Good Carma Podcast
Cars are complicated, but they don't have to be a complete mystery. Have peace of mind—not panic—when it comes to your car. Good Carma teaches you the basics in plain language so you can feel confident popping the hood and understanding what you see. Learn about everyday components and fluids, how to use a scanner to decode what’s really going on, and what simple things you can check yourself. Host Jennifer Ryan talks with seasoned professionals to bring you easy-to-understand conversations that demystify car care and put you back in control.
Good Carma Podcast
Buying a Used Car: Check It, Don't Chance It
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Buying a used car can be a stressful gamble. This week I am rejoined by José Ramirez (from LATTC). We discuss some things you can inspect to gain a little more peace of mind when deciding whether to buy the car or pass on it.
Some topics we discuss are looking at oil quality, listening for unusual sounds, using an OBDII scanner, evaluating leaks, and road testing rotor and strut condition.
Stay in touch, share your thoughts, recommend your trusted mechanic as a guest, get good tips and find out when episodes drop by subscribing! Email us at goodcarmapodcast@gmail.com and visit the website goodcarmapodcast.com
Keep in mind this podcast is meant to provide general information and is not meant to reflect having your car seen or serviced at a qualified job. I am thank you for joining Good Grammar Podcast where I'm back with a conversation that I hope can help you just to fight cars and provide some peace of mind instead of panic. So this week it's not under your hood necessarily. It's under a prospective purchase hood. I'm back at LATTC. Be sure to look up this great school that offers training in so many different disciplines. That's where I went for my automotive repair certificate and I had a wonderful experience there. So I'm back talking to Mr. Jose Ramirez about tips for when you're buying a used car, in particular for our conversation from a private party. So it helps to have an idea of what to look at and inspect just besides a quick test drive and you know looking around for dents. And I do think too, if you stick around for the episode, even if you're not looking for a car, there's some really good information on just things to keep in mind for your own car. So with that, here is my conversation. Thank you so much for doing another episode.
SPEAKER_00No problem.
SPEAKER_01I want to talk to you especially for this topic about things to think about when you're buying a used car from a private party. Um, because when Michael and I were looking at used cars, you had so many good suggestions of things to do. We were looking at a much older car. So we don't need to talk too much about like really older cars, but but um there's I think there's so many things, um tips that you can give people that can help people who maybe already know a little bit about cars and and also people who would just like open the hood just to make sure the engine is there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, no, I get you, I get you.
SPEAKER_01So um I wanted to start with why it's useful to bring a scanner to check uh a car when you're buying a used car.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um well, first we got to look at the what vehicle is gonna be convenient for for whoever's gonna buy it. For example, if you get, let's say you're looking for a car. What are you looking for? What is it that you want out of the car? That's the first thing. So you gotta look what you know, the make and model and year and all that stuff, bells and whistles, why not, right? Having a scanner, once you find the vehicle, having a scanner will do a uh a few things. Even though there's no check engine light on the dash, there might be some pending codes, or there might be something that is gonna pop up any minute. Another thing that also is it's helpful is when people say, let's say uh, you know what, the car has no check engine light, everything's good to go. Some people go to the extreme of taking the light bulb out so the check engine light does not come on.
SPEAKER_01Is that for slightly older cars? Like you can can you still disable it?
SPEAKER_00You can do it on any car.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00You can just either put a piece of tape, you can literally physically go in there with the little uh small tweezers and put the light bulb out behind the desk. Behind it, you know, remove the little uh you got the little vessel, the plastic, or just basically just you know try to hide it.
SPEAKER_01So that was a great thing you had taught us a while back to make sure that the light at least comes on when you first start the absolutely.
