Bought all my cars (used) from my local mechanic for over 20 years. All worked out great. Went out on my own to Craigslist and bought a 2002 AWD RX300 and brought it in to my mechanic to check it out after purchase. He said it was good but watch the oil use, he did not have it long enough to see if it used oil. He drove it for about 1/8 of a tank.

I then drove car 300 miles on highway and check engine light came on, down 3 quarts of oil. Lost compression in #4 cylinder now need to change out engine. During after the fact checking, it became apparent the dashboard low oil pressure light does not work. Should that have been part of the mechanic's inspection or is that one of those things no one ever checks even though Consumer Reports says you should always check dashboard indicator lights? Am I justified in being upset this was not discovered? I accept the blame for not knowing how to check the lights when buying the car, a big mistake. Would a dealer find those if asked to check a used car over?

My gut tells me the mechanic should have noticed the missing low oil pressure indicator but what do you think? Is this just one of those things or a mistake on his part. Would you go back to him again? He has a rather high opinion of himself and likes to poke fun at others who are not as experienced in the mechanical arts. I like him but am having trouble overlooking this oversight. Is divorce the only solution?

 

Here is a small part of the article I wrote in car chat:

Buying a USED CAR

A totally different animal from buying NEW.

When you are looking to buy a used vehicle, you are looking for that unique make and model, which may only be a few in your town, there for , there is not much room for negotiation. You find it, you check it, negotiate, and buy it. You cant wait like if you are buying a new car.

Make sure you sign up for CARFAX unlimited, check all your cars. Look for things like, where it was bought, was it sold at the auction, if so, how many times it was sold at the auction. Was there any accidents, if so, when. There should be a story and you should be able to follow it.

Also, pay attention to the exact date of the Original Purchase, the original warranty will come from that exact date.

Buying car that was driven in Northern states has it negatives:
Salt , snow--> possible rust in the future.
Drowned cars from Hurricanes and other bad weather. CarFax may not always show that the car had water damage.
Transmissions do not last as long in the North, because of the SNOW. people get stuck often and as they try to get out, they can damage the transmission.

I would not recommend a car from the NORTH.

Make sure you have the used car checked by a mechanic.

Check engine light-> means that there is something wrong, it could be a sensor, an exhaust leak or others.
When Check engine light is ON, its bad. You may not pass Inspection, You may have costly repairs, even a sensor could cost you thousands of dollars as sometimes you may need to replace more than one.

Dealers can hide the Check Engine, and the only way to see it, is with a OBD2 computer.

When the car was bought and sold at the auction over and over, there could be many reasons why. One of them because something is wrong and as soon as the dealer buys it, he is trying to sell it back.

Ask for any records that the Seller may have. Look over them, look for repairs, and consistent problems. Repairs are not a bad thing to have, unless it is the same repair over and over.

Personally, I do not recommend buying from a small dealer, I would advise buy a used car from an Individual who actually owned a car, preferably an original owner.
Some small dealers will trick you in believing that it is their car, although they most likely bought it from an individual and simply trying to re sell it. It kind of obvious when they claim that they selling it for a friend, mother or cousin, EX wife. The address on the title will not match the dealers, the name will not match, etc...

Always look at the title before buying, this way you can see multiple things:
1. Is the car paid OFF, if not there will be a BANK name as a Lien Holder
2. Is this a real title or a duplicate
3. Does the name and address matches of the person who is selling the car, if not there is a very good 80% chance it is a dealer who is flipping the car.
4. VIN matches the car VIN
5. Mileage. If they are an original owners most likely it will have minimal mileage on the title. When the car is sold, the Title changes.
6. Date on the title, will tell you when it was Registered/Titled. SO if you see that the date is a few month ago, most likely it is a dealer who registered the car, and trying to flip it, or the person bought the car, realized that something is wrong and trying to Sell it.

 

As I mentioned in the article that check engine ligjt can be hidden by the dealers, so is other light. Sometimes dealers will burn the light on purpose or will remove the lamp so that you couldn't tell if its ON. That is why you always want the mechanics to chk the car prior the purchase or you could buy a small Obd2 computer its about $100 and check for codes yourself and then you would have know. If something is wrong!

