bought a 2003 Subaru Imprezs for 10,5000 from a dealer. Had it for 1 1/2 weeks and it broke down. Dealer said gears were stripped/needed a new trans. An independent mechanic agreed and said axle had to be replaced as well. My questions: what do dealers inspect before putting a used car on the lot for sale? How diflt is it to check for a bad axle? How long does it take to strip gears. How wld a dealer check out the transmission? Thank you for any info. SLPMSCCC
Did this car come with a 30 day warranty? If so, the problems should be covered by that warranty. If it did not come with a warranty, then you are clearly on the hook for some major $$ expenditures.
Also, I have to assume that this is a manual transmission car. If the “gears are stripped”, I would suggest that you have the clutch inspected while the transmission is out of the car for repair. If the previous owner drove so badly that he/she stripped some gears, then it is very likely that the clutch was abused also. Having clutch replacement done at this time will save you a lot of labor expense, as opposed to having the clutch replaced in a couple of months.
That being said, the answer to the question of what is checked by a dealerhip prior to resale of a used car is…very little is checked. I have to assume that you did not take this car to your own mechanic for evaluation before you bought it, and that is a major mistake on your part. It is nice to be a trusting person, but in the arena of used car buying, trust is not a good idea. If this dealership is an honorable one, they would have had no problem with your mechanic inspecting the car prior to purchase.
My questions: what do dealers inspect before putting a used car on the lot for sale?
In most cases NOTHING. It’s a numbers game with them. If the car has low mileage and not too old they’ll look it over for about 10 minutes and clean it up then put it on the lot. If it doesn’t pass their 10 minute inspection they usually sell it at auction.