We are in the process of buying our first used car ever. We found out on Saturday that hubby's 2004 RAV4 with 226,000 miles on it was going to need a rear end, and being we just already put close to $2000 into it- new tires, brakes, roters, etc., we decided not to put any more money into it, though I would have loved to keep it until we retired, since commuting beats our cars to hell. We have been through something like 14 cars in our 40 years of marriage. (We keep 3 cars at all times right now)
We put the RAV on Craigs List this past Sunday at 1:30 and by 1:40 we had tons of responses- people even bidding up for it! By Sunday at 4:30 it was taken away on a trailer by a used car exporter!
We had looked on line on Saturday and found it was not that easy to find a decent used car with low mileage for a price that makes it worth it not to buy new. Also, a lot of cars advertised on sites like Auto Trade and Car Max were not even available!
Hubby needs to have an SUV. We finally found a Santa Fe at a Hyundai dealership that is over an hour from our home. 2016, 33,000 miles, $16,400. Not certified, but still some warranty left. Because we would be a third owner, the 10 year, 100,000 mile power train warranty would not be in effect. Disappointing. It was originally a rental from Enterprise and had another owner for 7 months after that. It was turned back to the dealer the end of August 2017.
My husband works as an insurance adjuster and has worked in the auto industry all his life, so we did not have an independent car mechanic inspect it. Hubby looked over the car, and under the hood, and drove it, etc. The Car Fax is clean, but my husband did see evidence of a small accident- the front headlamp was scuffed and under the hood inside he could see evidence of a fender repair there. Also, he could see evidence of the wheels hitting the curb from bad parking. Wheel rash or something like that it is called. LOL!
Rental companies do their own repair work so any accident that would occur would not show up in a Car Fax report. Also, if the accident occurred during the second persons' ownership, she might not have reported it to the insurance company.
Other than that, he thinks the car is good. One thing he did not do was have them put it up on a lift. Me, on the other hand, I am a Nervous Nelly about buying a used car. But to buy a new one of these, or another decent brand SUV, would be about $10,000 more. No small chunk of change!
Supposed to pick it up this upcoming Saturday. My head is spinning from over analyzing the whole thing.