Used car buying HELP?

[Nevyn]

I'm looking into a 1999 Ford Escort 5MT to replace my Lumina. I checked online, and Carfax shows 11 events for it, and Auto-Check shows 19.

For just 39.99, I can have the WHOLE report!


Does anyone here already have "unlimited" carfax usages and be willing to look it up for me, or know where I can get a free VIN lookup of the car?

[Blackbelt]

Honestly, carfax is a bunch of crap and not reliable. If you do not feel confident in your ability to evaluate the car, you would be much better off taking it to a professional mechanic for evaluation.
I have pesronal experience with carfax getting things wrong. In addition, an investigative news report found some unflattering things about them.
Check out this video

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2009/v...orts/main.html

[Nevyn]

I did see some of that too. What about Auto-Check? They're part of Experian, one of the crediting bureaus. Not that THEY are accurate all the time either.

I looked at it yesterday; I'm going to drive it today. I'll make an offer on Monday. It's on a dealer lot, and it's been there for quite some time (several months), so I'm hoping for cheap. From my inspection yesterday, it's got some things against it.

Rear speakers are missing
Front speakers are not OEM
Aftermarket air horn installed

Those are what I noticed right off. I wasn't sure if somebody tried to make it "cool" before it got sold along the way somewhere. That's what made me curious about a report on it.

[JusBringIt]

Nevyn, those are usually tell-tale signs of something awry, however it seems the person got tired of the car and it could be in pretty decent shape otherwise.

Check for leaks, rust, and any body panel that seems out of place/shape. For a test drive, give it a little pedal (floor it a couple times, but don't go crazy with it) to see if it lags or misfires. This is a good test of the motor. Too bad you don't have sg, I'd say check to make sure the dealer didn't do a quick reset before your drive.

[MaxxMPG]

The Escort is a Mazda Protege built in Mexico, and the old Mazdas are known to last quite a while and are known to be cheap to repair and maintain.

The air-horn and stereo mods suggest the car was driven by a 20-something male who may have been less that diligent on maintenance. Look under the hood along the harnesses for any spliced wiring or other Saturday-driveway mods that may have been performed. Check for engine gunk from long oil change intervals, documented timing belt replacement (if it has one), cloudy brake fluid, and other "never been touched" telltale signs. When I look for a used car, I am not as worried about the Carfax showing body damage as I am about having a reasonable maintenance schedule followed.

I have seen Carfax miss things. The only benefit to it is that they have some generic guarantees, although they're only as good as the information reported to agencies that can be swiped by Carfax.

[Nevyn]

Of that I'm pretty sure they didn't. It's a "we get you back on your feet and help you establish good credit with low weekly payments" place.

However, if you want to buy outright instead of financing at their 19% interest (), you can submit a bid. I'm going to write up a bid stating everything that I found/find detracting from the value, and put in an appropriate number.

The young(er) salesman that came out asked what I had to work with, and I said $1200 to $1800. He didn't say so outright, but the way he acted and the way his tone was after I said that seemed to show that he knew that's what the car was worth and that I'd probably get it for that if I offered cash.

After that, he left me alone with it, and the key! I went over to my car, got my flashlight, and started poking my nose EVERYWHERE without any care in the world - it was great!

I'm going to do some more extended poking today, as well as drive it.

Having driven one from 2002-2007, and knowing what happens to them from the underside when you smash 'em to bits (oops ), I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to see anything that may be wrong.

I'll keep you updated!

[Ford Man]

As the owner of 4 Escorts an '88 Pony, '88 GL, '97 LX wagon, and 02 SE, I can tell you that for the most part they are very dependable cars and as someone else already mentioned if you can do your own work they are pretty cheap to maintain. Parts for them are cheaper than most cars. Some things to watch for in the Escorts are worn front end components, ball joint, tie rod ends and steering rack. Especially on the 3rd generation Escorts '97-'03 there's also a pretty common problem with them dropping valve seats, especially #4 exhaust valve. Usually when the valve seat is loose before it drops completely out people complain about a loud knocking noise in the engine and lack of power, because the seat isn't seating properly, so if it has any such issues I would advise you to stay away from it. It doesn't happen to all of them by no means, but the chances are much better if the car has ever been run hot. The third generations also have an issue with the rear springs cracking, so take a good look at them to make sure there are no problems with them. I can't say a lot bad about an Escort, my '88 Pony has 494,xxx miles on the original engine and transmission and has never been rebuilt, I'm still driving it about 50 miles a day and doing nothing to it but routine maintenance. If the car has 100,000 miles or more and the ball joints and tie rod ends haven't been changed most likely it won't be long. If you have a code reader or scan gauge you should take it with you and hook it up to the OBD II port to make sure all the systems are reset and that they haven't disconnected the battery to turn off the check engine light until it gets off the lot. Resale on the Escort is not as high as it is on most cars either so I'd check the book value before making an offer. Also look for mismatched paint or body lines that don't look exactly right, these may be signs of an accident that has been poorly repaired. Good luck.

[Nevyn]

I didn't know it was common, but I did learn about the rear spring issue - the hard way I replaced them TWICE in my '97 while I had it! Not a hard job by any means, though.

I didn't hear any tapping or feel any loss of power when I spun around in it - but then again, I never opened it up to check out the top end or open the SPI valve.

It's got 76,000 (and change) miles on it.

I didn't feel any shimmy in the front end, but I'd certainly drive it again and check it out one more time before purchase.

No OBD-II reader here; but I could most likely get them to let me test drive it again and take it the 4 miles down the road to Advance Auto who will read it for free.

Thanks for the info, but it's kind of on hold temporarily. I can sell my car til my wife's is OK, and it's got some work to be done on it before it'll pass inspection.