Car buyers be careful - check the vehicle properly before buying

It was time to buy a car, so like everyone else, I went on to search good deals on Qatar Living and I came across this great looking car at a good price, a price which made me think quickly and act quickly to arrange the money and close the deal – a decision that will be remembered and repented for a long long time in my life.

Here is the story –

Before buying

I took a book and a pen and started to write down prices of various car deals so that I can make up my mind, and I finally made up my mind to buy a car.

I met the owner to see the car and after having a look at it in the evening I decided to go for an inspection of the car. Like a smarta$$ I thought I am doing all that is needed in order to have a good deal, but that was only temporary. 

So I get the car checked, and the report came okay - except for some paint work done, there was no problem in the inspection. Well when you see this report, you tell to yourself the engine is good the chassis is good; the only issue is that the car had some paint work done.

So after looking at the report, I asked the owner about the paint and he explained that the previous owner had some minor scratches and stuffs so it was re-painted at sum parts. So I said to myself again, well…this looks like a good deal and then I closed the deal with him, went to the traffic department and finalized it.

After Buying

So I am all happy with my new possession, and am all excited.

Day 1 – I am driving at about 80km speed, but on the speedometer it showed just 60….and I thought that this car is very fast, but after looking carefully, I saw that it’s not kilometers its miles and under the miles speedometer circle there is another speedometer circle that is for kilometers. That was the start of my total disappointment – that was the moment I realized that this is an American spec car.

Well there is no problem with an American spec car, its almost the same as a Gulf one, but what is the American spec car doing out here in Qatar, many people do get their cars from the US to Qatar, but the numbers are very few.

Most people do not opt to bring their US cars to gulf, instead buy a new one out here. So after I realized that this is an American spec car, I went on to google and did a research on it and found out on some page that you need to be careful about the American cars sold in GCC coz most likely it would be a salvage title car in the USA and it can’t be legally driven out there.

A salvage title car is a car that has repair estimate cost of more than 75% of the car value. So these salvage cars are then auctioned and people who buy it on auction, make repairs on  it using duplicate parts and then cargo it to rest of the world, where there is no problem as such.

So I went on to a website called carfax.com and put my chassis number and found out that the car is a salvage title, paid a few dollars and found out the entire report of the same. Yes, you get the entire history of an accident car in the USA just by paying some fees online, isn’t that awesome. 

So this is my story, but I want to share with you the points I have collected from my experience so that no other innocent buyer can be fooled by such crooks and they don’t waste their hard-earned money.

Here are the points –

1. Always look in micro details on the paint work on your car. Look for areas which can tell you that the car is painted. Such as open the door and look in the sides, and always look in the edges of any body part, it’s not hard to notice the paint work.

2. Always ask for warranty – If warranty is there then take a note of the car number and the chassis number and call the car company in Qatar. They can tell you all the things that you need to know. Like – if the car is registered in Qatar, if any accidents happened or stuffs like this. If the warranty is not there, they can also trace the origin of the car.

3. Always check the car in day time only.

4. Always do an inspection on the car. The inspection guys may not talk to you or explain to you stuffs. So don’t think that you got the report and that’s it. Take the report to any expert in cars, and understand the report. If you have paint job done, on many parts, it’s an indication that it could be a major accident. So ultimately its very imp to understand the report completely. Also never ever go to the inspection company that the seller is proposing. Always use a different one.

5. When you drive the car, don’t just rely on how good it drives, the driving experience may be good but you need to remember, the cars these days have a lot of electronic systems such as push start – touch screen – and various other options. So divide your inspection time into 2, 1st is for the driving experience and the 2nd is for the interiors. In the driving experience, take the car on long roads and have a good understanding about the driving experience. Do not think that it’s not your car and so you can’t drive fast, just drive fast and see if any problems. Go past bumpers to see if any defect in the shocks. For the interiors, click each and every button and see if it does what it’s supposed to do. 

6. Always take second opinion, and do not come in the pressure talks of the owner. Take your own sweet time, relax and think. If he says he has other buyers who are buying it, don’t come in pressure. If one deal is lost, you will get another good deal. But never ever buy in a hurry.

7. Always bargain till the last possibility. All sellers hike up the price and sell, so you need to bring it down. It totally depends on your skills.

8. The easiest way to determine an American spec car is that it will have miles in the speedometer. Take your call after you see miles there.

9. Never buy cars with a chassis damage.

10. Do not buy American salvage cars, it’s not worth it.

There are lots of people out here in Qatar who bring American salvage cars to Qatar and sell it to people here. Just be careful.

Note - the pic is not of my car, but is just to show the before and after picture of a salvage car.