LPT: Get a pre purchase inspection when test driving a used car
If this helps just 1 person then I’ll feel good. Any time you are looking at cars (especially used), I highly recommend taking it to a mechanic and straight up saying “hey, this might be a weird request, but I’m looking at buying this car and was hoping I could get in here just to get it inspected and see if anything critical is wrong, if I’m making a good choice, or if I need to run away”. While you should fully expect to pay $100ish dollars for this service, both times I approached separate businesses and was honest about that with the mechanics, they never charged me and gave me paperwork to take back to the dealerships to negotiate money off the price or tell them how crappy their car was. It even saved me from buying a bad car that would’ve been a bad purchase that the dealer then tried to further argue about even after I had legitimately been under the car with the mechanics. Even for $100ish per inspection, I highly recommend paying for the peace of mind before buying a car that 3 months down the road could cost you thousands of dollars.