INSPECT Like a PRO! The BEST Way to Check a Used Car

[00:00] Don't get stuck with the limit. I'm gonna teach you exactly how to inspect a used car before you purchase it, like a pro. If you don't know, I own a car dealership here in Southern Indiana and over the last few years when I left the Chevy dealership,

[00:13] I have purchased over 500 used vehicles from all over the country. Now, I have looked at thousands of them and one of the best things that I've learned over the years is how to inspect these cars properly

[00:26] to not be able to sell a piece of crap. The very first thing you wanna do when you want to inspect the used car is actually get it to be a cold start. And a cold start means that the engine has it ran

[00:39] and my personal opinion overnight, but several hours for sure. So you wanna do a cold start. And when you do the cold start, I recommend you be on the outside of the vehicle and allow somebody to start it for you

[00:53] so that you can listen to it. So on some vehicles, like Ford's, for example, with the 3.5 liter engine or the bold trite engine, you're looking for awkward noises at start-up.

[01:05] Some vehicles have kicks, some vehicles have other goofy things where we're looking for belt squeals and stuff like that. So this is not ran for a couple days. We just got it. We have not done our inspection on it yet.

[01:17] So I'm gonna do a cold start for you right here. And so you see that started up with no issues. You saw how it rev high and then came right back down.

[01:32] That, because I feel a super is all the time, is a very normal characteristic. At that point, what you wanna do is inspect the interior. And we wanna start looking to see if there's any lights.

[01:44] And definitely on like the Japanese cars and stuff like that, this light right here is extremely important to know that that is gonna be blue at start-up. That is just basically telling you

[01:57] that the vehicle is not up to operating temperature. And before you do a test drive, you want the vehicle to be at operating temperatures, the best thing to do. So now that we have done our cold start

[02:09] and we have looked at the gauges to watch of anything, we wanna watch make sure all the gauges start up and they're moving, functioning, and stuff like that, this is what we do now. I'm gonna pop the hood and one of the few things that I personally like to do

[02:22] is I just like to look around the vehicle. So like on this instance, we have a little bit of a bumper, not a line. So again, this is pre-inspection on this particular car. So we'll check that out,

[02:34] once we do our whole inspection. And then I'm gonna come in here and I'm gonna look at everything as the car is running. Obviously, we wanna be careful of ties and sleeves and so on like that. The car is running, you don't wanna get around

[02:47] and you start looking around. In a nutshell, I'm just listening and I'm looking for anything that's obviously wrong. And if there is nothing obviously wrong, just a couple of minutes later, literally right now as I do this video,

[03:00] the car is starting to quiet now. This car is now warmed up and it's good for a test drive. So the second step is what you wanna do is go for a test drive. And you want to ensure that you do what's called a drive cycle.

[03:13] A drive cycle is extremely different from every single manufacturer out there. So a good 30 minute test drive is extremely important to do. And I do have a video on how to test drive a car

[03:27] that I'll link at the end of this video. So go watch that to get very specific on what to do for a test drive. When you get back from your test drive, you wanna go get the tools that you bring with you to this. And we haven't talked about tools

[03:39] because there really isn't much that you need. First and foremost, you need to be how to inspect a used car checklist that you can get Chevy Dude store.com. You wanna have a good flashlight. This particular one is a 1000 Lumen flashlight.

[03:53] So that way, even during the daytime like this, that I can get in that engine bay and the flashlight is gonna be at a benefit. And then also I like to have a little OBD2 scanner. You don't need expensive ones. These are really cheap on Amazon.

[04:06] You can get ones that plug into your phone for an app, all that good stuff. But this is really great because you don't need any power and you don't need a huge expertise to know how this works. And speaking of the OBD2, it's very, very important that you understand

[04:19] how this works. So first and foremost, when you plug in the OBD2, you need to have the vehicle off. And when you plug it in, know where it goes and you'll see power automatically. And then what you wanna do is have the vehicle

[04:32] in accessory mode. You do not want the vehicle to be on. So in this case, since it's push button start, I'm just gonna push the button and should all come on. Maybe a second button, there we go, a second time.

[04:45] And then I'm just gonna come in here. I'm just gonna tell it to scan the vehicle. So it's linking. And we can see that we have codes found zero. Monitor is not actual three. Monitor is okay. Monitor is included. So monitor is not applicable or okay

[04:59] because these are the readiness codes. And you gotta have a drive cycle in order for it to work. So you can see that MIL status off and everything is okay, misfire, stuff like that. So this is what you're looking for when you're doing this.

