Get a Pre-Purchase Inspection
The best thing you can do before purchasing a used vehicle is have a pre-purchase inspection (or PPI) done. It’s a simple process: find and pay a local mechanic to give the vehicle you’re considering a lookover to ensure there are no hidden issues. It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Get a Vehicle History Report
The second-best thing you can do before purchasing a used vehicle is to get its history report. Make sure there are no mileage inconsistencies or major air accidents on the record that could jeopardize the value or safety of the vehicle.
Be sure to get under any used car if possible. You’ll want to make sure there’s no sign of rust setting in. Be sure to look and feel under the wheel wells too.
Get a Battery Health Report
If you’re looking at electric vehicles, then you ought to also nab a battery report from a service such as Recurrent. Though Recurrent does not have reports for every EV, it does have them for a lot of EVs. This report will give you a better idea of the high-voltage battery’s condition in the vehicle you’re looking at.
Battery Warranty
EVs come with a minimum eight-year battery warranty, and given the expense of replacing a battery pack, we recommend looking at vehicles with even a small amount of this warranty left. Typically, batteries last longer than this warranty period, so buying an EV out of warranty isn’t a bad choice. In such a case, make sure you’re comfortable with the agreed-upon purchase price, because there’s a chance you could be footing the bill for a new battery pack in the near future.
Run a Diagnostic Test
This should be part of your PPI, but if it isn’t, then make sure to run a diagnostic test to get a better idea of the state of the car’s various electronic bits, including the battery pack’s state of health.
Interior Wear
All vehicle interiors wear as they age, but some do so better than others. Some of this is due to the materials of the vehicle itself, and others are due to the owner’s negligence. Rips and stains, broken HVAC vents and controls, and scratched dashboards and door panels are often signs of the latter (unless you see the same pieces in middling shape across multiple examples of a given vehicle, in which case there’s a good chance that bit of the car’s innards is a weak point). If you notice excess interior wear, then there’s a good chance the previous owner treated the rest of the car with similar disregard. We’d recommend stepping away from such a potentially poorly maintained vehicle, or at least doing your best to negotiate a particularly good selling price with the dealer to account for potential problems that may arise in the future.
