Things To Check(Look Into) When Buying A 10-15 Old Car

[ravindasenarath]

Hi friends,

When you are buying a bit old car ( 10 - 15 years ), when you went to check the vehicle what are the specific things to check. I'm going to to buy a car around 1.5M. So my choices are Nissan fb 14, Nissan AD ~1999, Nissan wingroad ~1999 etc. Following are the things that I usually check.

• Body(specially edges for rust)
• Spaces between doors, bonnet buffer fittings etc
• Whether all doors close and open gently
• I push the car down in four corners and check the bounce. As per my knowledge if it bounce passing it's original height from floor suspension is bad.
• Radiator over flow for color, rust
• Checking for rust under the radiator cap
• Engine oil level and oil colour
• Any oil marks/leeks in engine
• Try to rotate radiator fans by finger ( to check whether they turn gently)
• Break fluid colour, thickness
• Transmission oil level ( Usually I couldn't find the dipstick for this)
• Power steering oil level ( Where is it ? )
• Start the engine and listen to the sound (whether it run smoothly)
• Put hand to the tail pipe and smell for petrol
• Check inside of tail pipe for oily black stuff
• Interior stuff ( check whether all works )
• Check whether wheels wobble

I learn these by watching youtube videos . So is there anything I'm doing wrong or any other things that I can check. Perhaps Sri Lanka specific things to check or things specific to car modes that I mention.

[PreseaLover]

I think I've sorted it out. I'm going to get the car today with leasing. I'll write about it later today here. It might help when people start looking for cars.

What's the car... post pics as well

[Seeker LK]

What's the car... post pics as well

I don't have any pics yet, except the one taken from AL classified. I'm posting them here, hoping that it wont' be a problem.

[asrock]

Nice car, nice color. Its not that milk lady Vitz by any chance is it? Also would you mind telling us how you got the leasing thing sorted?

[Seeker LK]

//Its not that milk lady Vitz by any chance is it? //

That I don't know for sure since I got it on open papers from a guy around Nugegoda.

Well, about open papers dilelama.... and my story goes as follows.. Writing here so it'll help other new people seeking information

So first I came across this car in a popular classified site. Called the guy and went there with a mechanic as I don’t know much about the cars (this is my first car).

While the mechanic asked about the CR book, the guy told us that he is keeping it in open book. Mechanic checked the car and told me; car is taken good care of. Since this guy is doing car sales from home, he asked me to bargain on the price.

I couldn’t bring the price down much. Only 20K after talking hours and hours

Later when I went to leasing companies & banks, the hell broke down.

Combank – They don’t want to lease a vehicle, which is made before 2010

CDB / LOLC – Interest rate is very high

HNB – The manager asked me whether I could afford the rental etc. He was talking all the time as if he is the only rich man in the country, others can’t afford a shit He even asked me to go for joined leasing with my wife.

In addition to this drama, the banks were not happy with providing leasing for a car on open papers. Also they insisted that we do the double transfer on the same day (which I’ll have to incur extra 10,000 LKR).

Finally the guy who had the car told me, he has a card of an NDB guy. So called him and told him the story and he agreed to set up the leasing. Interestingly he gave me the lowest rate compared to other banks and leasing companies.

I was asked to bring some documents, which proves stuffs like the company I work for, salary, bankbook photocopy, salary slip etc. Also I got my wife and father in law to sign as guarantors.

Finally within 3 days leasing was passed, I signed the documents and got the car from the guy.

Even if you have your car on open papers, you can transfer them to your name without any problem. But the guy who is keeping the car on open papers will also listed in the CR book as past owner. Disadvantage is that number of previous owners will go up. This is bad for a typical Sri Lankan mindset. But I don’t give a damn as long as car is doing fine.

My first service is due next Saturday. I hope I wouldn’t run into any mechanical trouble with the car.

[asrock]

Good to hear that, Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately I had to do a same day double transfer, now the book shows 2 previous owners where it should have been only 1. Anyway I hope I will probably be able to explain the reason for the double transfer to a buyer.

[Seeker LK]

Good to hear that, Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately I had to do a same day double transfer, now the book shows 2 previous owners where it should have been only 1. Anyway I hope I will probably be able to explain the reason for the double transfer to a buyer.

Exactly I'm gonna do it too, when I sell my car. I'll be genuine and open about everything. So I'll explain what happened. Buying and not buying is their choice