Eight Tips for Buying a Used Car near Wentzville

Eight More Tips for Buying a Used Car near Wentzville, MO

Buying a car, truck, or SUV can be hard work, especially if you’re looking for a used car. If you’ve ever looked at a used car that was not quite what the advertisement presented it to be, you know the challenges. Below are eight helpful tips to help limit the pain and make sure you’re confident in your purchase. If you want to find a used car dealership near you, visit us at Johnny Londoff Autoplex. Our used car dealership is located near Wentzville, MO, we’ve served customers from all over the surrounding areas, and we would be honored to serve you too.

Start With You

Our first three tips have to do with you. First, start with your lifestyle. Consider what kind of vehicle will fit your lifestyle and your needs. Do you have a growing family and need a lot of seats? Do you often explore the wilderness and need something that can handle some off-road driving? Or, is it just you, and you want something that’s fun to drive? Once you’ve thought about that, our second tip is to consider your priorities. Is the number of seats more critical than the exterior design? Do you want to minimize your running costs and fuel bills? Do you want the latest technology? Answering these questions will start to point you in a direction. Our third tip, consider your budget. Whether you plan to buy your next vehicle outright or finance it, you need to know how much you must spend and what kind of monthly payment makes sense.

Do Your Research

The next batch of tips has to do with researching. The fourth tip is to make a list of cars that match your priorities and budget identified earlier. Fifth, start reading about each of those models. It’s so easy to find reviews online these days, from written reviews on car magazine sites to video reviews on YouTube. Our sixth tip is to start whittling your list down to a top 2-3 options. As you read and watch reviews, you’ll get a sense of which cars you like the best. Consider the different trim levels of each model and the different options offered. Once you have narrowed your list, it’s time for the fun part.

Meet Your Car

The seventh tip is to get a vehicle history report. The most popular is a CarFax report which can reveal the ownership history, maintenance records, and if the car has even been in an accident. If anything is alarming in the report, consider choosing a different vehicle. Our eighth step involves inspecting the cars you’ve identified. This includes test driving your top picks. As you drive them, you’ll get a feel for how each one performs, how comfortable the seats are, and how the technology works. When driving used cars, be sure to drive them in various situations, test the brakes, and, if you can, have a mechanic take a look at them to identify issues.