I agree with the others that have said ‘as is’ doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong with the car. The seller is just covering his butt. Every car I have ever sold I have sold ‘as is’. No matter how well a car may run, I have no interest in personally offering a guarantee. Stating ‘as is’ on the bill of sale is the best way to protect yourself from a buyer trying to claim that you are responsible for the tranny it might need a year from now simply because you said “the car runs good.”
I have my own bill of sale that I use when buying or selling. When I buy used, I state on my own bill of sale that the only warranty given is that the owner has clear title. I go by what I see and inspect. Safety related items like brakes, lights, tires and steering can easily be inspected. Emissions is a crap shoot unless you check for codes with your own OBD tester. My state no longer has these inspection requirements. If it did and I liked the vehicle, I’d offer to take it to have it checked at my expense or take the risk if the deal looked good enough.
As all the others, I favor your getting a professional inspection or bringing someone with you if you are not up to passing judgment on a vehicle.
PS. My view on buying used vehicles is not to worry so much about bolt on items that are easily replaced. I look for deal killers like a bad tranny or a leaky rear main seal and so on. I note those bold on items that may be bad and tally them up in my assessment though. And with any such purchase, I assume going in that I will miss something and need to put some money into a used piece. If $2,000 is your price, I’d expect to put in $5-600 before long. The best time to buy a vehicle is when you don’t need one. If you are under the gun, you have to pay more. If you can hunt for a long time, a real steal always comes along.
2000 cars are typically at the far end of the bell curve of their useful life. They are usually a pretty big crap shoot, and as primary transportation are mostly suitable for people who can either fix the cars themselves, or afford to walk away of the car if it fails completely. Since you are not car savvy re repairs it would make a lot more practical sense to increase the price of the car to 5000 and finance a portion of it.
It is possible to get a usable car for $2000…but it will take a lot of looking to find one. Such a car is usually high miles, or very old (> 15 years). Sometimes you luck out-I once bought a car that belonged to a salesman-it had 190,000 miles on the clock. Excellent car (highway miles are very easy on a car), plus, it had no body damage.
The car you want to avoid…one with lots of rust (indicates it has been sitting around idle), one with no evidence of regular oil changes, or a very dirty car (multiple owners). Occasionally, you do find an old, low miles car (owned by an old lady)-these can be good as well.
But, always have your mechanic check the car out-$100 inspection is cheap insurance.
I’ve purchased several low priced, used cars, as is, over the years. Basically, you have to purchase the car expecting to put money into. These days a $2000 car might need another $2000 to keep it running. You can check the brakes and tires very easily, check for rust, and make sure it has the basic parts, like a steering wheel, gas pedal, etc… But on any used car the engine or transmission could be ready to go. Front wheel and four wheel drive cars may need new CV joints, and rear wheel and 4 wheel drive cars may need new differentials. So if the car is worth much more with those parts replaced, it can be worth what you pay. You may go a long time without any major repairs and then it’s a great deal. But if $2000 car is only worth $2000 if it keeps running without major repairs, it’s a big gamble.
An unscrupulous person with a $50 OBD code reader can clear most engine codes and they won’t reset until a certain number of drive cycles has occurred. Even if you show up with your own code reader and find no stored codes that is no guarantee that they haven’t been cleared prior to you looking at the car. A bad catalytic converter might not throw a code until you drive the car again for a couple days.
Typically, in the $2000 range, the car should have a current inspection, valid for a few more months. The dealer is just stating up front they make no promises it will pass a future inspection.
If the car you’re looking at has an expired inspection and the dealer won’t get it inspected before the sale, walk away. That means the dealer knows it won’t pass.