ALT-1 Used Cars that you should Avoid
Choosing the right car for you is a close and personal decision that you will have to live with as long as you own the car and even afterwards if you make a bad financial decision or invest in a used car that turns out to be a nightmare to repair and maintain. It is important to do your research before making a decision or falling in love with a specific car. One advantage of purchasing a used car is that you will have a lot of data to use to compare and contrast for your decision. Use resources likeConsumer Reportsto investigate a vehicle that you are considering investing your money into and hopefully you’ll avoid a headache down the road.
Another great online tool for researching used cars is to search for online forums that are dedicated to that specific vehicle or make. This will give you a chance to see what current owners have to say about the vehicles and how they meet up to their expectations. If you have a question about a feature or specification of the car, then you should join the forum and post your questions. Most online forums are very active and should yield responses fairly quickly. A lot of times, people have the same exact questions you have and have previously posted those questions within that forum. Use the forum’s search feature to see what you can come up with from previous posts. This is a good tool to use to also find out answers to questions you didn’t think of before.
From personal experience, avoid vehicles with bad engines. This will save you a lot of money and headaches! Most automotive manufacturers use the same exact motors and transmissions in numerous vehicles within their line-up. Just because you didn’t find any bad information about the specific vehicle you are interested doesn’t rule out the possibilities of running into the same issues from other vehicles with the same power train.
For an example, look into the 2004 Infiniti G35 coupe 6mt with the sports package. This is a piece of artwork inside and out, but what most consumers don’t find out until after the fact is that they just purchased a vehicle known to go through motors and transmissions like candy! Nissan, the parent company of Infiniti, used the same VQ35DE in most of its vehicles until they discovered that the engine consumes oil at a very unsafe rate. The engine was rated in the top 10 of all engines by well known automotive review companies until it fell off the map entirely with the oil consumption problems. Nissan quickly redesigned the VQ35 motor and released the VQ35HR in 2007 to avoid a horrific media disaster since the oil consumption problems were most predominant in the new, at the time, 2006 vehicle lineup.
The VQ35DE engine is a major problem that Nissan would love to soon forget, but the reality of the situation is that the used car market is flooded with vehicles equipped with this engine. Avoid this engine like the plague and do your due diligence before making a bad investment!
