is even and not super lopsided. All right, while I'm looking at wheels, this is a good time to check brakes. This is why I have a flashlight. Now, the reason I'm checking brakes is because brakes, if they're bad and need to be replaced, can be expensive. If you're not doing them yourself, can easily run you $500 to get brakes done. But if you're looking at a car that has somewhat open wheels, you'll be able to easily see the rotor. This is the brake rotor right here. And you're looking to make sure that it's not pitted with rust, needs to be replaced. Has a big lip on the outside, needs to be replaced. Or is a weird burn color, purples, blues, something that where it got super overheated and needs to be replaced. On some cars, if you know, if the openings are right, you'll also be able to see the brake pads and you'd be able to see how much pad life is left, which is really good to know. On this car, you can't really see from the outside. You'd have to pop the wheel off to check that. But on a lot of cars, you can get enough information just with the brake rotor to tell you if you've got a brake job coming up or not. All right. And the last thing I'm looking for in a walk around is modifications that the seller has done. So that can be things like stickers on the window or aftermarket antenna. And that's fine. But what I really don't want to see is things like, you know, big aftermarket mufflers or a spoiler on the back or lowered suspension, anything that makes it feel like the car has been raced on the weekends. Then it's a hard pass because that car has been abused. Now, a couple of good questions to ask the seller while you're doing the walk around is, A, does this car get parked in the shade, undercover, or is it out in the sun? Because a car that's parked out in the sun all of its life is going to have a lot more exterior damage later on. Second question I ask, did this car come from another state maybe, or has it always been here? Because if it came from another state where maybe they salt their roads, you might be looking at a lot of rust damage in the future that you want to know about. So the walk around checklist, mismatched areas of paint, filler spots, glass damage, panel misalignment, looking under the gas cap, tire wear, inside tread, brake rotors, brake pads, sketchy modifications. All right. We've checked the exterior of the car out. And of course we want to get in and test drive it. There's a few things that I like to always check first. Next thing we're going to check is under the hood. Basically what I'm looking for under the hood is just signs of negligence, right? Just signs of things not being taken care of or fixed improperly. So I'm looking for stuff that's like fixed with zip ties, fixed with duct tape, just like a super dirty engine compartment that's never been taken care of. Speaking of negligence, the next thing I want to do under the hood is get my eyeballs on any fluids that I can. So like engine oil should be nice and golden. What you don't want to see is black, black engine oil on the dipstick, right? Meaning the oil has not been changed often enough on this engine, which is really hard on it. This car, like a lot of cars, doesn't actually have a transmission dipstick that you can check. But if it does, it's really nice to be able to check that fluid as well. Again, if it's really black and dark means it hasn't been changed often enough. Usually you can get to the brake fluid pretty easily. Pop that cap, take a look at that. Again, darker the fluid, the more dirty is, and that's a bad sign. This car has electric power steering, so you don't have to worry about that fluid. A lot of older cars have that hydraulic power steering that's going to have a reservoir that you can check the fluid. It either has a dipstick, maybe stick a little rag in there. So with these fluids, if you're seeing a lot of dirty, unmaintained fluids, it could be a hint that the owner is also not taking care of other parts of the car that are harder to see. Okay. Something else I'm looking for is signs of fluid leaks, specifically coolant. I'm going to use my flashlight and check for light colored splatters where the coolant has leaked and then dried. A really common spot for that is on the underside of the hood where it's gotten on belts and gotten sprayed up in here. That's one area where a seller can clean it up so that you don't see the leak, but it's hard to hide where coolant has sprayed. Again, coolant leaks are really serious. If you have a car that's leaking coolant, it's potentially overheating or has overheated in the past. And that's a big red flag. All right. At this point, I'm also going to be checking for oil leaks with a flashlight, not a cell phone. And I'm usually looking around the sides and the back of the engine. And oil leaks are kind of tricky because it's like, if you see an oil leak, it's really hard to tell where it's coming from. And a lot of them can be really difficult and expensive to repair. So if you're seeing an oil leak anywhere on the engine, you really want to take into consideration whether you want to deal with the potential repairs or expense. All right. As I'm looking for leaks, I'm going to go under the car, see if I see any big dripping. Now this car's got a plastic cover underneath the engine, like a lot of them are starting to do now. But I would still be able to see any major leaks that were happening, dripping out from underneath this cover. Now, while I'm down here looking for leaks, it's also a good time to check out any suspension or steering elements that I can see. So I'm going to be looking at any boots or bushings that I can see on the control arm or the shocks or the axle. With the wheel turned out like this, I can see the sway bar. So you don't want to see any of those rubber bushings cracked or dried