While many people enjoy shopping for new cars, the depreciation they suffer pushes others to looking at pre-owned vehicles. Pre-owned cars are a good bargain mainly because they offer the exact same service that you would get from a brand new car at a much lower price. When buying a car, many people want to get the best possible car that is available in terms of comfort and performance. This is not always possible for brand new cars because of the high costs. While this can easily influence a buyer to change the model of the car they need to something cheaper, that doesn’t always need to be the case.
Getting the vehicle model that you need and still staying within your initial budget is often made possible through pre-owned cars. However, buying pre-owned cars is not without its own problems. This is mostly because a car is only as good as the care that goes into maintaining it. In the event that the previous owner of the car did not pay too much attention to the car, it may be counterproductive to buy a pre-owned car in the long run.
Factors to Consider Before Buying a Pre-Owned Car
In order to avoid wasting your hard earned money and time on a car that will stress you out, you will need to focus on a few important factors. Some of those factors include:
Reliability of the seller
It is undoubtedly very important to check the background of the buyer from which you are buying a pre-owned car. This is because a reputable seller will only offer vehicles that meet a particular standard in order to shield its buyers from losses incurred from future repairs. A reliable seller will only buy from a user once they have ascertained that the car is still in good shape. Additionally, a reliable seller will have good reviews from previous buyers, so you should dig around for those.
Most importantly, a reliable seller will have the proper documentation indicating ownership of the vehicle. You definitely don’t want to be on the wrong side of the law for having stolen property in your possession.
History of the car
The history of the car you are about to buy is another factor that comes into play when buying a used car. This is because from the history it is possible to gauge the condition of the car in general. When considering the history, issues such as mileage and replacement of major components such as the engine can influence the buying decision.
Warranties
There are some pre-owned cars that may still have some active warranties from the manufacturer. If this is the case, you should want to know before buying the car so as to avoid incurring extra repair costs on parts that may still be covered by the manufacturer. Just because someone owned it first doesn’t mean all warranties are null.
There are definitely a lot more factors than these that you would need to consider before actually leaving the yard or showroom with your pre-owned car. Once you have taken into account these factors, buying the car becomes pretty straight forward. All you need to do is:
- After picking out a reliable seller, go into their shop and look around for the model that you want. Base this on the purpose for which you are buying the car versus the amount of money that you have in your budget.
- Request a history report from the seller; they should have this at hand from their inspection of the car before buying from the previous owner.
- Test drive the car just to be sure that what the history report says is as correct as possible. Look out for warning signs during your test drive such as unusual noises and difficult gear shifts.
- If everything is satisfactory after the test drive, complete the transaction and have all the paperwork, including active warranties, transferred to your name.
Selecting a pre-owned car can be a 
daunting exercise, but once you do your homework, you’ll cruise right through the process. At Hagan’s Motor Pool, we understand how intimidating this process can be and have endeavored to make it simple for you. All you have to do is schedule an appointment with us if you live in and around Barrington, Berwick, Dover, and Rochester, NH, and we’ll get you the perfect car for all your needs.