Nobody Wants To Buy A Lemon!

Nobody wants to buy a lemon, but how do you avoid ending up with one?  You’re not a mechanic, and you can’t really drive one around with you while car shopping.  Let us share a recent used car inspection experience at Team Ryan Automotive with you.

A customer came in one morning asking if we do general vehicle inspections.  He had just purchased the vehicle and wanted to make sure it was safe before it was given to his son.  We road tested, hoisted and inspected the vehicle to find some really bad news.  This car was is such bad mechanical shape that the cost of repairs to get it safe were almost double the blue book value of the vehicle!  We brought the customer out to the shop and showed him everything we had found while explaining why each component needed the work we recommended.  He took a few pictures, but did not really know where to go from there.  Having just spent thousands of dollars on a vehicle only to find that is was in fact a lemon, our customer and his wife were very upset.   They thought their only option was to fix as much as they could afford and drive the vehicle hoping it would not break down.

We explained that there were other options in this case, and after a long conversation the customer left armed with pictures and information to have a discussion with the used car facility.  A meeting was scheduled at Team Ryan Automotive later that afternoon.  We hoisted the vehicle one more time and went over everything again for both the customer and the owner of the used car facility.  They then had their own conversation which resulted in the dealer buying the vehicle back from the customer for the full purchase price!

While Team Ryan Automotive did not make nearly as much money as we could have, this was by far the best possible outcome for the customer.  It’s not all about the money.  It’s about treating people right.  It’s about fixing cars right.  This is what we do here at Team Ryan Automotive.

Oh, and one more thing.  If you are really close to buying a used vehicle, we recommend a pre purchase vehicle inspection.  If a vehicle is being sold “as is no warranty” and dealer will not let you take the vehicle to get inspected by someone you trust, be very cautious of moving forward with a purchase.  Nobody wants to buy a lemon.