SPEAKER_00So that's a functional test. That's uh especially when you buy it. If you buy the car from me, you have to get a smog. So you have to take it to the smock station, and so that way the process is, you know, so you can put under your name. But the chicken line must be on. If it's not on, there's a problem, right? You know what I mean? But once you bring the scanner, you plug it in, many codes can pop up and you'll be like, I don't want this car. Way too many headaches. So then you can go move on to the next one, or you might even educate the the the owner who's trying to sell it and be able to say, Hey, look, you have other problems. I'm not gonna buy it, but if you're gonna try to sell it, now I'll recommend you to take it into the shop so they can be able to repair the problem. So now the owner's gonna say, Oh crap. You might get lucky and be able to say, Hey, okay, okay, how much will you give me? And if that's something that you're looking for, you can say, All right, now you can say, I'm gonna lowball him or her just because it's my gamble, your you know what I mean, or your gamble in this case, and just hopefully you get lucky.
SPEAKER_01Another thing you can check is if there is no engine light, you can check when was the last time it was cleared.
SPEAKER_00Yes, on some vehicles, yeah, you're right. The scanner can give us uh hours or miles. So you can determine might be you know 12,000 miles or you know, 2,000 miles or 200 miles since the lot, you know, since the chicken light was cleared. And then you can determine did they do something last week, did they do something a year ago? You know what I mean? But let me add something, you know, a little bit more about buying a used car, it's a good thing, whether it's from a dealer or even a private party. What I'm what I've learned all these years is I want to get a vehicle that has average at about 12,000 miles per year. I don't want to buy a car from grandma that the car has 12,000 miles and the car is 20 years old. We're just waiting to see when the engine's gonna go, you know, able to blow up literally. Rod bearings, main bearings, the cam bearings, anything major can go wrong. That's because the car was never driven properly. A lot of people out there, they go, but the looks of the car. Oh, the interiors, it still smells like new 20 years later, which is fine. But how good is the engine? And the transmission.
SPEAKER_01And if a car is really not driven very much at all, there's moisture issues, right?
SPEAKER_00Now um, we have what is um, you know, and that affects anything. If you run a car, if you run an engine and uh and and you just park it overnight, it's gonna attract moisture. That moisture is gonna end up inside the crankcase. And within so many times of you be able to do that, especially if it's not driven, that moisture is gonna be like it would accumulate in the crankcase and it's gonna break down the oil. And that can create as well, we I I I mean, I at least I know it is a fancy word, spalling the bearings, meaning it'll flake off the bearings. And that what uh when we do an oil change, that can come out like pieces of aluminum foil. That at that point, if that happens, we're done. Engine can be knocking, it can create some noise, it can lock off on you, it can create a lot of issues. But guess what? A lot of people say, but the car's still like new conditions. So, like, I don't care. I want mileage. We want the car to have mileage so that way it can burn up for the moisture. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then that leads me to um one of my first questions about what to check when you open the hood, which is um checking for oil. So you mentioned um if it looks gray or metallic, that's a real red flag.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. Uh, we don't want the oil, uh oh, you know, we don't want the oil to look dirty, first of all.
SPEAKER_01Oh, dirty, first of all. Yeah, gray or metallic, and then I also want to talk about if it looks like chocolate milk.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. So let's start with uh with a good oil. Oil should be a little bit light brown clear. When you look at it, it should be, you know, we should be able to see right through. I always like to grab a napkin, bring a napkin with me, a white napkin. Pull the dipstick, let a few drops, one drop to hit the napkin, and see how fast it spreads. If it if if the oil spreads fast, oil's good, meaning it's newer. If the oil spreads really slow, then the oil's dirty. That's one way I can say, well, okay, they haven't done an oil change in maybe 5,000 miles or more.
SPEAKER_01Even if it's not pitch dark or something. It just spreads very slowly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Um, now if we see metallic, everybody knows what metallic paint looks like. If you see the oil when you pull it up, the dipstick and you put it up against the sunlight. And if it looks metallic, that's a problem. That's a flag. That means that there's metal. I don't know which one it is, you know. So that's a there'll be a red flag for you not to buy that car, you know what I mean, or not even thinking about it. Because again, if you're willing to spend another $2,000 on an engine, then go for it. You know, I mean, if many people say I I must have this model, then sure, you can get it. But you know what you're getting into. Average person, they just want wheels to go from point A to point B. You don't want to be stuck in the middle of the road.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? Um, what's the other one that you mentioned?
