Buying a used car - advice

[Marc Vaughan]

I'm about to purchase a used car for my daughters first car hopefully, its an oldish Beetle* (2002) from a dealership locally.

The car itself has some minor surface scratches on the bodywork but nothing really hugely wrong with it and it drives nicely HOWEVER it comes without a warranty and the carfax report for it indicates that it has been involved in an accident.

Thats ALL it reported though there was no detail on what the accident involved and the salesman indicated that it was just a minor fender bender - on the other hand looking online the CarFax site seems to indicate that the system only records accidents where the repairs cost in excess of 25% of the vehicles values.

Tomorrow I'll be taking the car to a local mechanic to check over before deciding whether to cough up for it - now I'll be asking his advice as well as yours chaps, but basically should I run away screaming or is this a fair deal.

(the price of the car itself seems reasonable, the dealership was open to haggling (at least partially because of the carfax report I think) and I think from that perspective its 'fair')

Over to the expert opinion panel that is FOFC .... let the discussion commence.

*What I was looking for in a car was basically something SLOW and reasonably reliable ... while looking trendy enough that my daughter would actually sit in it ..... all of which the Beetle seems to cover nicely

[Tasan]

My dad's a mechanic and my personal car buying expert. He always tells me to Never, Never, Never buy cars that have been in accidents you know nothing about (and to even skip most of them where you know exactly what happened to it). There could be all kinds of issues arising from the accident, from now-defective safety systems to bent frames and bad axels. Or it could be nothing. The question is whether you want to risk your daughter's health and well being if she's ever in a wreck. I'm pretty sure I can figure out the answer on that one. I'm betting you can find another deal as good as this one on a car with less potential issues.

[Swaggs]

In all likelihood, there isn't anything wrong with it, but I would probably avoid it and continue to shop around. There are so many choices out there, in that age and price range -- I wouldn't risk it on a car that is already 8+ years old.

[Marc Vaughan]

Thanks for the feedback, we declined to purchase - tbh I had a feeling that these would be the responses I'd get and that would be what we'd do ... but lacking real experience in these things over here it was fantastic to be able to get some secondary advice quickly during unhealthy o'clock ...

So thanks again chaps