This is a description of how to buy a car from an individual. Buying from a dealership might be a different story – i don’t know. I’m not an expert; i’m merely a consumer. Your mileage may vary.
During our recent car-buying adventure, i was not familiar with the process of what i was supposed to do, and in what order. How do you handle insurance? How do you get license plates? When do you go to the DMV? What follows is how we went about buying the car.
- Identify a car you’re interested in. I found our car posted on a message board where i work.
- Do a little research. There are lots of consumer sites where people post reviews of cars. You might find out if certain things tend to go wrong in that car. You’ll definitely find out if people liked their cars or not.
- Contact the seller and set up a time to go look at the car. Take it for a test drive. How does it feel? How does it sound? Check out the buttons. Does everything work? Raise and lower the convertible top yourself, if applicable. Sit in the back seat.
- Refuse the urge to be emotional. Thank the seller and tell him/her you will be in touch. Don’t say “i’ll take it” on the spot. Instead, ask questions. Are the service records available? What major services have you done? Why are you selling it? Has it been in an accident? What shape are the tires in?
- Do more research, this time at Kelley Blue Book and Edmonds. Compare what the seller is asking to what the going rate is for the car. The car i was looking at was priced at slightly above what KBB said it was worth.
- If you’re still interested, contact the seller and set up an appointment to take the car to a mechanic. It cost me $20 for a pre-purchase inspection. You really should not skip this step. My mechanic told me the car was in great shape. He pointed out three things: 1) the hood shocks were not holding up the hood while he was looking at it. 2) the rear struts had been recently replaced, but the front struts may need it soon. 3) the tires were slightly off-balance. All are pretty minor.
- When returning the car to the seller after the appointment, once again refuse emotion. Relate anything the mechanic said. Ask more questions. I knew i wanted to make an offer, but i know i’m uncomfortable negotiating, especially in person. So i waited a day before contacting him again.
- To make an offer, consider the shape the car is in and the cost of any major repairs. Your style of negotiating and level of aggressiveness will affect how you handle this. When buying a used car, especially an older one, i expect that there will be some repairs along the way, so i’m willing to bear part of the cost.
- When an agreement is reached, request the Vehicle Identification Number.
- Call your insurance agency and supply them with the VIN. Tell them the day you will be acquiring the car. I found this to be an easy process, accomplished by phone and email. They should send you an insurance card that you’ll later need at the DMV for proof of insurance.
- Obtain a certified check or cashier’s check from your bank. Or if you’re financing it, arrange that with your bank. In the end, you’ll have a check addressed to the seller.
- Meet the seller to perform the exchange. S/he should have the title ready to sign over. The seller’s signature has to be notarized. The exchange can take place at the DMV, where they will provide the notary service for a small fee. In our case, the seller had taken care of that before hand and left the buyer’s information blank, for us to fill out as we chose. At this point, ask any final questions. For instance, i learned that the key fob batteries were flaky and needed to be replaced ($10). If the car is locked with the key fob, attempting to unlock it with the key will set off the alarm. That’s the type of information i’d rather not learn the hard way.
- Go to the DMV to handle the three T’s – tags, title, taxes. Make sure you go to a DMV that will handle this stuff – some offices are driver’s license offices only. And bring some cash – the notary fee is cash only, and even though we didn’t need the notary, we still had to pay $5 in cash. It may also be useful to bring a screwdriver so you can attach the new plate (i forgot that part, and had to go back to the DMV a second time to turn in the seller’s plates).
- Tags: Our seller asked us to turn in his tags when we went, so we were able to legally drive the car as his tags were still on it. I don’t know how common that is. A seller might remove the tags himself, in which case you legally have to drive a separate car to the DMV to get the new tags. The DMV will issue your plate to you then and there, with the registration sticker on it. Every year at this time, you will need to update the registration and pay taxes.
- Title: Bring the notarized title from the seller. A new title will be issued and mailed to you after approximately a week.
- Taxes: Be prepared to pay taxes on the vehicle at this time. You can write a check for this amount.
- Go ahead and take the car back the the mechanic to get any repairs done. We scheduled items 2 & 3 from the mechanic’s list, as well as an oil change.
- Order a personalized plate if you like. You will need your existing plate and some information from the title, so you must wait until the new title arrives in the mail. Lance’s personalized plate will say MINUS790.
That’s how we did it. It was fairly painless. I guess people do this all the time; it just seems intimidating if you’re not sure what to do.
In April of 2008, Lance was driving his old car to a fantasy baseball draft. He was on the Wade Avenue extension heading East, when his car just died. It was an old, green Mercury Tracer. It had a dozen bumper stickers such as “I Heart Math” and “How’s My Deriving?” along with stickers for Ohio State, Durham Bulls, Carolina Mudcats. It was a beater, but it had personality.