I really want to find a good, small car for my wife to drive (since I totaled her Sentra)–she loves this Hyundai Accent we found online at a local dealer.
It has 78K miles on it, and is a good price. However, when we got to the dealer, the salesman said that we couldn’t take the car to a mechanic, because it was having problems–the car wouldn’t go over 38 miles per hour. We’d have to wait a couple days for them to check it out in their shop.
BUT–the night before I had emailed the dealer, and received a reply that the car was in good working order. So, after visiting them, I replied to the email saying what had happened–they said that the “governor” just needed to be reset. The CARFAX looked really good, and my old lady loves the car, but I’m assuming now that this is one to avoid. So, I’m just trying to double-check and see if this is a normal occurrence or not. Thanks for reading!
The car doesn’t have a “governor”, so right away you can assume that the salesman is either clueless about the car’s actual problems or he is lying in order to try to polish a turd–so to speak.
The Carfax report might look good, but–trust me–we get questions on this board very frequently from people who bought cars with “spotless” Carfax reports, but later found that their new purchase has (pick one or more):
Flood damage
Collision damage
Major mechanical issues
Unfortunately, the public has been lured into thinking that a Carfax report is infallible, when–in reality–that perception is FAR from the truth.
Why not call his bluff by stating that…Since the car has now been repaired, I now expect to be able to take it to my own mechanic for evaluation. Try that, and see what type of tap dance around the issues he begins at that point.
My advice is to keep looking, and to pass this one by, but–just for fun–you might want to try what I recommended above before making a decision.
Agree; any red flag on a used car makes me walk away. It makes the shopping process time consuming, but at least you are not taking a beater to repair shops and paying hefty repair bills on a car you just bought.
If the dealer is “admitting” that the car has issues, I am going to guess the car is not worth much on a good day.
You might be better off shopping private sellers; good call on wanting to have the car checked by your own mechanic. It probably saved you a lot of headache. Keep looking.