There are many considerations you should think about when you buy a used car. A vehicle history reporton the vehicle is extremely important because you need to know how the car was used in the past and much more.
Many things can make a car a lemon and you need to know if you are getting a good deal. Some of the things that could make your car a lemon based on the history of the car include if it was in an accident, stolen, publicly used, weather damage, owners, and more.
When you buy a used car you shouldn‟t rush into the process. A dealer will try to get you to give them the cash, sign the papers, and drive away. The most important thing you can do is run a vehicle history report on the vehicle and be sure it is not known to have any problems.
If the car was in any insurance claims for accidents it will pull up here. Carfax is the best way to run a report. All you have to do is enter in the vehicle identification number or the VIN and you can run a search. A VIN number is a unique ID that every car is given in a database. No car has the same number.
A vehicle history report is going to give you any accident history of the vehicle. You might be looking at a nice looking vehicle that has a salvaged title.
A salvaged title means that it was in an accident bad enough where the insurance company considered the vehicle to be totaled. Anyone can fix the exterior of a vehicle to look absolutely fabulous but you don‟t want to drive away and have major problems. You should know if the vehicle was in a major accident.
In addition to a major accident, it is also important for you to know if the airbags have ever deployed on the car. A driver may have been driving the car and slammed on the brakes really hard and caused the airbags to deploy. They might have bumped into the back of a car lightly and caused them to deploy.
The airbags may no longer be functional in the car and you might have to pay for this. You should know if your airbags need to be fixed because you need the safety the airbags provide. In addition, your insurance will like the fact you have functioning airbags.
One of the things people don‟t think about is if the vehicle has ever been stolen. This information should be disclosed to you by the dealer and it is common that it won‟t be. A Carfax report will tell you if the vehicle you want to buy was ever called in as stolen and recovered later. It is common for stolen vehicles to go through some serious wear and tear when the thief is in possession of the vehicle.
Flooding is another factor people don‟t think about. If you are buying a vehicle in an area of the United States where there was severe flooding you might want
to verify if the vehicle experienced a flood. Many people who lose their cars to 10 feet of water in a flood will fix the inside of the vehicle up with new interior or seat covers and carpeting and then sell it.
You don‟t want to find out that your car is destroyed because it went through a flood. A Carfax report will also let you know if the vehicle ever had severe hail damage, went through a fire, or any other natural disaster weather related issue.
A vehicle history report is also important because you want to know about previous owners. You want to know how many people have driven the car before you. The more previous owners who have driven the car might raise a flag. You might want to know why no one hangs onto the car and keeps selling it.
Another thing to consider with the history of a vehicle is if the car was a rental. Some people think rental cars are a great buy but they are not. This is because a rental car goes through hundreds of different drivers and most people don‟t care about a rental car.
If someone gets the insurance offered by a rental agency they can do whatever they want to the car and they will not be charged. People don‟t take care of a rental as if it was their own. You have a better chance of a rental car being a lemon than most other vehicles.
The other important factor about a used vehicle you want to consider in the vehicle history is if it was ever used for public service. The car may have been a driver‟s education vehicle used by thousands of teenagers everyday. This could mean for a lot of wear and tear. If the police department used to use the vehicle as a cruiser then it could have been in chases or anything else.
Police officers don‟t take care of their vehicles because the cars aren‟t theirs and they go from low to high speeds quickly. They also take their vehicles off of the main roads onto areas a car should not drive all of the time. A police cruiser or a vehicle used for public service use is a very bad idea if you are trying to avoid purchasing a lemon.
The final and most important thing you need to find out is if the vehicle has ever had any tampering with the odometer. You do not want to buy a vehicle where the odometer has been tampered with.
A report will tell you how many miles it has on it through the lifetime and transfer of owners. If your odometer says you have way less miles you will know it was tampered with. More miles on a vehicle drop the value significantly.
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