Buying a car online is fantastic to shortlist your selections, compare market asking prices and to assess the potential insurance value on sites such as redbook.com.au.
But there is definitely a few simple follow up tasks worth doing to save you from buying a lemon.
I recently inspected a second-hand 2006 Vokswagen Multivan here in Melbourne for my brother who lives in Sydney. 
I’ll take you through an easy car inspection checklist for on the phone – to save time if the car is wrong, or to ensure the dealer finds out before you meet – than in my next entry, i’ll talk you through the actual inspection.
On the phone…
1. Does the dealer have any more images, any closeups I can see first?
Most online sale images will be in the sun, post wash and never close-up, never of any damage. Classified sites for cars, motorbikes, scooters, and properties have no obligation to show you what’s wrong as you have a responsibility to see the product in person before purchasing. Their only goal is to get you in the door.
This is the opposite to eBay or trademe.co.nz where sellers have a dutiful responsibility to detail anything that’s not in new condition.
So when asking for more images simply say ” it’s a great car but I couldn’t see – engine, the wheels, the drivers floor, the pedals, where’s the handbreak, the boot, is that a roof rack, etc.” Ask yourself what you can’t see and than mention that and gauge their response.
2. Are the services records provided?
i. Did it have the first 1000km run in,
ii. When was the last major service – this is a great one because oil, plugs, fluids, etc aren’t changed on minor services. Newer cars don’t need to have these every service but you’ll get an idea of what costs you may be up for shortly.
iii. Specifically “ask when were the breaks last changed?” It’s important to focus the question because a dealer won’t actually necessarily know unless the car owner has kept the sales record, or used it as an ‘up- sell in the trade in.
These will tell you two things: If you’ll need to pay for new breaks shortly and if the owner kept records. A ‘great’ car owner will keep a record of everything because they are proud and they know the value of purchasing good second-hand cars. If they haven’t, it won’t necessarily mean they are a bad owner, but they aren’t a great owner – so average score.
iii. When was the car manufactured?
This is important because a dealer will state a car as a 2006 if it’s first registered in 2006 (again to get you in the door, and possibly justify higher price). Particularly for Australian imported cars where it can take up to 6months to get the car here before registering, a lot of cars are actually the prior years model. That manufacturing year will determine price, insurance and features. So if it’s the 2006 model with standard ABS included you want and not the 2005 model where ABS was extra you’ll know before you get there.
More often than not a manufactured included feature will mean a decent price is maintained because additional features are expensive, and sellers try to recoup the full cost of this expense on top of the car value instead of understanding that that feature has depreciated in value just as the car has.
A great example of manufacturing year being an importance is on the Suzuki 650 SV 2003 model which had a tubular frame and altered swing arm. A great looking cafe racer motorcycle because of its good suspension and admittedly its similar look to the Ducati monster. In 2004 they dropped this frame and went to an average suspension model, which most fanatics will upgrade anyway. To know this upfront will help with your price negotiations or in some cases drive the price up because of it’s unique personality.
Popularity: 95%