[05:13] And on this awesome one here, what I liked also about these is that I could hit the Venn number here and you can ensure that this Venn number matches on the window and in the doors to ensure that nobody has stones

[05:26] vehicle in the past and redone the Venn number. So once I get back from my test drive, the very first thing I'm gonna do is use my sniffer. I'm gonna make sure that there are no goofy smells. So we're gonna look for oil smells like burning oil

[05:38] and we're gonna look for cooler smells. Those are typically the two biggest concerns that we're looking for on a vehicle. And just for a reference, burning coolant is a sweet smell. It's very obvious of what it is.

[05:50] And you have a totally different smell from when the burning oil is when burning oil is typically that, it's just a burning sensation. So that you don't have to be a professional, you don't have to be a mechanic to do an inspection

[06:02] on a used car to ensure that you are buying something good. I personally think that a visual inspection from the top of the engine is a good indicator if you have a good vehicle or not.

[06:14] So first and foremost, you wanna look for everything that could possibly have fluid. So even if you don't know if it has fluid or doesn't have fluid, you want to inspect it. Obviously, this right here,

[06:26] this could be something with fluid. It's not, it's air, but you can look at that in around those seals to ensure. On a Subaru, we have, it's really nice to see our oil filter on top, very simple. And we can see our oil fill is right there.

[06:39] What I personally would do is I'd be looking down here to see if there's any major oil spills down here. Some of those oil spills could be from sloppy people putting oil in a car. So you wanna determine it. You can start looking down at your serpentine belt.

[06:52] Your serpentine belt, you're gonna look on the inside here to see if there's any cracks. If there's major cracks, you wanna do that. The serpentine belt only costs 20 bucks, and it's really simple to put on, but you just gotta understand how to do it,

[07:04] but you can have somebody do that for you as well. You can see there's a little bit of rust down there. That's not a concern on this particular vehicle. I'm gonna start looking in the cavities of the engine to make sure there's nothing up here.

[07:16] I know on this particular car, you can see the RVT right here to that gray seal right there. I know that that is sealing something in. So I'm gonna start looking to make sure that there's no oil or anything there.

[07:28] On this particular car, I know we have cam carrier bearings over here, and that we're looking for oil and stuff like that. Again, you don't need to be a trained professional. I'm gonna start looking down in here. I'm gonna start looking down there.

[07:40] I'm gonna look at every possible angle that I can in this engine bay to see if there is anything liquid or what could be a leak. And again, I can't stress enough

[07:52] that you don't have to be a trained mechanic to look for this stuff. If it looks goofy, then hey, now you can go to get a second opinion or have a pre-purchase inspection done on the car, which I always recommend to do

[08:06] prior to purchasing it, because one of the things that we can't do on the lot is get under the car and most likely the dealership that you're taking it to or the private individual that you're buying it for is not gonna put this on the lift

[08:19] or even have access to a lift to inspect the underneath. Again, a lot of stuff could be seen from the top of the engine with very minimal risk to anything leaking underneath. One other thing that I think you need to know

[08:31] and understand is also looking at some of these engine covers. Now, this particular engine does have a cover on it and it's gonna take a couple screws to unbolt to be able to look at it. But you really need to take up these engine covers

[08:45] to make sure that we do not have the liquid up there. As we see on the Subaru here, everything is open, there's no engine covers on it, so it's very easy to see. But don't be afraid to get something up

[08:57] and take this engine cover off because there is liquid under here that could be seeping out and seals and gaskets that could be leaking. So you definitely want to get under here and ensure that there's no leaks as well.

[09:09] Now, the next biggest thing is safety. And safety is obviously usually one of the biggest things that people want to have in their vehicle. And unfortunately, car facts and auto check are a great tool but they're not the gospel, they're not the Bible

[09:22] and you can use them as a tool but you can't rely on them to be always accurate. I've talked about this in the past before. My wife a few years ago got rearing in the Tesla and I think the Tesla car spec says it was hit on the side.

[09:35] We have video proof that it was not hit on the side only in the back and it was very minimal damage with just the cover coming off. So one of the things that we want to definitely look at

[09:47] in the back is lifting up all of these covers. We want to ensure that these are all up. We can look in here and we can inspect the tub of the car. So obviously, there's nothing crazy here.

[10:00] We want to inspect these seams right here and you want to be able to lift these up as much as possible. And if you start looking in here, you can see that these seams have never been touched since they were brand new from the factory.

[10:13] So you want to check that there as well. And you also, because this vehicle has got a big old sunroof and luckily it's been raining here in Southern Indiana, we can also check to make sure that the sunroof is not leaking and that there is no water back here as well.

[10:28] And as far as safety goes in the front, there's a few things that we want to look at up here as well. So everything that I look at, I look at these crossmembers right here, I start looking up here and we want to look at bolts, right? So we can look at this bolt right here

[10:42] and I can look at that bolt and know that it's never been turned. So this car most likely has never been in an accident so bad that we've had to replace the hood or anything like that. These are body colored, there's no scars,

[10:54] there's no scrapes on there. And when they put these bolts on from the factory, they do it so precise and with some crazy expensive machinery that it does not chip the paint once it's on here because these are not painted like this altogether.

