First Time Used Car Buyer?

What does purchasing a used vehicle mean? It means that you buying a car that has been out on the road, you can get a used car from low to high mileage reading on the odometer. This is the best route to take when you are purchasing your first, on a low budget or whatever reason that you might have to purchase a used vehicle.

There's certain things you need to do before signing any contract on a used motor, first of all you need to look for a reputable and trustworthy dealership to do business with. There are sites that help you locate vehicles that might be on your search criteria, for example cars.co.za and autotrader.co.za help you find the exact car that you are looking for. You can search by brand, model, year, mileage or even colour. These sites are beyond helpful, you can get direct contact to the dealer that has advertised on the site.

As this is my first blog post and I've recently purchased a used Italian beauty, I will make it personal to my experience with the deal as I encountered issues and wanted to terminate the contract. I will pose questions with answers related to my situation. 

What to Know When Purchasing a Used Vehicle? First of all do research on the car that you want, this be the trade value, brand history, maintenance costs, extended warranty options available and service plans. Also, if you want to be extra about get in contact with the previous owner ask the dealer to link you with them. They will give you better insight on the car they previously owned, the salesman will sell you heaven on earth. Ask for a Dekra inspection certificate, this is to help correlate what you've heard about the car. It will show any paint work done, accidental damage history, if the car had been stolen and recovered and so forth. This will help you know what you getting yourself into. 

7-Day Return Policy? When purchasing a used vehicle you have seven days to return the car and get your money back or deal terminated. This could be due to you not liking or wanting the car anymore, within the seven day as a consumer you are well within your right to request to cancel everything  and look for whatever car you will like. If the dealer gives you issues with this, involve the bank if car is financed. You will not be liable to pay anything.

Should You Test Drive The Car? Hell Yes! Test drive the car and find your satisfaction with it. I highly advise that you speak with the dealer to give you the car to test out for a week which in many cases they will do so if you do qualify for the car. Having the car for a full week will help you identify any faults, mechanically or electronically. Faults are seen over a long drive and most test drives are just under 5km which you really can't see anything but over a long distance you will see whatever fault there is. 

Can You Cancel a Used Car Sales Agreement? Technically no, but there are grounds when you can do so. You can cancel the contract in situations where certain information was not disclosed such as correct mileage, accident history etc and the dealer was not as transparent as should've been. If the dealer made false or misleading statements about the car, you can cancel the contract within a year of when you signed the contract. Making any false, misleading or deceptive statements in order to sell a car is known as an unfair practice.

Touch up on my situation, I could not terminate the contract due to the fact that I had signed a delivery note without test driving the car. But I managed to get the dealer to fix all the faults I found in the car, with the help from the bank that financed the car for me.

For tips on purchasing a used car visit: www.standardbank.co.za/southafrica/personal/learn/tips-for-buying-a-used-car

I hope you find this article insightful.