SPEAKER_01Oh, the chocolate milk.
SPEAKER_00Chocolate milk. Now, oil when it's mixed with coolant, um, the oil will will become like a you know, like a milkshake. And that's what we don't want either. Um, that could be an oil cooler, that could be a radiator leaking. Uh I mean, it could be anything like that. It could be a blown head gasket as much as we know. Yeah, a lot of engines nowadays have turbos, just like yours. Yeah. So the turbo, it could potentially leak. We have two chambers, one for oil and one for coolant in the turbo. That's CO, it could potentially leak. And oil can go into because it has higher pressure, it could go into the uh uh, I mean to the coolant, make it look like a milkshake and the radiator. So it could go either way.
SPEAKER_01So, and aside from checking the oil itself um through the dipstick, uh, what what would you look for in terms of leaks either onto the ground or onto uh adhering to the car? And what would you say there's um a range of things that are very concerning and things that aren't that concerning?
SPEAKER_00Well, an oil leak after I want to say after 50,000 miles, I want to say that it's just normal. Uh, we call it sweating. If if any oil, any deposits of dirt or like mud looking thing that it's around, like the uh like the oil cap, for example, that means that the seal on the oil cap is leaking. So dirt is accumulating there, you know. I mean, as we move along the road. Uh, if the valve cover looks a little damp, a little wet, that's just a matter of time whenever whenever it's gonna get older and it's gonna leak even more. So some leaks are good, and that means that the vehicle was spin, you know, has been running you know a lot more. Oh, yeah. So that you know, so that could be a good thing for us. Um, we can use that as leverage to drop the price. Because now you said, all right, I'm gonna spend that valve cover is gonna cost me uh, you know, $800. So I'm gonna go up to the guy and said, All right, you know what? I found this leak, I know it's gonna cost me $100. Let's take off, you know, off the price. So you, you know, so we can use that just to negotiate the price. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh if the leak is really bad and you can see it on the ground, then yeah, then that's gonna be something that you can say, well, I'm gonna take a lot more money because now we have to do more work. You know what I mean? So leaks, I want to say up to extended normal, once on the uh on the ground, then that's a bad thing. Yeah, you know what I mean. Um, just for info, one drop about the size of you uh about the tip of your pinky hits the ground in a mile, uh you will lose one quart of oil. Whoa. So just to get a perception of how you know how bad the leak might be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? And if the leak is other than transmission, I mean, other than engine oil might be a transmission leak. If it hits the exhaust at the right place at the right time, we can start a fire. So that's something to also be able to consider. Not just the engine, but we've got to look at the whole, I mean, uh the whole car, power steering, your transmission, of course, uh, you know, your radar hoses, your cooler hoses, transmission lines, all those things can play a big factor on the uh whether the car is worth buying or not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so for hoses and clamps and uh connectors, would you recommend people look around and see?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Uh any hose, yeah, any hose that that that we have that it that you notice, uh a little bit of calcium deposit or mineral deposit around the hose, that's a leak. I don't care what people say, that's a leak. The only way that that mineral deposit can be outside if is if if the energy is leaking. Yeah, there's no other way. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01What about uh belts?
SPEAKER_00Belts. Uh there are many ways of diagnosticing a belt. There is a special tool. Um many companies that make belts, for example, Gates, uh, Daco, Continental, Goodyear, all those companies that make those belts, they they have, and anybody can get this tool for free online. You reach out to Gates on the website and request a um request uh beltware indicator. That tool could be, again, it takes about 46 weeks to get in the mail, but that can save you money or it can make you money if the belt, you know, I mean if you check the belt. But yeah, belts should be replaced. Uh the rubber have improved in the past 20 years. Belts that might have a hundred thousand miles look almost like new, but they actually won out.
