Hey guys. I am considering purchasing a used car with 20k miles on it but on the carfax it says that a strut was recently replaced. I found it odd the car would need a new strut after only 20k miles. Is that something I should be concerned about?
Here is my standard reply to a question like this. If you are going on a forum to ask if you should buy a vehicle then look some more. There are thousands of used vehicles on the market, why even consider one that causes concern?
I suspect someone hit a curb really hard.
Carfax has a terrible reputation for having meaningless junk in their data… as well as flat-out bad data. I’m starting to suspect they create data intentionally just to say “there are XXX repairs on this car’s record. For $XX.xx you can order the full report”.
With any used car, give it a good test drive and take it to a trusted shop for a thorough look-see with a written report. If there’s any question, keep looking.
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I agree with Volvo_V70. One also has to wonder if a collision was involved that was bad enough to damage a strut then what about other items that were also likely damaged. The most notable would be a control arm, etc.
It’s never happened to me, but I imagine a new car strut can be faulty on day 1 and fail early like that. That info wouldn’t be a show stopper for me anyway. I’d just ask my pre-purchase inspection shop tech to take a close look at other suspension components in that area, and especially check where the top of that strut mounts to the car body. Are there any signs of damage there? Cracked welds or badly deformed metalwork in that area can be costly to repair.
Get the car inspected before you buy.
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