What To Look For When Buying Used

[george7]

At the moment i'm looking at buying my first car, and i'm looking at all used cars as they are much cheaper.

I don't really know much about cars, and it's too hard to get my mechanic to come with me all around melbourne to check out every car i'm interested in.

I'm going to try get something for a good price, not looking to spend over 8000 and then anything wrong with it the mechannic can fix. I'm hoping there is nothing major wrong with it that i miss. I also go with my grandpa who used to be a mechanic but that was about 30 years ago so he doesn't know as much about some of the newer cars.

What are some major areas i should check out that are easy to recognise problems with.

So far, i know i'll be checking for rust, condition of tyres, scratches, how easily gears change (manual), condition of interior, whether it seems like it was owned by a smoker, burnt rubber under the guards. but what else should i check?

help much appreciated as i'm going to check out a car from a dealer tommorrow with hail damage, apparently its only minor and its roadworthy and got a VIV, so if everythings good ill probably buy it.

What to look out for?