SPEAKER_01Because they're not cracked, but they're they're exactly the you're checking the tool, helps you check the actual depth of the groove shred. Yeah, the groove.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You know what I mean? Um one more thing on belts. Many people think that a belt is bad if it's cracked. The belt goes around a bunch of round pulleys. So the belt is gonna stretch, it's gonna be able to leak. I mean, I'm sorry, not leak, it's gonna crack. That's not grounds to replace in a belt. The best ground is to, or I mean, or the ground to replace it is by grabbing the tool, measure how much play we have, and if it looks bad, if it moves too much, I'm gonna sell it.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it it could be, I I assume there could be a point at which the cracks are just. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. Now, adding on on that, if there's chunks missing on the groove side of the belt, yeah, if they're missing, yeah, now we we must replace it.
SPEAKER_01Um, do you think that there's any red flags if the engine looks too dirty or too clean? Like, could they be like wiring it to hide something?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, you're right. No, no, no. That that's a good point.
SPEAKER_01Um I'm I'm trying not to be real cynical. No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00But no, well, see, like I said earlier, people will do the darnest things to get rid of the car. Yeah. Um, I mean, when I work at the dealership, the uh the company or the use card manager will spend money on detailing the whole engine bay. The whole car is detail, paint, interior, because they want to they want to sell it. You know what I mean? They don't want, I mean, you wouldn't buy a car that you see stains on the carpet on the seats. So they gotta, you know, so they gotta make, you know, they gotta make it presentable. But when the engine is too clean, that could be a red flag. They're hiding stuff, especially when they put a lot of armor or this like dressing on the hoses. Yeah. And, you know, and they like almost like they spray this, like, I don't know, like varnish or wax or polish all over the engine bay. That brings that brings me to something that they're trying to hide something from us.
SPEAKER_01And not only that, if they're not using the right uh material for that, it could damage the exact integrity of the rubber and things like that, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh any petroleum-based products that can make things something shine, that would definitely make the belt weak. Yeah, I mean the belt, the hoses, any other rubbers around there. Uh now the engine, on the other hand, if it's uh if it's too oily, if it's too dirty, I can look at it as the car that it was used or is has been used as a regular everyday driver, and they just went get rid of it. That might be a sign that the engine has more miles than what we expect it to have. You know what I mean? I'm starting not to rely on mileage anymore because you can go with uh with the right software changing the mileage on the odometer.
SPEAKER_01Oh, jeez.
SPEAKER_00So who can you trust now? Yeah, the other thing that we can do is look at the records for the previous mock reports.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00I don't belong, uh I I don't believe on the car max. I mean, I'm sorry, on the car fax, because that could be manipulated as well. Oh, seriously, yeah, that that could be manipulated really easy.
SPEAKER_01Now also it won't include things now. It won't include all the work.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no, no, no. No, it doesn't. Now, um, you notice how when you get car insurance, they actually run the bin number on a database and they see when was the last oil change, where was the last mock shop, or when was the last time you brought the car into the shop? Me as a mechanic for been doing for you know for X amount of years, my my few new new cars that we have, they were only at the dealership for the first five or six oil changes are free. After that, they're not going to find any record on my car because I do it all.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00If I get into car accident, yeah, it's gonna pop up and you know I mean I mean on the car packs, but that's it. But that that information could be also messed with. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, okay, so once you do turn the car on, I was thinking it might be a good idea for you to make sure you're the first person testing the car that day, like do a cold start from a uh if possible, yeah. Because there's some things like issues that might not be obvious once the car's warmed up.
