Buying different vehicle and carfax question

[ilikefree]

My parents are looking at a used van to buy. Their's has a crack going more than half-way across the windshield and just about a week ago my dad hit a deer on his way to work. They saw a van at a dealer's lot yesterday. The asked if there was anything wrong with it. The salesman asked them if they had a computer. The don't. He told them that if they had a computer they could look it up to see if there was anything wrong with it. If they ask for it, doesn't a reputable dealership have to provide you with a carfax report on it? It is a really nice looking vehicle, but my sister and I went to carfax.com for them and put in the vin #. It came back to have 22 records, but in order to find out what those are, you have to pay $25. I know those 22 things could be something simple and legitimate, but how are you to know? They put $50 down on the van and signed some papers and are supposed to pick it up on Friday. If they do find out that something is majorly wrong with it, can they not buy it if that's what they decide without getting into trouble since they signed stuff?

[freeby4me]

You need to tell them to cough up the 25 bucks and TAKE IT TO A MECHANIC, this is a MUST MUST MUST. No matter how clean and purty it looks, it needs to be hoisted up and looked over real good.

If there is something wrong with it, it'll be worth losing the 75 bucks and the mechanics charge.

Im not real sure about what trouble they can get into, what papers exactly did they sign? If it turns out something they shouldnt be getting, they should offer the 50 buck deposit as a "get out of it" if possible.

[SLance68]

First they need to get the $ 50.00 back and RUN really fast away from that dealership. I had a Jeep Cherokee that I rolled and it only had 1 report on it - I ran it on Car-Fax when my boss was looking at a used car for his daughter. For the money you can run as many vin#'s as you want for a month I think. So that $$ will be well spent.

And NO a dealer does not have to provide you with a Car-Fax report - that is the responsibility of the buyer.

[tracey74]

all i know is that if you buy a car from a dealer and go through car fax and find out its been totaled or anything like that they have to fix it for nothing or at least they are suppose to. a friend of ours bought a car they though was a year old and did the carfax thing and found out it had been wrecked before so they called the dealer and told them what they did the dealer gave them a rental car for free and fixed what was needed on the other car. there are whats called a lemon law in most stated. legally in most states a dealer is suppose to tell you whats wrong with the car or else get in trouble. my sister bought a car from a dealer and she was making payments on it but when she took the car to a mechanic she found out it had been rolled and it should have been on the title but wasnt the dealership had somehow gotten a NEW title for it making it look like it was in perfect condition of course she did nothing about it
.so do what others say have them do the carfax thing print that out and take it to a mechanic and get a statement from them. that way here maybe they can haggle with the dealer. the dealer as far as i know has to provide proof that whatever is on carfax was repaired. if not they will have to repair it. the best one I have heard from dealers lately is a little old lady/man owned it and they hardly ever drove it.

[DrGrin]

If it's showing 22 things on the carfax, I'd pay for the report. Better safe than sorry.

[SLance68]

all i know is that if you buy a car from a dealer and go through car fax and find out its been totaled or anything like that they have to fix it for nothing or at least they are suppose to. a friend of ours bought a car they though was a year old and did the carfax thing and found out it had been wrecked before so they called the dealer and told them what they did the dealer gave them a rental car for free and fixed what was needed on the other car. there are whats called a lemon law in most stated. legally in most states a dealer is suppose to tell you whats wrong with the car or else get in trouble. my sister bought a car from a dealer and she was making payments on it but when she took the car to a mechanic she found out it had been rolled and it should have been on the title but wasnt the dealership had somehow gotten a NEW title for it making it look like it was in perfect condition of course she did nothing about it
.so do what others say have them do the carfax thing print that out and take it to a mechanic and get a statement from them. that way here maybe they can haggle with the dealer. the dealer as far as i know has to provide proof that whatever is on carfax was repaired. if not they will have to repair it. the best one I have heard from dealers lately is a little old lady/man owned it and they hardly ever drove it.

1) Wrong - if you buy a used car and DON'T ASK if the vehicle was wrecked or had been totaled & rebuilt they don't have to tell you. If you buy it without running a car fax report you are just asking for troubles. The dealer in your sisters case was very generous - the car probably had a 30 day warranty from the dealer which is why they fixed the stuff that was wrong. Even if you buy a car then you pulled the car fax report it does nothing to protect you - it is BUYER BEWARE when it comes to cars. So go pay for the report before you put any money down on the car. Don't believe them when they say "it will probably be gone when you get back" say good then it obviously wasn't the car for me. Trust me with the slow car market they will do back flips to sell you a car these days.

2) Lemon Law ONLY applies to NEW not USED vehicles.