We’re all trying to save money and if you’re looking for a good cheap car, you need to check some serious things first.
I’ll use a 68 Mercury Cougar as an example, now it’s sort of a classic car. It is in pretty rough cosmetic shape, that is why you can get them a lot cheaper.
As long as they’re not rotted the whole way through, give them a good tap you can see this is still pretty solid.
It’s just that the paint went off, it can be sanded down and repainted if you want, but there’s some parts that you don’t want all rotten like the frame.
Therefore you want to jack it up and check that so when you crawl under the car start looking . There are parts of the frame might not look that good.
You get yourself a little hammer and hit it, it’s still real solid that’s just some of the undercoating coming off that’s fine. But if you would have hit it in pieces would crunch in and it was all flaking off, then you wouldn’t buy it.
When you’re under there, also check stuff like the brake lines to see if they’re all old and rotten and have welded into one piece where you might have to replace the entire brake line.
Tip #2: Check if you can still find replacement parts
Before you buy any old car, do a little research about are parts still available. For this cougar, it may be 51 years old but check this out, I just put a brand new carburetor on it.
Believe it or not since I live in a big city Houston, it took me one hour to get a brand new carburetor for this. The Cougar is basically the mercury version of the Mustang, so most of the parts are totally interchangeable, and people always like mustangs.
You can get parts for them readily, and as a small aside if you’re thinking of buying an old classic car you might think about a cougar, the Mustang prices are through the roof but the Cougar is basically the same vehicle with a different body style, and when it was new it actually cost more than the Mustangs did.
Therefore if you want to get a snazzy or old car, why not pick one that’s a little bit off-brand, not quite as popular. You’re gonna pay a lot less and still could have a great vehicle
Don’t go out and buy from manufacturers that don’t even exist anymore
But regardless of what type of car you’re buying, just an old beater to get you around, or a semi classic, make sure that parts are available for that model.
If you want to buy an old Triumph car, you’re gonna have a lot of headaches getting parts, fixing it up. You should stick to things that were extremely popular, that parts are still available for.
Tip #3: Check the coolant
The next thing to do as simple as it sounds, is check the coolant. It should be nice and green. It came with green coolant. it should not be corroded.
You don’t want to buy a vehicle that has a cooling system that’s all corroded inside. The reason of this is that the engines gonna have overheating problems.
Things are going to corrode and wear out, so check the simple things like that, and if it’s all corroded inside, don’t bother to buy it .
Tip #4: Take it for a good road test
The next thing is take it for a good road test. A trick a lot of guys do is they hardly have any gas in the tank. If you got it and put five bucks of gas in it so you can take it for a good test take it on the highway.
Check out if it’s out of control when you drive it at high speeds or whether it goes good.
You watch the temperature gauge when you’re on the highway see if it overheats at highway speeds
And then when you get in town, drive it around 30 mile an hour zone for 15 minutes or so, see if it overheats in traffic. You don’t want to have a car that has overheating problems.
You’re mainly going to be looking for big problems stuff like brakes. Brakes don’t cost that much especially today. There’s aftermarket stuff. A lot of times you can get brake pads for $20.
You can get rotors for $29 on a lot of vehicles, so you don’t worry about stuff like that.
What you worry about is the big-ticket items. The engine and the transmission, and whether the car suspension is good because if they’ve been wrecked, a lot of times they won’t sit right.
I had a customer years ago, they had bought a used car and they said, hey their friend said the car looked a little weird when they were following behind him, so they brought them over here, and I saw the entire vehicle the bottom had been shoved to the right.
So when you follow him you could see that the right wheel was sticking out further and the left wheel was sticking in further. The whole thing had been shifted.
Therefore you should look at the car from the back and from the front, and if at all possible have friends follow you or have the friend drive it and you follow it, and see if the thing is sitting cockeyed one way or the other.
Because if it’s really bent, you don’t want to buy a car like that it’s gonna be more bother than it’s worth.
Tip #5 : Check the title
When it comes to that demand to see the title. Because it’s not just your own financial safety, you want to make sure they actually own the car they’re selling you.
You don’t want to buy one of these cars that had been wrecked. If the title says reconditioned refurbished or salvage title, it’s a good idea not even to mess with those things, because that meant they’ve been totaled by an insurance company and they total them for some pretty good reasons.
Once in a while there might be a great car like that but you want to play the lottery when you’re buying a car.
Millions of people lose the lottery and only one person wins.
Tip #6: Check the inspection sticker
If you’re buying a car, you’re using it for transportation, make sure that the sticker is current and valid.Don’t believe anything anybody tells you.
One of the biggest reasons my customers get rid of their old junky cars, is because they’re sick of spending a ton of money every year to get their car to pass the state inspections.
If you’re in a state that does state inspections, make sure it’s got a valid one because if it doesn’t, you might be just falling into somebody else’s money pitch.
Tip #7: Check the tires
Another thing do is to go and check the tires. Even though they have mud on them because they’ve been sitting a while, they still got a lot of tread left on them.
They shouldn’t have any bald spots or really bad marks.
Tires aren’t all that big of an expense but if you see really bald tires on one part and not another, that generally shows the car has got a serious suspension problem.
If you’re gonna keep buying tires and they’re gonna keep wearing out too fast.
If they look good even if the tire treads are getting a little thin, as long as everything’s even it doesn’t have a serious suspension problem.
Tip #8: Make sure that your insurance company is told you’re buying it
Now after doing a good road test, the next thing you have to realize is, before you take possession of that vehicle, make sure that your insurance company is told you’re buying it.
And you have a time that the insurance is valid. Because years ago a friend of mine, he bought a used car, he was driving it back and he got in a massive wreck, he ended up being sued.
Because he had no insurance on that car while he was driving it, and even though whose fault it was is still up in the air, he drove pretty fast so it was probably his fault.
But regardless you don’t want to be driving around in a non insured car even for an hour or something. You never know what’s gonna happen.
Because these days with cell phones, you can contact your insurance agent, you can have proof of insurance on your phone immediately. Once you tell them that you’re putting this car on your policy, make a point of doing it before you start driving it around.
I made a mistake years ago, I had a customer who was thinking about buying an used Mercedes. So they brought it over here. She got in the car with me, and I road tested it.
well while I was road testing it, I got pulled over by the police, because the sticker wasn’t valid, the license plate one of them was missing, didn’t have insurance, I had to go to court for that.
It was a royal pain in the wazoo.
Now you know what to do if you’re buying an old car, so you don’t get stuck with somebody else’s money pitch.
Source: Scotty Kilmer
What others say about this topic on social media..
Nima Nejad said Cheap car? 94 CELICA
tonycSign said I’m so cheap that when I open my wallet, George Washington has to put on sunglasses.
Payam yazdi said I like my cougar Her name is Natasha.
PITTSBURGH GIRL lisa ROXXI sandoval said USED CARS ARE BETTER THAN BRAND NEW CARS!
MaxSpeed Look on Craigslist and buy the biggest pos you can find. One you know for sure you can fix, and for how much. There are some crazy deals out there
Jason Blayne said Loved the thumbnail image, I have a 92 Celica ST that I’m restoring. Yes, I’m restoring a 92 for sentimental value. My dad bought it for me when he heard I was coming home from the Army and had it waiting for me & now he’s gone and I’ve had several moments with the Celica. Took my wife to her Senior prom & several cross country trips.
Free Falcon said There should be a law : ( if you buy an old used car ,you pay old times gas prices. Just because. Lol.
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