SPEAKER_00Yes, exactly. So if possible, uh you do want a car to start. I mean, you want the car or the engine to start cold. There's one thing that everybody needs to understand. The oil filters, if it's the old-fashioned, the metal kind that we spin by hand and we torque by hand, those filters are not made equally. I like to recommend the oil filter that could be from Nissan, Toyota, Ford, Chevy. We don't have to go to the dealer to buy them, but we can go to Walmart, some auto parts be able to carry those. There's the special components and the filter that the FRAM doesn't have, or the one from JFI Loop, or the one for Valvoline. They make them cheap. This valve is called anti-drain valve. And if it doesn't have it, engine will rattle and it'll sound like somebody's knocking at the door. We don't want that noise because that means that the oil has drained down overnight. And when you start it up, there's no lubrication on some of the major parts. Not until the oil picks it up or the pump picks it up and the oil goes up and everywhere it's supposed to go, then the noise will stop.
SPEAKER_01Any other kinds of noises to listen to? Um listen for when you start the car or when you're test driving it?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Uh in many cases, when you start the car up, you wait about a minute or so. As soon as you put it in drive and you hold your brake, or you slightly let the brake go and the car starts to move, you might hear a knocking sound as well from the engine, but it's gonna sound a little bit deeper, a little bit lower into the engine. That's carbon buildup on the piston. But many people are not gonna understand that. They're gonna think that's normal. Or the owner says, Oh, yes, been doing it for the past eight, 10 years.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So that's when you say, Well, sorry, but I'm not gonna buy it. Again, if you want that car, you're gonna say, Well, guess what? It's my gamble, I'll give you so much. And you might be lucky. You might be lucky not to um not to have any major engine problems, but do I want to take a gamble? It's gonna be up to you, or up to whoever wants to get that particular vehicle.
SPEAKER_01How about um checking the motor mounts? If you turn the car on and then you kind of go into each gear, if you see the engineers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So, but you're basically gonna put the car and drive, step on the brake pedal, step on the gas a little bit, and you're gonna see how much movement the engine has. If the engine moves a lot and you feel a thump, if you go forward or reverse, then we're gonna have an issue. That's again, that's uh that's part of the inspection, and you can say, Well, it's gonna cost me X amount. I'm gonna deduct it from the price if you want me, you know, if you want me, uh, if you want to sell it. If not, fix it and I'll come and pick it up.
SPEAKER_01Okay, is there anything to consider about the trans quality of the transmission?
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, uh, like I said, going back to what we're talking at the beginning, how many miles it has, what kind of driving, you know, has a carpet under. You know, we got severe driving, we got normal driving, highway speed, or I mean, or stop and go. How many oil changes have they done on the transmission? And adding to previous episodes that you might have talked about, it changed.
SPEAKER_01You shouldn't.
SPEAKER_00You know, you shouldn't change the transmission fluid just simply because you're gonna blow up the transmission.
SPEAKER_01A lot of people You shouldn't not do it. Yeah, so you're worried about that.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So you probably heard it. You know, I mean, a lot of people might have hear that. Uh, I'm uh I'm the opposite. I want to do transmission service, change the fluid, change the filter if possible, and just let it go.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, everyone seems to be hearing now that it's lifetime fluid and you don't need to change it. You take away the dipstick, so you think you can't change it.
SPEAKER_00That's a bunch of bologna. Uh any fluid, whether engine, coolant, it doesn't matter what fluid we have, if especially if it goes through heat and cold, that fluid is gonna break down, mainly heat. So we must change the fluid, the coolant, the oil, the transmission fluid, power. If it has some, you know, the you got the differential fluid on the, you know, if I have a real-world drive vehicle, you got to change the differential oil. So there's a lot of stuff that they get the wrong information and people believe it, and then the engine or the car will take a toll. And sometimes that's what they want to get rid of it.
SPEAKER_01Um, that reminds me of one thing about oil. So if you turn the car on and you go look uh in with the car idling, and great, you don't see any uh smoke coming out of the tailpipe. But um, can you talk a little bit about why it's important to Check the maybe check your rearview mirror or have another person there to look at the car when you're accelerating or on up decelerating.
