We bought a utility

I’d spotted a ute a few days ago that might be a worthwhile buy. My impression then was that it seemed in excellent condition and somewhat reminded me of a new car. The price they were asking was also in the range of the Red Book for this model, albeit at the higher end.

The owner had a couple of horses and she and her mother were tending them at her agistment property that fortunately was not too far away. The arrangement was to meet them there and check out the car at the agistment property. It’s strange how you can feel like you are in the rural backblocks when only a few miles from the suburbs. Her directions were good and we found them and the car at the side of a dirt track next to two beautiful horses. Does this seem suspicious? They seemed honest though.

We took Tiffany’s car for a test drive. S loved it. It was certainly very nice vehicle. My only reservation was that I couldn’t get a good wheel measurement. This has been one of my checks I like to carry out when buying used cars. I measure the distance between the front and back wheels, and if the measurement is not identical on both sides I pass the car up.

It seems to me that you don’t really know the history of a car when buying a second hand vehicle. I used to take a few tools, and a comprehensive check list. I would go through the interiors checking that all the instruments worked, taking notes on the condition of the upholstery and whether the seat mechanisms worked, windows and doors opened and closed and locked. I would methodically go though everything looking in the boot and under the body, as far as possible looking for damage. At one point I even removed spark plugs and tested the engine compressions. This all takes time, and sometimes a lot of time, but it can be worthwhile. If any of the doors don’t open or close well; like the one I’d seen a few days ago in a town just north of Melbourne it could be an indication the car has had crash damage and not repaired particularly well. A good check for crash damage is to bring along a good quality steel tape measure. Let me explain.

As you can imagine, when vehicles are manufactured reasonable care is put into ensuring the wheels are parallel to each other and, generally, sit on the ground on the corner of an imaginary rectangle. Now consider if a vehicle gets hit badly on one of the corners. It is very possible that the structure which supports the wheels will get twisted or bent with the result that one of the wheels will no longer rest in its proper position in that imaginary rectangle. It’s possible for a car to be repaired and effectively made to look good, but with the underlying vehicle structure (chassis) remaining out of alignment. To all intents and purposes the vehicle looks good, may drive okay, but may suffer poor road handling and be a danger to yourself and others. Reputable repairers will not allow this to occur, but not every repair will have been done well. A quick and easy method to give some indication as to whether this situation has occurred to a vehicle is to carefully measure the distance between the front wheel and rear wheels.

Here’s what to do: Park the car on solid, flat ground, with the wheels pointing straight when you are out on the road test. Get a friend to hold the end of the tape in the centre of the rear wheel (best if the hub caps have been removed) and extend the tape to the front wheel and note the distance to the millimetre to the centre of the front wheel. Do the same on the other side. The measurements should be identical. Be careful not to scratch the paintwork. If the measurements are different, skip this car.

Anyway, I couldn’t find a nice flat spot, which may have caused the suspension to affect the measurement. I also couldn’t get the hub caps off and had to measure from wheel rim to wheel rim, which may have been a little out because wheel rims sometimes get dented. My measurements were reasonably close, rather than perfect. We bought the car. I explained to Tiffany that I wanted to lease the car, and that a leasing company would purchase the vehicle. Tiffany seemed a little suspicious. All I need to do was get it organised. That'll be an interesting experience.

We were also in the middle of buying and selling a house, needing to get stuff shifted to Canberra, and needing to get our new car ready to carry our camper van, all of which takes time, and time was something we didn’t have much of. The car was so close to perfect that I didn’t mind too much in paying top dollar.