out or oozing grease from the boot. You don't want to see fluid coming out of the shocks. So that would be damaged suspension components, again, that would need to be replaced. And those can be really expensive. Back up on top of the engine, another thing that's really easy to see with an open hood is the condition of the battery. Normally they have a date written right on them when it went into service and batteries are usually good for up to three, four years. And then also you're looking for visual signs of corrosion. So fuzzy green stuff, deteriorating cable connectors, anything pointing to a battery or terminals needing to be replaced. That's like $150, but it's good to check. This would also be a good time to ask the owner about maintenance. So asking them how often do they change the oil? If they don't know, or it's a really long time in between oil changes, again, that's engine abuse. You also want to ask them what, if any, engine work has been done to the car and try to get an idea of, do they take it to the dealer or do they take it to their Uncle Ricky? Okay, under hood checklist, general engine condition, fluids, leaks, suspension, and battery. Hey, YouTube has informed us that 95% of you enjoying this content aren't actually subscribers. So if you're getting value out of our content, make sure you subscribe to Budget Mechanic. It really helps us out. All right, next up, interior. Inside the car, I'm looking for stuff that can't be cleaned. Upholstery that's actually torn, not just dirty. Headliner that's ripped or coming down. Those things can't really be done yourself. If you want to fix them and have a pretty looking car, you got to have those things replaced. Same goes for plastic elements, especially big things like a dashboard. If those get sun damaged and cracked, you can't just put Armor All on them and fix them, right? That has to be replaced, which is crazy expensive. The next thing I'm trying to be aware of is the smells inside the car. You know, cigarette smoke is very difficult to get rid of. If I smell really strong air fresheners, it really makes me wonder if the seller is trying to cover something up. So I get a little suspicious with air fresheners. Then a big one is like musty mildew smell, because that's either water leaking in from somewhere, which is really bad, or it can also be part of your air conditioning system that's leaking, particularly your evaporator core leaking through the vents. And that alone is $1,200 job, at least to get that replaced. So as you're sitting in it, especially as you're driving, you want to be aware of things that you're smelling that could be costly. Next, I'm going to put the car in accessory. So turn the key or hit the button, and I'm going to check the mileage. So this mileage, you know, obviously needs to match the description that the seller gave you. You'd see if the mileage makes sense for the age of the car. If you've got a five-year-old car and it's got 250,000 miles, something doesn't quite make sense there. The other thing that I like to do is to bring my handy-dandy super compact code reader. So even before I start up the car, I'm going to plug in my code reader, and this is nothing complicated. All I'm doing is plugging it in and hitting read codes. You know, every code reader is different, but essentially the most basic function is going to be are there fault codes, and they'll pop right up. I'll see cars all the time where the check engine light is on the, like popped up on the dash, and the seller's like, oh, no big deal. It's just the, you know, blah, blah, blah. It's real simple. And if you don't have a code reader to check, you don't know if he's actually telling the truth. And if it's actually maybe a real serious code, that's going to take a lot more time and money to fix. Interior checklist, trim and upholstery, smells, mileage, and basic code check. The next section is the moment of startup. Now, a lot of people don't understand this, but starting up a cold car really gives you some insight into potential problems because a lot of engine problems, especially are hidden by a warmed up engine. That's why I said you want to have the seller keep the engine cold. All right. So right away, I'm just seeing how long it took to start up, making sure there's no big delays. And then pretty quickly, I want to get to the back and I want to see if there was any smoke coming out of the tailpipe, any white smoke, any blue smoke, because oftentimes oil will pool in a leaky valve cover or bad rings. It'll pool. And on startup, you'll get a puff of blue smoke, but then it'll be gone as the engine burns it. The whiter smoke is coolant, which could be a head gasket leak. That'd be pretty bad. So these are the things you can only see right at startup. All right. I'm also going to come up to the front with the hood still open. And I'm just going to listen if I hear anything going wrong with the engine, because oftentimes things like bearings or pulleys or belts, they'll do their squealing right at startup on a cold engine, and then they'll slowly start going away. So this is a good opportunity to hear those things. All right. Now I'm back in the car and just as it sits here, idling, I'm just feeling for any vibration or engine running a regular watching the tachometer. If you got one, you'd want to make sure that it's not like revving up and down on its own. And that leads us to back into the scanner. You can tell a lot once the engine is running by the live data. So even this cheap little thing has live data. You want to make sure you have a code reader that supports that. You can get way deep in the weeds in a code reader, but really what I like to look at is the fuel trims. You would want to see short and long-term fuel trims between negative five and 5%. When it starts to get outside of that