SPEAKER_00Um, the engine is going to burn oil naturally. That's good. Uh, we want the engine to burn a little bit of oil. Some engines will burn a quart, some engines will burn half a quart, some engines will be able to burn more than that. It all depends. But I do want the engine to burn a little bit of oil so it can every so we can say that every part in the engine is being lubricated. Now we have an excess. We have too much. Too much oil will come out of the tailpipe. It'll look bluish, grayish color. And under heavy acceleration, that's a sign that the piston rings are weak. On deceleration, if you let go, if you let go of the gas, let's say you're holding a 2000 and let go of the gas pedal, then all of a sudden, if you see blue smoke at the tailpipe, that's gonna be the valve seals. So that's something to be able to keep an eye on.
SPEAKER_01And those can be pretty pricey too.
SPEAKER_00And definitely that could be really pricey to be able to repair. And again, if it's gonna be more than a thousand dollars and you don't have the time or the money for that, then that's when you say, Well, I don't want it.
SPEAKER_01And one fun thing that you could check is um what about bouncing the car? Like by each, would you say bounce it by each corner, you mean corner?
SPEAKER_00Okay, and about okay, so you're talking about the struts, right? Yeah, the best thing to do is take it for a spin and find the bumpiest road, which is not it was really not that hard to find in LA. Not at all. I mean, you can go anywhere, you can find the bumpiest road and see how well the vehicle handles those bumps.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's the best thing. Now we used to bounce the car, you know. I mean, you know, you can go to the corner nowadays. We don't have a bumper on them. I mean, there's vehicles, everything's plastic, so there's not much pressure you can add there. But if you were to, you know, like if you open the door, grab the door, you know, as a leverage and try to bounce the car on that side, see how much movement the car's got up and down. And it's more than three bounces, then we know for a fact we have a problem.
SPEAKER_01With the struts.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, with the struts. Uh if the vehicle's leaning to one side, if you look at it, let's say the floor is really flat, but the car leaning to the left or to the right, then you know that maybe we got a problem with the suspension components that could be weak or worn out.
SPEAKER_01I mean, okay, and when you're on this test drive trying to find easy to find bumpy roads, maybe not so easy to find, but um, if you can find a hill or even maybe like into a parking lot or something like that, is there stuff you can assess? Like, could there be issues that are not evident until you're going uphill?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um while while uh while you do the test drive, what I recommend everybody to try to do is find a wall. So with bump, you know, with bumps on the road in a wall, you would tend to bounce uh any noise that's under the car, it'll bounce off the wall and you hear it. So you might hear some weird stuff. Then you're like, well, you know, wait a minute, you know, you uh because you won't hear on the road, I mean an open road. There's nothing to bounce the noise from.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But if you have a wall and you happen to go up, let's say in an alley and it's really bumpy, you will hear, you will hear a lot of noises rattling. That might even look like loose chain, you know, you know, uh, it might, you know, even sound like, you know, like you have a like, you know, you know, some people carry a bunch of little things on the trunk or on the glove box and they're bouncing, they might sound like almost like coins. That's a red flag that can say, okay, well, I got a loose component under, I mean, in the suspension, you know, anywhere on the trunk, you know, anything like that. So basically, the wall would be your friend to find any noises, any weird stuff. And if you're, you know, I mean, and then if you're really, let's say you really want the car and you hear those noises, you can ask, can I take the car into the shop so I can inspect it and find out what's how how bad is it gonna be?
SPEAKER_01Yes, let's talk about um you got time quickly. Um pre uh pre-purchase inspections. And um, is it a red flag if someone says you can't take your car to do one?
