Lemons - How To Protect Yourself

Before you buy that used car, you can find out if it's a certified lemon, courtesy of CARFAX.

Buying an used car is very risky. Once you hand over your money and sign your name on the dotted line, that car becomes your problem no matter what happens.

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Thanks to lemon laws, we are protected from some problems with buying a lemon but not from every problem. When you buy a new car, you are protected by these lemon laws but in buying a used car you are taking chances on whether or not you would be covered by such laws.

These laws are, for the most part, are meant to cover new cars right off the lot. Unless you can prove that your used car was sold to you by a used car dealer who knew it was a lemon, there might not be a lot you can do.

A car is classified as a lemon when its need of immediate repairs goes beyond the cars warranty. When you buy a car, there shouldn't be any repairs needed that go beyond your warranty. If these problems are immediate and severe, it is almost certain that you have purchased a lemon.

Once again, this really only applies to new cars. Used cars are rarely covered under lemon laws. This is why lemon checks and vehicle history checks are needed.

Every car has a vehicle identification number (VIN#), which is used for everything that will ever happen to that car. Protect yourself by thoroughly checking on the used car you want to buy. Be sure to get a vehicle history report on the car. This report will tell you if the car was totaled, wrecked, or stolen and can be obtained by using the VIN number.

Also look over the car and make sure that all the VIN numbers you can find are the same within the car. The VIN number is normally ingraved or on a sticker in numerous places in the car (inside the doors, the dash, the trunk, engine, and/or quarter panels).

A vehicle history check is easy to do. Vehicle history reports are available online for free. This service is a must for anyone thinking about buying a used car. CARFAX is a very useful site in determining the history of the used car you are interested in. They collect their information from numerous sources such as the DMV records and lease agreements. If a car has been totaled, flooded, stolen or junked at one point, the vehicle history report will tell you all about it. Cars that have been through any of these things can have problems that you might not know about until its to late.

When Mark Jacobson's car got flooded, it took the mechanic almost a year to find all the problems and even after he thought he had them all, there was still problems with the car. Just imagine if he had sold his car to a used car lot and then someone came along and bought it. A year down the line, someone could still be finding problems with this car. This can been avoided if you get a vehicle history check that shows that an insurance claim had been made on the car after it was flooded.

At CARFAX, you can run a record check for free which will show you the available number of records on a specific car using it's VIN#. You can also open an account at CARFAX which allows you to view the available records for any given car. This can be very useful if you are shopping for a used car and want to check the reports on every one that you like to see if it's had any major problems.

Lemon and vehicle history checks are fast and easy and can save you a great deal of money in the end. Don't be caught in a bad situation with a car you just bought that has a laundry list of problems. Take the time to check on that used car. It could save you thousands of hard earned money.