{"id":2259,"date":"2021-05-21T09:56:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/?p=2259"},"modified":"2021-05-22T18:09:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T18:09:07","slug":"the-best-questions-to-ask-a-car-seller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/the-best-questions-to-ask-a-car-seller\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Questions to Ask a Car Seller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s always exciting but scary to go and see a car that you\u2019re thinking about buying; knowing what to ask a car seller before you go will give you confidence and help to make sure that you buy the right car. These questions apply mostly to private sellers rather than dealers, who typically don\u2019t know all that much about the car they\u2019re selling other than what\u2019s written in the history, how much they paid and what it\u2019s worth. If you want the low down on a car you&#8217;re interested in, you&#8217;ll need to ask about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You should also take a look at our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/how-to-check-a-used-car\/\">how to check a used car article<\/a> to cover all bases before your start asking questions about your potential new steed. Once you&#8217;re there and have checked things over, ask the following questions to make sure that you find out what you need to know before making any final decisions:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Always ask a car seller the following&#8230;<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3><b>Why are you selling?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This only applies to private sellers rather than dealers, of course, but judging a person\u2019s response when you ask why they\u2019re selling the car is a good way to break the ice and find out some immediately useful information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For every good reason that people sell a car, there are two dodgy ones, so always check that the car\u2019s paperwork backs up their story if it can. Buying through OneWomanOwner is already a guarantee for a more trustworthy sale than on any other used car site. We require an ID check from our sellers, so you\u2019re in the right place for an honest seller and an honest car.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3><b>What are the bad points about the car?<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try to avoid simply asking \u2018have you had any problems\u2019 as this is an open question that\u2019s too easy to say \u2018no\u2019 to. Asking what the bad points are, suggests that you\u2019re assuming there are some. This forces the seller to think a bit more about revealing the stuff that you want to know. It\u2019s worth asking a dealer this one, as well as a private seller.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3><b>What do you like about the car?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This seems like small talk, but you\u2019re not there to try and catch the owner out \u2013 you just need an honest idea of what the car\u2019s like. When you ask a car seller what they about the vehicle, you&#8217;ll have a chance to get to know more about the car and to decide if it\u2019s what you\u2019re after.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3><b>What sort of economy do you get?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can obviously see what the car is saying on the trip anyway, but asking the owner this will help to confirm what the car\u2019s gauges say. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fuel_economy_in_automobiles\">Fuel economy<\/a> can give you an idea about how well the engine is working. An owner who\u2019s cared for the car will likely tell you if they\u2019ve used premium-grade fuel, or put in additives occasionally to help keep the engine clean \u2013 these are things you want to hear when it comes to a used car, whether you\u2019re buying a \u00a3600 Toyota Yaris or a \u00a360,000 Range Rover.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">\n<h3><b>Who did you buy it from?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This only applies to private sellers who haven\u2019t owned the car since new, of course, and again \u2013 the V5 document will show you when and where the car was sold and how many owners it\u2019s had. But finding out what it was that persuaded the owner to buy the car themselves, and under what circumstances, again helps to judge whether the car has been well looked after for the whole of its life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Never be afraid to ask a car seller about the vehicle you\u2019re interested in buying. A few questions can reveal a whole lot more information about a car you\u2019re interested in. The more you know, the easier it is to decide if a car is right for you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s always exciting but scary to go and see a car that you\u2019re thinking about buying; knowing what to ask a car seller before you go will give you confidence and help to make sure that you buy the right car. These questions apply mostly to private sellers rather than dealers, who typically don\u2019t know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buy-a-car"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onewomanowner.com\/usedcars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}