Don’t do it! My Biggest Mistakes I’m Embarrassed When Buying a Used Car

Usually, these topics are shared by outbids, who have bought dozens and hundreds of cars for every taste throughout their careers. However, I think I also have something to share. In total, in my life at the moment I have had only three personal cars and in a month or two I plan another replacement of the vehicle. At first I drove a Toyota Corolla E150, then moved to a Volkswagen Passat B7, and today I am happy to turn the steering wheel of a BMW F30. The next car I plan to take something more practical, but have not yet decided on the model. However, today it’s not really about this, but about the mistakes that I made when buying each of my cars from my hands.

Did not check the body for damage when buying a car from a friend

→ was not-bit-not-painted, turned out to be bit and so-so beautiful

I bought a Toyota Corolla E150 from the father of a fairly close friend of mine. The owner’s son 100% honestly told me about all the nuances of the car body – it was a bit beaten and well painted. However, so that there would be no disagreements in the future, he invited an expert who double-checked and confirmed the information indicated. Volkswagen Passat B7 also bought from close friends – the car was owned by the son-in-law of another close friend of mine. The latter “slipped” it to me as not-bit-not-painted, since he was not aware of the opposite. In practice, it turned out that almost half of the car was repainted. With further resale after a couple of years of use, I had to listen to indignation from the buyer and drop the price well. As a result, I heard only regrets from my comrade – they say, he himself did not know that everything was so. I have no idea why I didn’t double-check the information.

▶︎ Output: you can not take the word even close people who sell cars. So that there are no questions during operation, as well as further sale, it is better to immediately check the relevance of the information at a trusted service station.

I did not take into account the crack on the windshield due to the imaginary ease of replacement

→ glass turned out to be heated and cost too much

I wouldn’t say that the Volkswagen Passat B7, which I drove for up to three years, had a good equipment – not a “drum” (as they call very basic models), but on a “rag” and even without buttons on the steering wheel (this always annoyed me especially ). However, he had one interesting feature – a heated windshield. It helped a lot to get rid of snow and ice in the winter season. Too bad it had a crack. When I bought a car, I thought that I would replace the windshield without any problems for ridiculous money. But in the end, the procedure, due to the possibility described above, turned out to be too high. So I traveled all the time of ownership with a crack, which eventually became another reason to drop the resale price.

▶︎ Output: it is important to clarify the cost of replacing some elements with specialists, and not hope that it will be inexpensive, because I once encountered something similar.

Condensation on the headlights has always seemed to me a real trifle

→ to get rid of him, you had to pay well

The previous owner of the same Volkswagen Passat B7 quite simply treated the so-called collective farm tuning. For example, he changed absolutely all the most primitive light bulbs in the car to nameless diode ones. Since the rear part simply did not fit into the headlights, he cut out holes on the back cover, which in the end he simply covered with polyethylene. After that, the headlights conditionally ceased to be airtight, moisture began to collect in them, condensation formed on the glasses, which did not go away. I contacted the headlight specialists several times, they brought them to their senses, but after a while the problem returned again and again. I even wanted to completely replace the headlights, but this procedure has always been unreasonably expensive compared to the cost of the vehicle itself. So I suffered throughout the entire period of operation.

▶︎ Output: collective farm tuning in a used car never benefits him – if possible, it is better to ignore options with its abundant use. It doesn’t bode well.

Gearbox error seemed to be solved without problems

→ even after the “solution” of the problem, I suffered with it a couple of times

In all the same Volkswagen Passat B7, the DSG-7 gearbox of the DQ200 model was used. This is a rather problematic unit with two dry clutches, which I myself learned after buying the vehicle. When I was just looking at the car, I saw an error in the gearbox on the computer scoreboard. I called my friends at the service and clarified the possible scale of the “tragedy” and the potential cost of repairs. It was for this amount that he dropped the price tag of the car and bought it with a sense of accomplishment. As a result, immediately after the purchase, I had to immediately repair the gearbox, which really had problems. A week after the repair, I had to go to the service and finish something again – this was repeated several times. The last straw was another problem with the box, which got out right during a long trip. Too many nerves were wasted.

▶︎ Output: decided never to buy cars with known massive sores again, and also always look at absolutely all the errors on the scoreboard not on their own, but together with specialists.

I just didn’t pay attention to the condition of the brake discs.

→ they had to be changed at a very low mileage

When I bought a BMW F30 from my hands, I noticed that the brake discs were not quite fresh. However, he did not attach much importance to this. Still, the car had only about 55 thousand kilometers, and native German brake discs live under normal conditions even up to 100 thousand. However, almost immediately after the purchase, I eventually came to understand that they would have to be changed. They worked very strangely at high speed – the front of the car was really bouncing, which indicated a violation of the geometry of the brake discs. Of course, this is not the end of the world, because such an element is a commonplace consumable. However, when you do not plan to replace almost immediately after purchase, such a need literally leads to a stupor. If I knew, I could at least ask for a discount from the seller.

▶︎ Output: it is important to always understand that when buying a car from your hands, there may always be some additional costs that were not corny immediately assumed.

Didn’t pay attention to the car’s interior design elements

→ sorry, some of them cannot be changed separately

When I bought the same BMW F30, I noticed oddities in the interior elements. Some had traces of glue and other damage. Experience suggested that they can be replaced without any problems at all, because any German car is a real designer. In practice, this is practically the case. However, some components had to be changed entirely or as an assembly. This, among other things, concerns the central deflector of the climate control system, on the “curtains” of which there were the same traces of unknown origin. Only I could not change them – in the end I had to fork out for the whole block entirely.

▶︎ Output: it is best not to expect to change something in the cabin after the purchase, but to purchase a car in the condition that suits you.

Foolishly spat on an error on the sensor in the engine

→ the sensor can only be replaced together with the radiator

There is a special sensor built into the radiator of my F30, which determines that the right cooling element with the minimum amount of emissions is located in the engine compartment of my car. If the sensor fails, it will not be possible to replace only it separately with all the desire. You have to buy the whole radiator. Moreover, it is the original one that is needed, since substitutes are intended for other configurations and are not equipped with this very element. In general, I faced exactly this problem. The engine check hangs on the panel, which I thought to deal with by replacing the sensor, which simply cannot be replaced. A couple of electricians tried to fix it, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.

▶︎ Output: it is impossible not to pay attention to errors in the engine – even if they seem quite small.