[11:07] I'm going to start looking at what would be the crumple zones. So again, I'm going to start pulling this stuff back if that's there to ensure you can, again, look at this bolt right here and see that this bolt has never been turned

[11:19] by a body shop or anything else. And then I'm going to look a little bit more into the cavity of the engine compartment. And that right there, this right here, right where my laser light is at, right there,

[11:32] that is the frame rail of the car. So I'm going to start looking at that. You can see where that little bit of rust is there. Again, not concerned about the rust because this is an aged vehicle with a very minimal stuff. But I'm going to look at that to ensure that that is not damaged in any way shape or form.

[11:45] That is your core support of the car. Again, I'm looking here and I'm going to look start looking down there. I'm going to start looking here. Again, this is a visual inspection that you can do in a few seconds. As I mentioned earlier in the video,

[11:57] we have bought over 500 cars and inspected over thousands and thousands of cars per year. And over my 25 year career, it's probably close to hundreds of thousands that I've inspected. I can literally look at a car in less than five minutes

[12:10] and have it all figured out looking at it to do like an appraisal or if I want to purchase it or where the case may be. So let me stop spy and ask me questions on it. But think about five minutes, I can see what's going on with the car.

[12:22] So it doesn't take you very long to do this. Even though this video is a little bit longer, so that way I can educate you on everything that we do want to look at. Because when I'm doing this stuff, I'm literally coming in just like this.

[12:34] And I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking, looking, looking, looking. And I'm pretty much done with the engine bay of this. Again, I'm going to train professional. I've been doing this for 25 years. I've got hundreds of thousands of inspections under my belt.

[12:48] But that's what I look at when I look at a car. So one of the things that you want to do on your test drive is obviously make sure that the driving components work. The cruise control, the light stuff like that, turn signals, whatnot.

[13:00] So one of the things you want to do when you give back at some point is ensure that everything else works. And you want to hit the window switches and stuff like that. And just because this window switch works and rolls that window down,

[13:12] doesn't mean that that window switch over there is going to work. So you need to go to the individual doors and start touching these things that are important. You want to move your mirrors around all different directions up, down, left, right. Same with that one over there.

[13:24] You want to start pulling things away. See, took that off. That's a fuse box right there. You want to make sure that the memory works. You want to make sure that the lit gate works. You want to start pushing all of these buttons, but it reverse. You should've done the same test drive, but it reversed that way.

[13:36] The backup camera works and is aligned correctly. So you want to start pushing every button that you possibly can on a sunroof car. I'm going to hit the sunroof button to make sure that it goes back and opens up

[13:48] in a proper function. There's no grinding noise. There's nothing like that. I also want to inspect anything that comes up top here to see if that is working correctly. So typically speaking, if there's a problem, there's going to be some sort of indicator

[14:01] on these newer cars that's going to tell you there's a problem. And that's where our OBD-2 scanner is going to come into play to inspect the car. It's sure that there's no issues with the computers, but like if the AC wasn't working, that light might flash.

[14:14] So if you see something like that, understand that there may be a problem. So if you're in the wintertime check in AC, you're not going to be able to do that. In the summertime, if it's 90 degrees out, you can't really tell if the heat's working. You should get a good sense of it,

[14:26] but it's still tough to check on a 90 degree day that the heat's blowing out at 72. And I think the only other things that you really need to be concerned about, especially if you're on a budget when you're buying this used car. Again, from a dealer, from a private individual,

[14:39] it doesn't matter, you're buying a used car, it's just understand what tires and brakes go. Your back brakes, you can kind of gauge based off the mileage, just to protect their car, is got 97,000 miles. The likelihood of needing back brakes is extremely low.

[14:54] Front brakes, it possibly could. So it's tough to see, but a good rule of thumb that I like is taking my phone and I like to put it in there and get a picture of the pad so I can see the depth of that

[15:06] if you cannot take this wheel off and measure it properly. As far as tires, you want to measure all the way across, not just the middle, everyone always talks about the middle. I think you want to measure all the way across and watch, and typically speaking, 4.30 seconds is your bare minimum.

[15:19] If you're buying a car, that 4.30 seconds is gonna get you a season, like winter into summer, or winter into spring, or mid-summer into winter, something like that. So you want to make sure that there's at least 4.30 seconds

[15:32] out there, typically tires come with 10.30 seconds. So that is 40% of tire life left on that. But those are probably the only other things that you really need to be cautious about. The biggest thing, I promise you 100% of the biggest thing

[15:45] is to do your proper research on car facts, auto check, test drive the car properly, and just take some time to think about it.