Sorry not to sound like a dick, but you really have no idea what your talking about. It’s completely impossible to just look at a used car and know everything that it’s going to need. I work for a dealer and see how bad they get screwed on used vehicles all the time even newer ones. Until you put something on a lift and spend a minimum of an hour looking at it your really just guessing. Thats why you don’t see more people doind stuff like that. On the other side of the coin a guy I work with has bought a few cars that needed a lot of work from customers and fixed them himself and made a few grand. However he had already evaluated the vehicles on the clock and knew what they needed. Problem is you run into issues like nonfunctioning electronic issues on a lot of vehicles and it cost major $$ to fix.[/quote]
You dont sound like a dick, YOU sound like you have no idea what your talking about… Heres a solution to the second thing you said, check this out… DONT BUY THE FANCY CARS THAT HAVE ALOT OF ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS! Forrrr instance, I tend to look for the civics, integras, hyundais ext as they are simple and not Audis and Rangerovers that have a million problems (tho I did buy a rangerover cuase i got it cheap as fuck). I am not the most mechanicly inclined guy in the world but I make real good money on the cars I buy and sell.
My most recent cars
95 civic, paid $1,000, sold $2,200 (sold in 3 days)
99 eclipse, paid $600, new bumper for $100 +$150 paint, sold for $3,000 (sold in a week)
91 civic hatch turbo, paid $700, sold for $1,800 (sold in a day and a half)
97 cbr 900rr, bought $2,000, sold $3,000 (planned on keeping it so I waited a while)
06 Ranger, bought $2,500 sold for $6500 with less then a g into it (the engine work took a while to do so maybe 2 months, plus i was gonna keep it for the vending business)
2001 Hyundai Elantra, paid $750, sold for $1500 (sold in 4 hours of buying it)
Also, any good mechanic can tell for the most part by looking at a car what need sto be done to it… I bought an 07 civic about a yr or two ago when i first joined this site… It was in a front end collision and needed a bunch of shit… I paid my mechanic to check it out with me and give me a quote on the spot before I bought it… No lift, no diagnostic tools no nothing… He gave me a 100% price with just a cell phone that told him how much parts were… I bought that car with 27k on it or some shit for $3500, put $1,500 into it and sold it for $8500.
NOW, the moral of this story is that I SUCK at working on cars and even III can buy and sell them without loosing money… I’ve never lost money on a car in my LIFE exept for my 540 which I thought id keep forever so went balls out.