range, that means that the computer is compensating for an engine problem. Another thing that a scanner can do with some cars is actually tell you what the battery voltage is while it's running. And if it's over 13 volts, that would tell you that your alternators is working well, which is another cool check you can do. Next, before you start driving, you just want to generally check the accessories and features of the car. So it's going to be important ones like your AC and your heater, any electronics like electric seats, electric mirrors, making sure all these things function properly as they should. Because again, these little things, if they're broken, they add up. Okay. Startup checklist, ease of the start, any smoke, engine, fuel trims, and accessories. Now keep in mind, most of the checklist so far has focused on the functionality of the car itself, but there's a few items that are super important. A lot of people miss, it don't have anything to do with the mechanics. So stick with me. All right. It's time for a test drive. Test driving is the most important part of this whole thing. And you're going to spend most of your time around your car in the seat. So this is the, this is the big one. So when I'm driving, I just like to break things up into the senses, right? So I start with how do things sound? So I'm listening for rumbling or roaring sounds coming from bad bearings or tires. You know, I can kind of test that by swerving left and right a little bit. If that sound changes, it kind of gives me some clues. We made a great video on all the sounds that your car makes. You should definitely check that out. Lots of good info in there, but I'm listening for, you know, a brake squeaking squeal indicating I might need, you know, some new brakes. So when it comes to suspension noises, specifically, if the car you're looking at is, you know, 10, 15 years old, there's probably going to be some little rattles and, you know, clunking sounds, which is not the end of the world. Something to be aware of, but the ones you really want to look out for that are red flags are going to be big, loud clunking sounds, especially ones that you feel in the steering wheel or feel in your seat. Those ones are going to be more serious, potentially more dangerous. Other things I'm listening for are the engine itself. If I hear any knocking, like a knocking sound that follows the RPM of the engine, that would, you know, be some sort of detonation or maybe some bearing noise. I would definitely see that as a red flag. Transmission as well. If you're hearing like a whining noise while you're, you know, going straight down the highway, transmission shouldn't be making any noise. And that would more follow the speed of the car usually. All right, then I'm also just kind of feeling out how the car is driving in terms of, you know, vibrations in the steering wheel indicating like a bad alignment issue or something. One really important time you want to feel that steering wheel is when you're braking really hard, so you can get up to speed and hit the brakes pretty hard. The steering wheel shouldn't shake. If it shakes, that means your brake rotors are bad and you're doing a full brake job. You want to see how the car does when you take your hands off the wheel for a second. Does it pull left or right or does it track straight? I do the same test again. I'll hit the brakes while I take my off the wheel for a second and see if the car pulls. If it pulls really hard, you've got some expensive brake issues going on. This is also a good time to keep your eyes on the dashboard because you want to be looking at your indicators. Little warning lights can pop up and turn off, so you want to be kind of paying attention. As well as looking at like temperature gauges, a huge one. If that temperature gauge, you know, obviously goes into the hot, I mean, that's a huge red flag. You don't want a car that's overheating or been overheated. But also looking at the temperature gauge and see if it fluctuates. Temperature gauge should just go up to operating temperature and stick there. If it's fluctuating, you don't want to mess around with that. Another thing I like to do is I'll find something like some rough pavement where the pavement's really broken up or maybe a little bit of dirt road and I'll see how the car sounds and feels when I'm on a rougher road and that'll often highlight suspension issues or steering issues. All right, next I'm going to kind of pull off to like a parking lot or a side street where I can do some really slow sharp turns, full lock turns. I'm listening for any CV axles clicking or body panels rubbing on the tires. And then I can also check out my reverse, make sure there's no big clunks into reverse. Now I can turn the other way, check the other axle. Again, I'm kind of focusing on transmission, just making sure it shifts really well. Of course, one of the biggest things in a test drive is feeling out the transmission, right? Because if there's a You don't want to be feeling any hesitation called slipping where you're like you hit the gas but it's not really actually taking off, it's just revving the motor. Or if it's shifting in between gears and kind of slamming into gears, that's a big red flag as well. After I do that, then I drive a little hard on the car, right? I push it a little bit. So I'm going to accelerate really fast and then I'll do some hard braking. And then maybe I'll do a really pretty sharp turn like this. Not a comfortable way to be a passenger but I'm kind of pushing the car to see if it does anything different. A lot of times car problems will not really show themselves until you put it under a lot of load. You put, you know, send it up a hill and you'll hear a transmission or a fuel pump or engine, you know, noises or problems show themselves. Also, don't