Buying a cheap used car from a dealership

G_Balliando

Alright, so I got a couple grand and I'm gonna go get a cheap car tonight. I know you can't really expect much for 2 grand, but that's OK, I just need something to get around in when I need to, which isn't that often as I live and work downtown. I found this dealership that's outside of the city (away from the strips of seedy used car dealerships on the main drags of the town) that specializes in cars in my price range. I've never bought a car from a dealership blindly before, I've bought all my cars from individual private owners or from dealrships where I know somebody. What should I look out for? I know the obvious stuff, I'll take it for a spin and check for brake, acceleration, and turining issues. What is other stuff I can ask about? Clean title, any major mechanical problems, I know this stuff. But these guys get these cars from who-knows-where so they probably don't have answers for all this stuff. Any advice would be cool. I'm not expecting anything perfect, whatever I get will probably have more than 120,000 miles on it. I just want to make sure I don't get completed screwed over by some obvious shit. Thanks Soulstrut.Oh, bonus question: If I buy a car from, let's say, 1995 that had some recalls, can I still take it to the manufacturer's dealership and have it checked to see if the recall issue has been taken care of? Do they do that for free?