Etiquette and Buying Vehicle

[Vic99]

I want to buy a truck from a private seller, but I want to have my mechanic look it over before I buy.  What is a good way to do this with a private seller?  I suspect most people won't just let you take the truck.  Do people typically give a copy of a license or a small deposit or what?

Obviously we don't know each other.  Thanks.

[Rezdent]

I want to buy a truck from a private seller, but I want to have my mechanic look it over before I buy.  What is a good way to do this with a private seller?  I suspect most people won't just let you take the truck.  Do people typically give a copy of a license or a small deposit or what?

Obviously we don't know each other.  Thanks.

I would ask the seller his preference, if he refuses or makes excuses to bypass the mechanic that will tell you something.
The last time I did this, the seller drove the truck to the shop and we met there, mechanic gave great feedback and we finished the deal in the parking lot.
I've also had a mechanic meet me at the seller's house to look over a vehicle.

[hyla]

Most private seller's I've dealt with have been happy to let me do a test drive (with and without a mechanic along) as long as they ride in the car too.  Have also had no problem bringing a mechanic along to look under the hood when dealing with private sellers.  I would be very suspicious of any seller that did not let you do a test drive or take a detailed look at the engine, but it's completely normal for them to ask to come along with you on a test drive or ask to hold some item of value while or something while you drive their car.

[onlykelsey]

When I sold mine, I met them at their mechanic of choice. Unless you request a mechanic hours away, I'd be wary of anyone who wouldn't do that.

[Goldy]

We always just trade keys for the test drive.  For getting our mechanic to check it out sometimes the seller is fine with loaning the vehicle out for an hour, other times they drive it to the shop themselves.

[Hotstreak]

Talk to a few mechanics ahead of time to see what they would charge for this service, and when they're open.  When you locate the vehicle you want, call them to see if somebody can see it today, or even right away.  It should take less than an hour for them to complete their inspection.  The seller usually won't mind waiting since they would rather sell the car today than try to keep selling it on craigslist or whatever.


If same day doesn't work you can arrange to have the inspection done later.  Under these circumstances the seller will probably drop off the vehicle and you will meet them at the mechanic when the inspection is done.  You will pay for the inspection and the mechanic will meet with both of you to explain any findings and answer questions.  You may want a sales agreement signed ahead of time, and you may need to pay a deposit to the seller, depending on what you negotiate. 


Lastly, you didn't ask about this, but you need to figure out if it's really worth while to pay a mechanic for this service.  For a $3000 car that drives fine, sounds good, all fluids at appropriate levels with nothing dripping out the bottom, I wouldn't pay an extra $70 to have a mechanic look at it.  If I was otherwise sold on a car but it had an apparent issue and I wanted to see how serious it was, I would definitely pay a mechanic.

[Vic99]

Good advice, thanks all.

I will try to get the seller to meet me at the mechanic.  That seems to rule out vehicles that are far away, as I have a guy that I trust (wife used to work with him), but can't expect people to travel far to him.

I want a truck that can haul wood, and other ocassional items like sheet rock, furniture, etc. and that has 4 wheel drive for the snow.

Since I'll only put 1-2k/yr on it, I want a higher mileage vehicle (which would bring the price down) but that has a solid underside.  Doesn't have to be attractive on outside.

[Rezdent]

...
Lastly, you didn't ask about this, but you need to figure out if it's really worth while to pay a mechanic for this service.  For a $3000 car that drives fine, sounds good, all fluids at appropriate levels with nothing dripping out the bottom, I wouldn't pay an extra $70 to have a mechanic look at it.  If I was otherwise sold on a car but it had an apparent issue and I wanted to see how serious it was, I would definitely pay a mechanic.

I've been burned this way.  Seller didn't want a mechanic inspection, but all fluids checked good.  Turns out that the truck had a cracked block, but seller did an oil change right before inspection which masked the problem.  Bought a 2k truck with a 5k repair.  I should have paid the mechanic the $70 bucks.
But I've come out ahead more than once, where the seller assumed a horrific issue that ended up being really simple fixes, so there's that.

[Vic99]

Yes, anything more than $1k purchase price and I will pay the $78.

Truck I'm looking at now and will be check by a mechanic has 200k miles on it.  I'm only going to put 1-2k per year on it, but I'd like to get several years out of it.

[hyacinth]

We bought a 10 year old used van private party recently and before going to look at it asked the owner if he minded us getting it inspected. He didn't, so we set up a pre-purchase inspection appointment with the mechanic. We told the mechanic if we didn't like the van we'd cancel the appointment and he was fine with that. The owner let us test drive the van alone, all he wanted to see was our license and proof of insurance. So we drove it, liked it, took it to get inspected during our test drive. We knew it needed $1000 in maintenance (timing belt, etc.) but the inspection also revealed another $2000 in needed maintenance. We showed the owner the inspection paperwork and he came down another $1000 and we bought the van. In this case, the $80 inspection really paid off. And this was a very well-maintained 2 owner van; the owner had all the maintenance records, etc. 

