[N/A] Purchase Used Vehicle Question

[inav8r]

So, my '99 Jeep is on it's last leg. It has tons wrong with it and I believe the amount in repairs is gonna cost me more than the vehicle is worth...

I went car shopping last night and found a nice looking '04 GMC Envoy 4WD with 52k miles on it. The dealer, of course, tried to get me to buy the car on the spot, but fortunatly I didn't fall into that trap...

So I decided to put some money down on the car and take it home over night to look at it. I get it home and check kbb.com to see the vehicles value, and I discover that I'm not paying too much for it, ok, I'm happy. I take the vehicle out and put it up on my ramps and crawl underneath it and I notice that it looks like it's been in an accident - but the repairs all look great (underneath and outside). I then drove it around being extra careful that I couldn't hear / see / feel anything unusual... I even had my neighbor, who's also mechanically inclined come over and take a gander at it, and he liked the car also.

I decided to buy a Carfax report on it - and sure enough a minor accident was reported on it. It's had 2 owners previously. The first was a 36 month lease that went from 9/03 to 9/06 with approx 34k miles. It was during the lease that the accident occured in the middle of the lease. The 2nd owner had it from 10/06 to roughly 8/07 - and put just 17k miles on it.

Now, unfortunatly, I don't have a "trusted" mechanic I can take it to. My gut says the vehicle will be alright, but the wife is stuck on the "accident reported" report from carfax. Any thoughts?

 

[tonycondon]

buy it. as long as the damage was fixed correctly its not going to matter.

 

[mikea]

I checked Carfax on my Silhouettee van and liked that it had been in the burbs. That was a major reason I bought it, along with the guy selling it was a Milwaukee mechanic who obviously had a loyal following.

As I am wont to do I have since sunk enough money into it that I do have more money in it than what the initial "bargain" I got would indicate it's worth. My philosohy is more "devil known" The $1000+ plus I "invested" is going to be like $500 a year while I own it. That's a whole lot better than the average guy's car payments.

The van has not let me down yet, other than a blown tire. (I put on all new tires.) It got us through miles and miles at Oshkosh, doing a yeoman job. It also proved to be a great fit for the missions I had in mind. We practically lived out of it for week and it has been perfect for helping in my move and new house maintenance.

My advice? Yours sounds like a decent deal. Just don't feel bad if you have to spend a few thou in repairs. Like with a plane, if the underlying machine is sound it's not a waste of money to invest in a few more years of use no matter what the supposed value of the vehicle is.

I guess you always have the risk that some maroon will total it and you can't get your repair costs back. Another managed risk, I think.

 

[docmirror]

Sorry, I have the opposite position to all the rest. If any vehicle has accident damage I pass on it. There are too many 04 GMC Envoys out there without accident damage that I would check out. Even if you had to have one delivered from out of state, you can do better.

BTW, I restore vintage cars for a hobby, and I've made the accident damage mistake more than once, thinking it'll be okay. Now, the fact that your local dealer didn't tell you about it speaks volumes(he knows about it).