Purchasing A Used Vehicle..

[birchy]

Does anyone have any insights into the 'etiquette' around taking someone's vehicle for an inspection before you buy it?

 

Does the person come with you? If they don't, do you leave them some sort of deposit in trust? If you do leave a deposit, how can you make sure they return it if you don't buy? I suppose they could always just report it stolen if you didn't come back..

 

I've heard of people purchasing vehicles "subject to it passing an inspection". How does that work? You pay for it, but then bring it back and get your money back if it fails?

[murray]

Birchy, a number of years ago, a friend of mine had a Datsun,280Z for sale. A couple of guys phoned up to take a look at it. They asked to take it for a test drive down to the end of the block. This is a 2 seater so Bill just let the two of them take it. They looked like they could be trusted. It turns out that they couldn't. Bill didn't gert the car back for about a week, fortunately it wasn't trashed. He called it a lesson and doesn't do that anymore. Anyway, in answer to your question, I would discuss the issue with the owner and either have him join you for the trip to the mechanic or see what worked for him. I doubt if he will sell the vehicle without a mechanical inspection so he might just want to go with you and make sure the mechanic isn't your brother or something like that.

 

Those are my thoughts anyway.

 

Murray

[nickt]

i always had the owner get the inspection and if it passed i would pay for the inspecion. if it failed depending on what the problem was i would now have a bargaining chip because i could say i want such and such knocked off to fix whatever the problem was. or the other option i walk and the owner would be out the inspection money. i like this system because if the owner is more than happy to comply with this method, then it becomes more apparent that they have nothing to hide. this is my easiest way of sorting out the vehicles on the market that are there because they have problems.

[acurrie]

I just sold a car. I always take the other persons Keys and If they have a wallet i get them to give it to me, minus there Drivers license.

[Nick0Danger]

If they are looking to sell, they will drop off the car and any inspection place you would like. That said, usally you might have to pay for it, but if you dont buy it you could always sell the inspection to them.

[bhurt]

I believe if someone makes you pay for a inspection on a car that they are trying to sell to you then don't buy the car. I just think it is ethical that if purchasing a used car that the owner should have some type of current inspection papers, its not like you are buying something that can kill *sarcasm*

 

Does it cost the original owner more money, sure but if you want top dollers and you have nothing to worry about then why not.

 

I belive, I could be wrong, that when you do a trade in at a dealership then they will do a inspection on it, and I think the dealership pays for the inspection.

[trailhead]

We just bought a used car and went through a number of cars before we found one that was okay mechanically. On all of them we had an inspection done, in most cases the owner just let us take the car, one wanted a deposit which we got back when the car failed. What we found was that we had to pay for our own inspection, the guy who wanted the deposit had an inspection done, some how it turned out different than our inspection. If you buy at a lot there is usually some type of warranty, but you pay GST. For us it was a long process, but we were being very particular, but it ended up okay. So be careful and you should be okay.

[jimbow]

i think you'd have to pay for the inspection but it would be worthwhile and then you can take it where you want.

 

the last car my wife and i bought we first agreed on a price subject to inspection. then negotiated a number of issues off the price that was agreed upon based on the inspection.

 

i have actually seen cars where the owner had the inspection down but at something like joe's garage. personally i'd be a little sceptical of those.

[darrinhurst]

The only thing that I would advise is to make sure you get the vehcile's VIN number and take it to your local Registry Office for a CarProof. It will give you all of the vehicle's records of Lein, Registration, Accidents, Odometer Readings, etc. Worth the $40 to know that your car hasn't been in any accidents.