I’m looking at an '01 Miata. I did an inspection and test drive myself. I’m not by any means an expert on cars, but I certainly can check some obvious things myself.
The engine sounds fine at idle and at speed.
There are no obvious fluid leaks.
The tires are in good shape.
The breaks work fine and are visibly in good shape.
The clutch doesn’t slip.
Electrical systems work.
The Carfax report is clean and the car was clearly cared for; it’s in great shape cosmetically.
The only potential red flag is that there’s some vibration shifting into first from a start. I looked around online and found forums that suggest that it could be an early sign of clutch failure, or it could be nothing. Several people have lived with such a thing for 100k+ miles with no problems. Now, impending clutch failure could be bad, but even if I had to replace the clutch, it still wouldn’t be a bad deal on the car.
The reason I’m considering not getting it inspected is my normal mechanic doesn’t have a spot until next week, so I’d have to find someone else. When I called the local dealer and asked for the cost of a presale inspection, he listed off a few things like check the tires and brakes and battery, etc. I’m capable of checking those, and I’m just not sure what other issues are likely to be discovered during a basic pre-sale inspection. Educate me.
Nay. It’s an 8 year old car. Do you know how to check for ball joints, tie rods, axles, etc? The brakes stop the car but how close to needing new calipers are you? I wouldn’t buy a new car without a real inspection, especially not one of this age.
Agree. Whatever the cost for a mechanic to give it a look over will pay off. Stuff like checking for head gasket leaks, compression, etc. are well beyond my ken and it gives you peace of mind… and you’d probably find out if that vibration is something minor or major.
It may not be a complete disaster, but it’s unwise.
If a clutch goes you get it replaced. If the starter goes you get it replaced. No big deal. What you want to look for, though, is something major that will render the car undrivable and unrepairable forever.
Years ago I bought an Escort without getting it inspected. It was a nice solid car and everything worked great. There was only one little problem – the only thing holding the right rear wheel on was rust. When a mechanic tried jacking the car up, the wheel stayed on the ground. I’m lucky it didn’t come off when I was on the highway.
That’s something I wouldn’t have found on my own, and it was major.
Mileage is a factor. On a car with ~30K miles, it’s extremely unlikely you’d have a problem that would be revealed by a mechanical inspection. At ~75K miles, it’s more likely but still not very likely. At ~120K miles, there’s a reasonable chance it could need some work that the inspection will reveal. Usually said work will cost in the hundreds, not the thousands, so if the price is right it would still be a relatively small gamble.
One significant thing I’m looking for when I do used-car inspections is evidence of maintenance done vs. maintenance due. If it was cared for mechanically, that’s a good sign. Spark plugs, fluid conditons, belts, and filters are some of the key components here. Good care of the body and interior usually, but of course not always, correlates with good care of the mechanicals.
Without the thorough mechanical inspection you’re taking a chance. However, the info you do have from test driving and observation points in a positive direction, and probably the majority of used car buyers don’t get a pre-purchase inspection but feel they did all right. So the odds are on your side, just be aware that if you’re in the unlucky 10% it could be punch in the pocketbook.
How badly do you want the car? Do you think the current owner will come down in price if a mechanic does find anything wrong?
If the owner isn’t going to lower the price and you really want the car, I wouldn’t bother spending the money ahead of time. Save it in case you do need to make repairs.
In over 40 years of buying and driving cars, I have only bought one new car, and that was two years ago. I have never taken a car to a mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection. I’ve never been burned on a purchase where something major showed up soon after the purchase.
That being said, I’m sure there are many people that have been burned and would never even think of buying a car without having a mechanic check it over.
If you are aware that you are buying a used car that might need a clutch, brake job, timing belt, etc (these are all things that wear out) soon, and you’re okay with that, then get the car. If you are spending your last cent and you need the car to go at least two years with no maintenance or you can’t afford it, you need to get it inspected.
For me it worked really well as an opportunity to negotiate on price. We had settled on a price “based on everything being mechanically OK.” When the mechanic found a couple hundred dollars of things that should be done, we knocked that off the price. This was not my regular mechanic or a dealer, but an independent Honda specialist. He didn’t charge for the inspection, either, just used it as an opportunity to prospect for work. I would never buy a used car without one.
That happened to a friend of mine once. He was driving downhill, and he suddenly noticed his wheel rolling past him. He was able to coast to a stop without tipping over, fortunately.
Physical things (brakes, tires, ball joint play, tie rod alignment, etc) are easy to check for and determine if they are a deal breaker.
My concern would be a shifty person who cleared the ODBII codes just before your test drive, all the while the on board computer is screaming “I’M SUCH A PIECE OF SHIT!!!” but it hasn’t made its way to the ‘service engine soon’ light yet because it hasn’t been driven a full diag cycle.
I’m curious about this diagnostic cycle. How long of an interval is there when an ODB-II code could be read off the port, but the dashboard lights would indicate no problem?
It depends… on my car, a code will show up in an ODB-II scanner in ‘pending’ mode - meaning that it has detected a potential problem. However, it needs to show up as a repeated diag failure multiple times to illuminate the check engine light.
I’d suspect that it would be an ODB-II standard (the pending code, followed by subsequent verification of the failure prior to illuminating the check engine light) - but I’m not sure.
If you have access to an ODB-II scanner, it’ll show you whether the on board computer has gone through its diag cycle and whether it is ‘ready’ (ie, prepared to pass an emissions inspection) or whether it is ‘not ready’ (indicating that someone has reset the codes recently), or in an error state (indicating that a system has detected a failure and the check engine light may be on).
Either way - that is something a mechanic should/would be able to do very easily.