 

Depending on the state you are in, you may be qualified for the Lemon law. I would call whoever sold you the car and demand to pay for the repairs at least for the half. Also, sometimes the sellers are actually small dealers and they sell the car what called "open title", meaning the car is not actually theirs, they bought it from another person and left the buyers name blank on the title, so when u purchase the car you placed your name on the title.

It easily checked if the name on the title does not match the sellerss name 95% chance he is a dealer and he fliped the open title car! If that is the case you can threaten him that you will report him to the state dealers association which can take his license away!

 

Did the mechanic chk the car before the purchase or after?also did he hook the car up to the computer or not?

 

Mechanic checked it after purchase and I don't know if he hooked a computer up to it. So you are saying a computer would be able to tell if the lights for low oil pressure were defective or the bulb was burned out? I know I made a lot of beginner mistakes. My understanding is that if the ignition is turned to On before starting the car all dashboard lights should light up. If any don't light up that the manual says should, then there is a problem. No need for a computer or not?

Am considering small claims court as the Lemon Law in Illinois seems impossible to stick to an individual seller. As you say in your post, there are lots of things we need to pay attention to when buying a used car!

 

If the mechanic chk the car after the purchase it too laye anyway, so you cant srick it to him. You could but say if he did find the problem you still cant just return the car. I would think yes, any issues will show on the computer as long as the car older than 1996.

First i would contact the seller and see what he says. If he is a dealer he will be very scared of loosing licence bc they are not allowed to sell ipen title cars!

 

Yes, if the light does not go ON it means the lightis either briken or turned off or simply removed!

 

I'm not trying to stick it to him, as you say, too late for that to do any good. Just thinking he should have noticed that light being out just the same as I should have noticed it being out. If we had known, (famous last words), maybe we would have checked the oil level before the check engine light went on and we could have avoided losing compression in one cylinder? Is a dashboard light check part of a used car inspection or not?

 

There are no procedures for used car insp. normally the mechanics check all fluid, do a compute check with OBD2, do a drive test and underbody insp. i would not try to sue the mechanic! I would ago after the seller, thay just my 02

 

I used to chk cars all the time, i used to buy and sell cars, and that is my procedure above. Fluid first every time!! Including coolant chk. I would be very surprised if the mechanic did not chk the fluids and did not use the computer.

 

I had no intention to try and sue the mechanic but now that you mention it. Given the slipshod nature of the check over, I'm going out on a limb here and saying only go to the dealer to get the used car checked. At least that way you can assume they do use the computer to check for hidden problems. Why pay someone $300 to change and check fluids if they don't do anything else and miss a non-working low oil pressure light? There must be a minimum done during the check over whether there is a procedure or not. We all make mistakes and in my opinion my mechanic made a mistake not catching the issue above.

 

Every shop has computer. Ive had cars checked at the small shops before and they never charged me more than $50. Some do charge $100, for that price computer check is a must!

In your case you cheked the car after the purchase, but i agree that you may have not had the damges if the mechanics found the broken light issue!! I would go after him! For sure

 

That engine, particularly in that vintage, was notorious for sludge/gelling damage from negligent owners who went too long between oil changes. It was very unforgiving of extended-intervals....more so than many other engines. That's probably why the technician told you to watch for oil use....he may have suspected some internal damage.

Toyota and Lexus repaired and/or replaced a number of these engines under an extended warranty and class-action settlements. Your car is probably too old now to benefit from an extended warranty, but, if it needs a new engine, talk to an attorney knowledgeable about automotive cases. Under the class-action settlement, Lexus might (?) still pay for at least part of the new engine, if not all of it. But the attorney, of course, would know more about that (if applicable) than I would.

 

what is your opinion about sellers and car inspections.
I am assuming that a Lexus dealer or a Lexus specialist mechanic would be the best.

Also is meeting at a bank or credit union the best place to handle the final transaction?