NEVERMIND, for better or worse I bought the car!

Please read my last post (#10) and provide advice.

 

Nope...not my car. Sorry, can't help you with any concerns about this particular car.

There are disclosure documents the previous owner is supposed to sign. In BC, there is only one main car insurance company and they would have a record of any major issues if the car was previously owned in BC. I'm not sure that's the case in Michigan. Alternatively, if you have an AAA membership, perhaps you can get a full inspection done by them before committing to the car. Shouldn't cost much.

At the very least, if you are buying from a used car dealer, make sure they include a warranty of some sort in case something major happens initially. If it is a private deal, get a compression test done on the engine.

Good luck.....don't forget to post pictures when you get the car.

 

Here in the U.S. it is largely about privacy my insurance can't tell me anything and the dealer doesn't have the info (yet). I haven't been able to get the previous owners information so I have to start somewhere.

My only fall back is an inspection after I take possession, I'm buying from a large and reputable dealer (though non-Mini) so hopefully (fingers crossed) we can work something out.

 

I think the $24.99 to run a Carfax report on the car would be money well-spent, whether it reveals any problems or not.

 

I'm all set, I actually found the car under the listing for vehicles on carfax.com so I got the report for free!

Funny thing is, carfax wanted to charge me for this VIN even though the report was available for free...

 

If you put in the VIN on the CarFax site, it will give you a very basic report for free (basically telling you how many entries there are for the car).

If you actually buy the full CarFax report, it gives you a LOT more information.

Unless, of course, CarFax has added some feature where the *seller* can pay a fee that makes the full report available to *any* potential buyer.

 

Tell the dealer to give you the CarFax report. I won't buy without it. It may not be perfect, but its' better than nothing.
Sounds like the CarFax you got was just the basic "yes its a car, and you have X number of hits". The actual report is about 6 pages long and has detail related to every category.

 

Here is the report I was able to get for free through the dealers listing:

http://www.carfax.com/cfm/gvh_displa...ry_ID=39159407

It looks like the complete one to me, is it?

 

Yes, that's a complete listing. If you got to it through the dealer's listing, then it sounds like the dealer paid for the report and just put a link to it in their listing.

Looks good!

 

Woo hoo! The car is sitting out front and I'm a very happy camper!

Now I need to plan the first bit of maintenance as one of the tires is cupped. Hopefully I can find 1 or more nice used ones to tide me over until I make final decisions on the rims.

BTW it does have the rust spots under the door seals, I guess I need to see if I can TSB this. The Mini dealer is 60 miles away, will the local BMW dealer do the work?

 

If you have one oddly worn tire, there is an underlying problem, or suspension component in need of adjustment. You could assume it would be on the same corner as the tire if the tires had not been rotated. Take a close-up photo of the wear and post in the beneath-the-bonnet section for lots of opinions and approach the dealership for corrective action.

 

Good thinking, I will try and do this tomorrow.

 

Just wondering.... How many miles? That could tell you a lot about the cupping of the tires. If the VIN is correct [the one listed above] that vehicle has not seen a dealer in about 2 1/2 years. And the warranty expired 04/07. Sorry I had to be the bearer of slightly bad news.

 

The car has 34K miles, and I would guess (though I know little) these are original tires.

I know the warranty has expired, I don't have any issue with not having it. It hasn't seen a dealer recently but has been maintained, I don't know Mini dealers but just about any other dealer I've dealt with was overpriced and had inferior service.

I will be taking it into my local foreign car expert next week to check out the alignment.


If I can't get the TSB work done, no big deal as I can do the same work myself with POR 15. I hacen't had a car with <100K miles in 10 years so I'm used to keeping them up myself.

 

congrats and good luck with your new mini.

 

Ditto!

 

Thanks everyone, I must say that this is one friendly forum!

Other forums I frequent are fzrarchives.com and audiworld.com (though with the new Mini, I think the Audi will be leaving... I already like the Mini more!).

My original BMW is/was (still in the driveway...) a '86 E30 (325es) for which I hoped the Audi ('00 A4 Avant 1.8T 5-speed Quattro) was a replacement but I never felt connected to the Audi. Now that I have the Mini I think I might finally be able to part with it!