One time we were interested in a used SUV from a Toyota dealer. Usually we like to stick with one or two owner vehicles (and we prefer to buy private party so we know more about its history). But we could only find this particular vehicle for sale at dealerships. So this SUV had had 3 or 4 owners and we felt like we knew nothing of its history, other than a few maintenance records on carfax. We liked it but told the dealer we wanted to have it inspected before buying. They let us drive it to a mechanic and it turned out the vehicle had lots of problems, one of which was an oil leak that the dealer had tried to cover up! Needless to say, we passed on that one. Again, the $80 inspection was well worth it.

We have purchased a vehicle private party without doing a pre-purchase inspection but it was a newer vehicle (only 2 years old) with only 25,000 miles and still under warranty. It was a one-owner, a very nice elderly couple, and they had all the maintenance records. So we really weren't worried. We actually didn't even test drive it! (we'd test driven the same car at a dealer a few days before so we knew we liked it). 

Kind of funny--one time my husband went to test drive a $33,000 SUV that was for sale private party. He drove up in our crappy 13-year-old vehicle and the lady just let him drive off by himself in her expensive SUV! I couldn't believe it when he told me later; I thought for sure she'd want to go along with him while he drove it.

[Songbird]

...
Lastly, you didn't ask about this, but you need to figure out if it's really worth while to pay a mechanic for this service.  For a $3000 car that drives fine, sounds good, all fluids at appropriate levels with nothing dripping out the bottom, I wouldn't pay an extra $70 to have a mechanic look at it.  If I was otherwise sold on a car but it had an apparent issue and I wanted to see how serious it was, I would definitely pay a mechanic.

I've been burned this way.  Seller didn't want a mechanic inspection, but all fluids checked good.  Turns out that the truck had a cracked block, but seller did an oil change right before inspection which masked the problem.  Bought a 2k truck with a 5k repair.  I should have paid the mechanic the $70 bucks.
But I've come out ahead more than once, where the seller assumed a horrific issue that ended up being really simple fixes, so there's that.

We were burned this way as well..by a dealer.  It was a used station wagon (way back in the early 90's) and had been through a flood and also had a cracked block. Dealer covered it up.   We were a very broke young couple with a baby and knew nothing about car purchasing and to this day I can't believe the lack of morals on some people.  I cried when we found out it was toast right after we bought it.   Rent was $150 in those days so this vehicle was a HUGE deal to us.   I'm convinced there is a special place in hell for people who do things like this.  Dealer wouldn't take it back and those were the days before warranties, etc.

Caveat Emptor!   Hire the mechanic.  :)

And to answer the originial question, usually a private buyer is fine with meeting you at the mechanic's shop with the vehicle.  Good luck!

[Le Poisson]

I just ask the seller if they want to come with me to the mechanics or if I can drive over on my own. Easy-peasy. If they say no mechanic visit, I say buh-bye.

[ketchup]

My dad did this dance last year.  He looked at a car, decided he liked it, and hired a mobile car-inspector mechanic guy to visit the seller and look at the car.  He was pleased with the result (mechanic noticed the same minor problems as my dad did), and ended up going back and buying the car (2007 Nissan).

I've only bought cheapomobiles (current cars were $1000 and $700 in 2014) and am mechanically-inclined myself, so I've never bothered to have anything inspected by a third party.  My first car (a 1988 in 2012) was before I was mechanically-inclined, and was too young/stupid to get it inspected.  I was lucky but very easily could have ended up with a $1000 lemon.

[Hotstreak]

After everyone's stories of buying a lemon, I'm reconsidering my stance on mechanical inspections for cheap cars.  Seems like it is actually money well spent!

[RetiredAt63]

Nothing new in dealers hiding needed repairs - I bought a used high-end car in the late 1990's, from another (different company that took it as a trade-in) high end dealer.  I insisted on taking it to the service department of the car's make.  Well they found $3000 worth of needed repairs - the price was good, and I got another $1500 off it, so I did buy the car and got the servicing done.  Still came out with a wonderful car at a good price, but without the discount and with the repairs it would not have been a good buy. 

[Vic99]

Update: So I got that truck inspected for $78.  Of course mechanic found some small stuff that I could live with, but there were mutiple other issues that would run 1.5-2k total.  Truck was priced at $6,300 and I was hoping to haggle down to 5.5 or 6k, but with all that work, forget it.

Seller was SO confident there would be no issues and he even tried to tell me how the mechanic was wrong.  Also said he'd fix everything himself.  Doubtful.  I politely told him it's not the truck for me.

Another vote for get a high mileage vehicle checked out before buying.

[MilesTeg]

Make sure you ask your insurance agent what is and is not covered by your policy. Sometimes letting a stranger/potential buyer drive your vehicle without you present is a non-covered situation.

[ltt]

We've sold a couple of cars.  Two were older with fairly high mileage, and both of the buyers knew stuff about vehicles.  I also try and show all maintenance records, but would have no problems if someone wanted to bring a mechanic with them.