QuestionHi Ray. First of all I, checked out your website I an amazed and grateful for all the time and effort you have put into it! Well done.
Is it possible to find out who owned a vehicle previously or what it was used for?
I'm looking at a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan with 54000 kms on the odometer. I live in Regina, SK Canada. The vehilce is on a dealer lot in Manitoba. The list price is about $3000 less than anything similar I have found here. I have done both a Carfax report and a CarProof report and have found that it was originally bought from a dealer in Quebec, leased for three years and returned, sold at auction to this dealer in Winnipeg. According to both the reports and the dealer, it hasn't been in an accident.
The price is attractive, the pictures show the vehicle to be in great shape inside and out. I am already making plans with my fiance to phone about booking an inspection etc. Because it seems too good to be true, I naturally assume it is :)
I have even phoned the Better Business Bureau to see what kind of reputation the dealer has (satisfactory, 1 complaint in the last 3 year, resovled).
Is there anything else I should be doing before I make plans to travel down to see it? I don't have a lot of experience buying vehicles and have never had to travel to buy one. Thank you for your time and look forward to any advice you can offer.
Andrew
Regina, SK
Canada
S4N 4A6
AnswerHi Andrew
First let me say its a pleasure getting mail from someone thats doing some homework prior to purchase, most mail i get is after the fact, and then its to late.
Lets first deal with your question ( Is it possible to find out who owned a vehicle previously or what it was used for? )
you know who owned the vehicle it showed up in your carfax and car-proof report...your question then becomes whom was the leaser, sorry to say thats private info. however i will say from experience that about 30 to 40% of pre-lease vehicles for sale on car lots will have in the glove box the manual with the name of the leaser along with in service date, so Andrew that becomes your first checkpoint.
Whenever i showed a pre-lease car to a buyer my very first step was always checking the glove box for info, and i must say whenever i found history and sometimes a stack of service records it made the sale easy as i would challenge the buyer to phone the leaser.
I have never had total trust in any vehicle that comes out of Quebec shipped to another province and along with you adding its about $ 3000. less than market value it becomes buyer beware.but you never know it could be a sleeper.
Here is how i would approch...First the test drive and you been on my website how to test drive, if after that the green light,i would still want to negotiate for an even better price before i waste my money taking car for an independent inspection...
I normally would only take vehicle to a mechanic but in your case also a body shop...dial through the yellow pages and get some cost factors for inspections...if the dealer wont let you...you must walk away
Regards
Ray
PS...Thanks for visiting my website http://www.usedcartips.org/ and your kind words , its a hoppy i enjoy very much and comments like yours makes it all worth while