SPEAKER_00Well, I don't think so, but it's just a matter of I mean, I'll flip the question to you. Would you let me take the car into the shop? Just me just say, hey, Jen, I'm gonna take the car in, you know, I'm in to the shop to get an inspection. You're probably gonna say, Well, no. Yeah, you know, I mean, I'm not gonna trust you, right? But how about if you said, okay, well, if you really want to sell it, I said, I'll go with you. I want to see too. Right. So we both go, or you bring the car into. I said, hey, got the shop right here on flowering, blah, blah, blah. Right. You can go there, I'll meet you over there, bring the car, I'll pay, I'll pay the inspection as much as they're gonna charge me. They give me a list, we we come out, you can go talk to the mechanic. That way you'll you know also be informed, and I'm informed as well. And then we can use that as leverage to negotiate the price of the vehicle.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. And uh, not all shops, I think, would do it necessarily, but but there are plenty of shops that will do inspections.
SPEAKER_00Everybody will, I mean, every I mean, as long as you pay them for their labor, they'll do it.
SPEAKER_01And any any thoughts on um good questions to ask? Like, get like, is it good to get a feeling of why they're selling the car or ask them how they've been driving their car?
SPEAKER_00I would ask, for example, how many drivers have been driving the vehicle? Um, how long have you had the car? Are you the second owner? Are you the third owner? It's a mainly highway driving, it's a mainly street driving, all those little things that that can bring back and you know, and you can assess and make your mind whether you want it or not. Um, how often do you know change? Where did you go do the old change? Yeah. Uh, what kind of world do you put in? Some customers are so um organized that they'll give you a folder with all the maintenance, and it's like every three months, you know, every five months, which that's great. That's really great. Uh, a lot of them they just says, I don't know. I do it whenever I remember. Yeah. That's kind of like, oh crap. So that means I'm gonna be able to probably pick up somebody else's headache. So, but the questions could be endless. You can ask as many questions as you want. Um, you know, I mean, I don't, I mean, some customers or some some vehicle owners might get annoyed. Why are you asking so many questions? You know, you know, what I mean, hey, it's my investment, is my money? If you want to sell it, then you got to answer those questions. But some people say, Well, you want it or not? Basically, do you want it or not? Yeah, you know, I mean, so but asking whatever question, I don't think that's a wrong question. It's just asking as much. And if you feel satisfied with the answers, and if you really want the car the way it is and you're willing to spend a little bit of extra money, then go for it. But if you say, nope, I don't want it, there's something wrong about that, something fishy, then might as well get rid of it. You know what I mean? I mean, walk away from it. Let them, you know, yeah, let somebody else pick up the headache, not you. Because again, it's just uh it's nowadays here in LA, a car is not uh it's not uh what's the word? It's a must to move around. Some other places having a car is uh it's a perk. But here we need it because we're so far apart from each other that you need to move quick. Yeah, yeah, I mean, but yeah, I mean, um many questions, any question is better than no question at all. And then later you're like, oh, I should have found, you know, I should have asked them that question before, and that would make the deal or not the deal, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, there's there's nothing wrong. As long as the customer or the owner is willing to answer it, you're good. But if not, then don't expect anything out of it. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Um, can you talk just for a minute about frame? Like what to look for to if you can assess frame damage, they might not be telling you about.
SPEAKER_00We used to do um back in the day, we used to grab a little magnet. If you if you guys remember those little pocket magnets, you know, like on a screwdriver, really low. Yeah, um, and we we will pass it along with a piece of paper, pass it through the paint. And if the magnet they were to fall down, there's bondle behind it. That means the car wasn't an accident. Nowadays, the car is made of aluminum, so the magnet part won't work. So, you know, I mean, I mean, uh, but but if you want to look at the frame, you gotta people go underneath and see if there's any crumble, there's any uh any uh excess paint or anything that they might have added anywhere you know around the area. If there is, maybe the car got rear-ended, maybe it got hit, maybe in the front end. So anything that looks weird, if one corner, let's say on one side, on the left side it looks good, but the right side looks iffy, then you know that maybe the car was hit on that side.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so good idea to bring a flashlight too.
