Hey Scotty and all,
I finally found a Mazda3 turbo sedan. Used 2021 with <11k miles. I ran the VIN against a lookup service, no accidents but also no reported oil changes. Because it is a turbo and AWD I want to be very picky about maintenance. But I'm worried about missing out on a car I've been searching for almost a year for. And it's not like I can track down the original owner and then trust what they say.
I don't know the exact price the dealer wants yet, but based on their other used cars in similar age/ condition it should be 15-20% below MSRP of a brand new one.
Where is the car at, a mazda dealer?
Yes, dedicated Mazda dealer.
My cars wont show up as having oil changes
I do them myself
Also, most quick change places do not report
Best to run the motor for a bit then check the condition of the oil (dark or caramel)
look for metallic flakes a magnet might help
Also, check the other fluids carefully, often times this will give a clue to how well it was maintained
Good Luck
Would a dealership let me do that? Or bring in an independent mechanic?
And yes, the optimist in me wants to believe the owner just did it themselves and correctly. But the optimist in me is also very very quiet these days.
Can you check the oil life monitor? See if it has been reset or not. It could be that the monitor hasn't called for an oil change yet but it should indicate a low percentage left if this is the case. New car oil change specs are nuts.
Not sure if I can. Do dealerships typically let you? It's not a dedicated used dealership either, where that might be a more common ask.
I would be suspicious about why a 1-year-old car is being sold as a used vehicle. Most leases are longer than a year. Was the car a demonstrator? A repo? Or maybe a lemon-law buyback?
It matches the exact spec that one of the salespeople there was driving personally. Knowing a bit about them I would say the chances it's their old one they traded for something new isn't insignificant. I also know quite a few people who thought their stimulus pmts were enough to afford a new car and are learning now that it very much wasn't. Neither of those things mean the car was necessarily treated poorly. But I will take those points into consideration.
I always pop the hood and check everything thing under the hood and underneath as well. If able to test drive by yourself, find an empty-ish parking lot and check stuff you want to. It's what I do with any used car, and I take a bunch of cell phone pictures from under the vehicle.
I certainly would ask to check it if the status of the oil is unknown. I can't imagine why the dealer would try to hide that info. The oil life monitor is part of the normal function and should be easily accessed by anyone and displayed on the dash.
Haha, sorry I had to look up the oil life monitor to make sure I understood what you were saying. I've never owned a car that had one of those, only low oil monitors. but I'd imagine I'd have to do a scan tool check to make sure it hadn't been reset.
My suggestion would be if you have a trusted independent mechanic either ask the dealership to take the car to their shop or have your mechanic come and check the car at the dealership. If the dealership say no to both of these then for me it would be a red flag because there's probably something going on they wouldn't want you to find out about.
A scan tool isn't necessary because if the monitor has been reset it should show a fairly high percentage of oil life. If it hasn't been reset it will show a low percentage. The car only has 11k miles on it and has only had one oil change at best. It's quite possible the first oil change isn't due yet but probably soon. When it is due a warning will be displayed. Everything is accessible through the menu buttons. Very easy to do.
My 2019 Ford showed something crazy like 60% oil life left at the first 5K miles.