forget to check just sort of the accessories or the features of the car that you can't check while you're parked. So that could be, you know, make sure your cruise control works, make sure all the windows work and the lights. Just checking all those features. If they're not working, those repairs add up. All right, test drive checklist. Wheels, suspension, transmission, engine performance, warning lights, and car accessories. All right, this next section is actually rechecking under the hood. Now I do this after the test drive because everything's warmed up. If anyone tried to clean up some oil leaks or dry off some coolant leaks before, well, they're going to show themselves now. So I'm going to get my flashlight out, just check again if I see any dripping, spraying, leaking, or any other trouble with a hot engine. The other thing I do when the engine's hot is I'm smelling, especially for coolant leaks. Coolant's really kind of a sweet syrupy smell and a hot engine is the best way to get that to show itself. Last thing I check for is really valuable information is if the cooling fan or fans actually kick on when the engine heats up. A lot of cars have two fans and I just want to make sure that they actually kick on. They are automatic, they come off and on, but I can see both of these spinning and I know they're working. So rechecking the engine checklist, leaks, smells, cooling fans. All right, the last section is the theft check and this is where you could end up with a stolen car or a car that's not even allowed on the road. It has to do with paperwork. All right, there's a few things that we want to check. The first one is going to be with the title. Make sure the title matches the car. The way you do that is by looking at the vehicle identification number VIN on the title and make sure it matches with the VIN on the car itself. Now, usually there's a sticker down here in the door jamb, usually a sticker up in the corner of the windshield and sometimes under the hood even. You want to just make sure that the title that you're signing matches the car that you're getting. If it doesn't, then the owner is trying to scam you or they've misplaced the right title. The next thing that you want to do is match the title to the seller. So the name that's listed on the title needs to match their ID because they're going to have to sign this thing and if you go and take this in and try to transfer it into your name and some random person has signed it, probably not going to be able to transfer that title. So really important that you check their ID against the title. A couple other things that are important with titles, you can get titles that are called duplicates. So they're not actually the only title, you just have a duplicate and then obviously if you sign that over, someone else actually has the real one. So you want to make sure that doesn't say duplicate on here. Another big one is you can get titles that look almost identical, but one will say salvage title, which is a huge deal because that means the vehicle at some point was a complete insurance write-off, usually because of massive damage and then was repaired and able to be registered again, but has a checkered past and is not worth as much money. So you just want to make sure your title is clean and not salvaged. You can see the odometer reading from when the title was last transferred. So obviously this is going to be different than the current mileage of the car, but if it's like 150,000 miles difference, unless the owner has owned it for many, many years, that would be kind of suspect. Lastly, when you are filling out the title for the sale, you just want to make sure you look up ahead of time what that process actually entails. Don't just take the seller's word for it so that they're signing and you're signing in the correct places. I don't know if a notary has to be involved. You definitely want to take each step and don't let the seller rush through it or skip steps. One huge red flag is if the title is in another state. If you're trying to buy and register a car in a certain state, but the title is from a different state, I'll usually just walk away. I tell a seller, you figure that out and I will come back when you've got it registered in the right place because you get compounded headaches when you're dealing with interstate car sales. A couple other pieces of paper that are really important is your registration. So you want to make sure again that the registration matches the VIN and that it's current. If it's not current, that's a big red flag for me. That means that the previous owner hasn't gone to the trouble of just re-registering a car that they already own. It's way harder for you as a new owner to do it. And if the right things or signatures are not in place, I've seen cars get sold that are actually not even able to be registered because the seller disappeared and didn't sign the right piece of paper and the new owner can't get the car registered. Ouch. And again, if they say, oh, it's just a simple little step that they haven't done yet, it begs the question, why haven't they done the simple step and what are they trying to hide? Maybe they're just trying to pass on a problem to you. Now, if a safety or emissions check is failed, if it's expired, it's a red flag because it means the owner hasn't done a very simple thing to do and maybe wasn't able to get emissions passed. And the owner is just saying it's a simple thing, forgot to do it. Again, it begs the question of why they actually didn't do it. And if they're Registration, safety and emissions, proper transfer procedures. Since you're watching this video on how to buy a used car, I know you're going to love this video on the five things I do immediately after buying a used car to make it last hundreds of thousands of miles.