SPEAKER_00Bring a flashlight, uh, and you know, and bring somebody who who's knowledgeable and who, you know, I mean, I we like to say, you know, that has no horse in the race and be neutral. Basically, I'm gonna be asking a lot of questions if you bring me. You know what I mean? Yeah, and you know, ask as much as possible. Along the way, when you test drive it, and I forgot to mention something, I don't know if you got to ask the question, but I want to drive the car at least 45 to 50 miles per hour and step on the brakes slightly to see if the rotors are warped, to see if I find any problems with the brake system. We don't want the car to pull left or pull right when we brake. I don't want the feel of the steering wheel to shake or the brake pedal to shake. I want to be able to apply the parking brake and hold the car. I'm sorry, the car is going to be parked. You know what I mean? Step on the parking brake or pull on the parking brake lever, put it in drive, and the car should not be able to move. If it moves, parking brake's probably worn out, I mean, uh out of adjustment, or there's no brakes in the back. That could be a sign depending on, you know, depending on the design. But driving the car and basically grab the wheel, go left or right, just you know, just move it around. So see how well the car handles, you know what I mean? Uh, and that will also dictate whether we want it or not.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? And also one thing, too, is the tires have uh a date stamped on it, right on the DOT. Look at the age of the tires. Yeah, that also can make you know you know make or uh make or break the deal. If the tires are too old, you're talking about a thousand dollars in tires in some cases. Do you really want to put a thousand dollars extra on top of that?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? Yeah, but all those little things, I mean, we can keep going on on inspecting the car, but it's a matter of time whether a the customer has a time and whether you're willing to spend that and get ready to tell them no or tell them yes. But here's my you know, my my price.
SPEAKER_01All right, yeah, God, this has been so helpful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, I really appreciate your time. No problem. I look forward to doing another episode with you soon.
SPEAKER_00Just let me know. Okay, appreciate it. All right.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I hope you agree that Mr. Muir shared a ton of good information in this conversation. One thing I completely forgot to bring up altogether was um VIN numbers. Um, it's good to know different locations on a car that you can find the VIN number and just make sure that all of them match and that that number matches the paperwork as well. If there's any mismatch, then it's that could be, you know, a red flag and certainly worth asking some questions about any accidents or repairs that might have been done on the car. We talked a little bit about Carfax and how that's not going to give you necessarily a full picture of what's uh what work's been done to the car, but it is really good to know about bar, the Bureau of Automotive Repair. And for smog reports, your history of smog reports for free, you can just go right to their website, bar.ca.gov slash inspection, and you can put in a VIN number or license plate, and it will tell you the inspection history. So it'll give you a list of smog tests, basically. And it might be, I think it's a good idea to put in the VIN number and run that and the license plate and run that and make sure you're getting the same car showing up for the VI number and the license plate. Last thing I'll add is um the suggestion of we did talk a lot about listening for sounds. I would suggest too listening with the windows up while you're driving at some point and then with the windows down because you can hear certain different vibrations from that are inside the car versus coming from outside. So it's worth just paying attention to as much as you can. And so I won't recap for the peace of mind pointers, everything we talked about, because I think the whole episode is kind of about how to have some peace of mind when you're inspecting a car, just figuring out what to look for. So I'll just end with a couple of things you might want to bring to inspect a car. The scanner, a napkin, a flashlight. And if you're feeling like you want to dig in further and very carefully, you might bring a telescoping mirror of the kind that can pull in and out and you can look underneath the car a little bit, maybe in the engine, if that feels safe and the owner is open to that. So that's it for today. I hope if there's anything we didn't cover that you would like to hear more about, or if you have any specific questions about your own experience, you'll email me goodkarmapodcast at gmail.com, karma with a C, and maybe we can do a part two. So I would love if you drop me an email. A great way to support the podcast is by just clicking five stars in whatever platform you're listening on. And please leave a review if you do like the show. So thank you so much. I look forward to being with you next week. And in the meantime, keep up with your oil changes, and I'll see you down the road.
